Big Topics in Video Gaming in 2020 and 2021 — A Data Driven View
As a former gamer and someone with two kids that often need ‘surgical separation’ from their gaming consoles, I have preserved some level of interest in the current gaming culture. To see what was going on over the previous 12 months, I have pulled all 14,790 posts to the Stackexchange gaming forum between Jan 1, 2020 and today (Jan 6, 2021) and received the following big picture view, based on some simple data transformation. Note that the rectangles are based on the number of views the respective game or gaming technology received between Jan 1, 2020 and today. Also, please note that this forum may not be entirely representative of the preferences of the gaming community, as it targets so-called “hardcore gamers.” To triangulate this topic further, we would need additional data sources, but this would be beyond what I can do in my free time.
5 Data Derived Gaming Trends 2020/2021
- Microsoft’s Minecraft and Nintendo’s Animal Crossing are the biggest franchises in Gaming today.
- Cyberpunk 2077 was the biggest new release in 2020.
- The Steam platform is the most popular game distribution portal, with Civilization 5, Doom Eternal, and Borderlands being the most discussed games on this portal.
- Fewer than 20 games (left side of the treemap) receive more than 50% of the overall attention.
- Hardcore gaming do not like mobile gaming.
Most Discussed and Viewed Games in 2020/2021
The chart shows the most viewed (number of views at the bottom) and discussed (number of posts on the top scale) games over the previous 12 months. The chart shows the extreme focus of public attention on only very few games, almost have of them are part of the Minecraft and Animal Crossing families.
Most Popular Gaming Devices: PS4 ahead of Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox One
Unsurprisingly the PlayStation 4 leads the field of the most popular gaming devices, significantly ahead of the Nintendo Switch, the PC, and the Xbox One. These proportions correspond very closely with the overall sales figures of both consoles for 2020.
