The Fact Book
A CELEBRATION OF THE BEST CAMPAIGNS OF 2020...
The Fact Book Join us as we take a look back through an interesting and rather unconventional year, which included a plethora of digital events, the release of next gen consoles and arguably the biggest let down of a product launch ever! We’ve split the book into 3 main sections, the first features our handpicked selection of games from 2020 that have stood out or made a significant splash for one reason or another, the next covers Key Influencers, online events and PlayStation vs Xbox, with the final section listing out the top performing products based on press coverage and video views. All our products are categorised into tiers, AAA, A-tier, mid-tier & Indie, depending on a variety of factors including brand recognition, publisher, developer and budget, (where known) among others. The top 20 performing products from each tier are included in the listings within the last section of the book. All our data and analysis come from our database of over 36,000 recognised, relevant websites and social media accounts. All figures have been rounded for clarity.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 04
A mon g Us
06
A nimal Crossing : New H orizon s
08
Cyb erp u nk 2077
10
Demon’s Souls
12
Fal l Gu ys: U l timate Knockout
14
Fifa 21
16
F inal Fantasy VI I Re m ake
18
Fortn ite
20
Hades
22
H al f-L ife: Alyx
24
M arvel ’s Ave n gers
26
M icrosoft F l ig ht S imulator
28
The L ast of U s Part II
30
Valoran t
32
Next Generation Cons oles
34
Dig ital Even ts
36
Key I nf l eun cers
38
Video Views Top 20s
46
Press Top 20s
AMONG US The journey Among Us has had since its initial release has been without question one of the most surprising and unique of any game in quite some time. Released back in 2018 and making little in the way of waves it wasn’t until the latter half of 2020 that the game’s popularity truly exploded. And when I say exploded, I mean truly skyrocketed to astronomical levels, beating out reliable behemoths like Minecraft, Fortnite and League of Legends on the likes of Twitch and social media in general. Best of all, its a game that offers its players a small slice of normality, allowing them to have fun with friends and family at a time where doing that in person is simply not an option and during a year as rough as 2020, a game that can do that should definitely be celebrated.
“After a quiet start to the year, Among Us soon hit its stride with content creators, in the later months of the year the indie title attracted more views than Minecraft!”
12,000+ videos 5,400,000,000+ views
1.02B
1.01B
NOVEMBER
OCTOBER
SEPTEMBER
4.9M
AUGUST
37.6M
JULY
“Video views really exploded for Among Us in September after, big name, key influencers like Mikecrack, FGTeeV and PewDiePie began to create and upload videos.”
1.46B
05
ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS Animal Crossing: New Horizons couldn’t have timed its release date any more perfectly. With the world slowly adjusting to a life in lockdown Tom Nook and co. offered players the chance to get away to a deserted island and start over, all the worries of a pandemic left far behind. It wasn’t just gamers either who lost hours perfecting their ideal getaway island. Celebrities like Brie Larson championed the game through social media and we even saw a talk show created and filmed within Animal Crossing: New Horizons itself. Not since Fortnite has a game received so much mainstream presence and it’s easy to see why. Nintendo’s latest in its series is a warm and cosy time sorely needed back when it released and equally so now.
“4th place in articles, Tweets and Facebook posts for the year of 2020.” 40K+ Articles 19K+ Tweets
14K+ Posts
“The average review score shows the love for the title, at a time when it was needed the most!” JAN - FEB
3.8K 13.1K
MAR - APR 8.9K
MAY - JUN JUL - AUG SEP - OCT NOV - DEC
6.6K 5.3K 6.2K
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
90%
Animal Crossing: Wild Worlds
88%
Animal Crossing
81%
“Nintendo’s continued support of New Horizons is evident in its press article numbers.” 07
CYBERPUNK 2077 Say what you will about the events that occured after the release of Cyberpunk 2077, but when it comes to the sheer online presence of the game throughout 2020 it absolutely dominated. From a pre-release campaign standpoint, publishers and developers will be looking to Cyberpunk 2077 as a triumph, studying its every beat and move made in hopes of replicating anything even close.
“Cyberpunk 2077 was the most covered title of 2020, the anticipation for the game was something else.”
74,000+ articles “#1 title in Tweets and Facebook posts, beating out the likes of Fortnite, The Last of Us Part 2 and NBA 2K21.”
31K+ Tweets 900K+Retweets 26K+ Posts 900K+ Shares
“Cyberpunk’s Official Gameplay Trailer was the second most watched trailer of the year.”
30M+ views 09
DEMON’S SOULS There’s no denying that the move over to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X hasn’t delivered quite the same leap in terms of visuals compared with past generations. That isn’t to say though, that there’s been nothing demonstrating the potential power these new machines are capable of. Demon’s Souls might retain the feel of its PS3 original but visually its definitely got its foot in the next generation. Of all games released in 2020, it’s easily the most visually impressive from a technical perspective and a realshow piece for PS5.
“On Twitch in November, Demon’s Souls massively outperformed fellow PS5 launch title Spider-Man: Miles Morales by 8:1 in total views.”
52,900,000+ views
Demon’s Souls
“Despite having very big shoes to fill, FromSoftware managed to once again deliver the goods with Demon’s Souls reviewing very well with the critics.”
Spider-Man
Demon’s Souls
91%
Sekiro:
90%
Shadows Die Twice
DARK SOULS
REMASTERED
DARK SOULS 3
83%
89%
11
FALL GUYS ULTIMATE KNOCKOUT There is a lot of competition in the Battle Royale scene right now with new entrants sometimes struggling to snatch a healthy playerbase away for themselves. Fall Guys managed to do exactly that when it launched last August and amazingly made it look rather easy in the process. There’s no question shooters make up a majority of the Battle Royale genre so it was hugely refreshing to see a game opt for something completely different. No guns. No parachuting. Just colourful and wacky mini-games with cute and goofy characters.
“Saw more videos published on Twitch during August than any other game. Yes, even Fortnite and Minecraft.”
Fall Guys 4.2K Videos
Minecraft 3.7K Videos
“Influencer presence has declined month on month pushing it just out of the top ten games streamed on Twitch for Q2 2020.”
Fortnite 2.8K Videos
5,300 Videos 2,000 Videos 2,200Videos
GTA V
2.3K Videos
Aug Sep Oct
13
FIFA 21 Where other yearly releases see their ups and downs, the FIFA games continue to go from strength to strength, improving their online presence with every passing year and a consistant performer all-round when it comes to the year’s releases. Fatigue can often be the biggest threat to series with frequent releases but FIFA has managed to avoid its affects with no signs of slowing.
“When it came to press articles, Fifa 21 was able to out-perform Fifa 20 significantly in like for like months.”
2600+
800+
1900+
1900+
3000+
3400+
4700+
4600+
FIFA 21 FIFA 20 PRESS ACTIVITIES MONTHS FROM LAUNCH
-2
-1
0
+1
“Despite launching towards the end of 2020 Fifa 21 still managed to secure ninth in the top ten most watched games of the year.”
1,150,000,000+ views 15
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Remakes of beloved classics are an exciting thing on paper but an extremely tough thing to pull off. Follow the original too closely and it can come off as redundant. Stray too far and you risk upsetting the hardcore fans. Final Fantasy VII Remake has been a long time coming - a long development often another cause for concern - but manages to walk that fine line to perfection delivering to fans and newcomers alike.
“Cloud Strife has never looked so good and the review scores echoed the new level of gloss.”
88%
2020
82%
2016
79%
2019
“When it came to videos FFVII had a really strong viewership in April, just after its launch.”
250,000,000+ Views “Total video views in April more than doubled that of the the rest of the months views combined.”
April
Rest of the year 17
FORTNITE We couldn’t have created this list and not included Fortnite could we? For a game to continue with the level of popularity that Fortnite has is nothing short of amazing. Sure, it may have introduced us to the groan-inducing Floss dance manouver and the love him or hate him key influencer Ninja but there’s not denying the power of this game and all credit to Epic for continuing to evolve its world and live events.
“Fortnite was the second most discussed game of the year, three years after launch that’s a really impressive feat.”
73,000+ articles “Second most posted about title on Facebook and second most tweeted about title on Twitter.” 31K+ Tweets
26K+ Posts
“ The Fortnite Chapter 2 - Season 2 | Top Secret Launch Trailer was the most watched trailer of the year, it had more views than Italy has inhabitants!”
60M+ views 19
HADES Hades might not top any lists when it comes to sheer amount of coverage, but it holds the title for best critically received game of the year, a huge accomplishment for an indie title especially considering the competition. It’s a game that deserves all the praise it can get and continues to highlight how you don’t need a huge budget, massive team or countless hours of crunch to produce an unforgettable video game.
“Hades achieved the highest average review score of any game released in 2020... just.”
HADES
93.15%
HALF-LIFE: Alyx
93.05%
PERSONA 5 ROYAL
93.04%
“The online presence* during it’s launch month (Sep ‘20) was ten times higher than the entirety of it’s Early Access run.” *includes all press and social coverage
Early Access
“More nominations than any other indie game for overall GOTY.”
Sep 2020 30 Nominations 12 Wins
21
HALF-LIFE: ALYX Talk about a game that felt destined to fail. Years and years... and years of rumours, fan begging and - as a result - expectation is quite a hurdle to overcome. Then throw in the fact the next Half-Life game wasn’t a numbered sequel and it would be VR exclusive and you have what should be all the makings of a letdown. Turns out none of that mattered and Half-Life: Alyx delivered massively with the second best reviewed game of 2020. Plus it’s always nice to see VR games can still leave a strong impression.
“Half-Life: Alyx was the second best reviewed title of the year, reviewers in Spain were particularly fond of the VR outing.” WORLD WIDE SPAIN UNITED KINGDOM ITALY
ANIMAL CROSSING: NH
6.1K
DOOM ETERNAL
6K
COD: WARZONE
4.8K
COD: MODERN WARFARE
4.7K 4.1K
FINAL FANTASY VII RESIDENT EVIL 3
3.8K
FORTNITE
3.7K
HALF-LIFE: ALYX
3K
93 98 93 93 “Despite the long wait for a third HalfLife title, Alyx was only the 8th most talked about title in its launch month, March, with 3K+ articles published.” 23
MARVEL’S AVENGERS Marvel holds within its house of super heroes some of the biggest names out there so obviously when you’re making a game that features a whole group of them, the expectations are huge to say the least. Despite muddled messaging about the game, Marvel’s Avengers accumulated decent online momentum through the summer and up until its launch. While things may have quietened down for the game it will be interesting to see the impact future updates will have.
“Marvel’s Avengers achieved good review scores with the press, however didn’t match those of other superhero games.”
71
WORLD WIDE
80 78 75
COLOMBIA MEXICO ITALY
530+
JUN JUL
200+ 1,580+
AUG
3,050+
SEP OCT
430+
NOV
180+
DEC
150+
“Key influencer coverage started strong at launch but continued to decrease with every passing month.” 25
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR Flight simulators are nothing new but Microsoft Flight Simulator takes the genre to a whole new level. The map and terrain data is nothing short of mindblowing allowing its players to fly anywhere whilst taking in the world’s biggest landmarks (and some of the lesser known ones too). Taking vacations wasn’t an option in 2020 but Microsoft Flight Simulator reminded us of all the wonderful countries ripe for visiting outside our own when things return back to normal.
“Content creators had a great time with Flight Simulator, over 80% of the videos created came from key influencers.”
Media
200+
Platform Holder 40+
Key Influencers
1100+
“Twitch views in the month of the games launch (August ‘20), were over five times as much as the total for the rest of the year.”
August ‘20
Rest of year 27
THE LAST OF US PART II When it comes to a new project from Naughty Dog, the question isn’t whether it will be any good, but rather just how close it’ll come to perfection. The Last of Us: Part II suffered an early leak as well as review bombing from gamers but that didn’t extinguish the glowing praise, strong online coverage and fantastic sales figures come launch. Naughty Dog once again proved why they’re among the best in the business and all this on a PS4. Who knows what sort of technical wizzardry we’ll see for Sony’s new piece of hardware.
“Internationally, The Last of Us Part II scored some of the highest average review scores of any game this year.” UAE ARGENTINA NETHERLANDS BRAZIL
100 99 98 98
“The Last of Us Part II was the 8th most watched game of the year on, it drew large amounts of views from members of the media, key influencers and other content creators.”
over 1,200,000,000 views, over 14,000 videos 29
VALORANT Think Riot Games and likely the first thing to spring to mind is League of Legends (or its many spin-offs). That may no longer be the case with the release of Valorant, a game seperate from the League of Legends universe and Riot’s take on the hero shooter genre. The reception has been very strong and the streaming figures for 2020 second only to Riot’s own League of Legends. The future is strong for this title and evidence the studio is capable of more beyond it’s flagship franchise.
“Valorant was the 2nd most played title on Twitch only losing out to the behemoth that is League of Legends.”
47,000+ streams “Twitch views in the month of the game’s beta (April ‘20), were over 3 times as much as the month of its release (June ‘20).”
April ‘20
June ‘20
JUL
2,300+
AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
1,600+ 1,200+ 1,500+ 1,200+ 1,400+
“Press interest has remained fairly constant with the article count not dipping below 1,200 in a month, since it’s 31
NEXT GEN CONSOLES “In 2020 the Playstation 5 was named in significantly more articles than the Xbox Series X.” PLAYSTATION 5 - 53K+ ARTICLES XBOX SERIES X - 28K+ ARTICLES
“The numbers were a lot closer when looking at social media responses to the consoles.” FacebookPosts
Tweets
VideoCount
“The PS5’s high speed SSD and feature rich Dualsense controllers stood out as key selling points for the console.” SSD - 24% Other Features - 43%
Dualsense - 17%
Ray Tracing - 7%
4K - 8%
“Quick Resume and the Game Pass service appeared to be needle movers in articles talking about the Xbox Series X.” SSD - 18%
Other Features - 60%
Quick Resume - 8%
4K - 8% Game Pass - 6%
33
11200+
12300+
11200+
13300+
13200+
10800+
13300+
ARTICLE COUNT FOR THE BIGGEST PRESS DAYS IN 2020
14600+
DIGITAL EVENTS
s rd wa e A 11th am er eG b Th cem e as De wc ho n S th io 17 at r st be ay m Pl pte e as Se wc ho n S th io 16 at r st be ay m Pl pte Se d ar rw th Fo 10 ft ber iso m Ub epte S
m co th es 7 m st 2 Ga gu se ca Au ow Sh es m g Ga d in ox r 3 am Xb ly 2 fG Ju eo ur ut nF io at g st th in ay 12 m Pl ne Ga Ju of re tu Fu ion at st h ay 11t Pl ne Ju
“In the 48 hours after their biggest showcase events both Playstation and Xbox generated similar amounts of press coverage.” PLAYSTATION - FUTURE OF GAMING 8,800+ ARTICLES XBOX - GAMES SHOWCASE 8,500+ ARTICLES
“Nintendo’s most watched stream of 2020 was the Super Mario 35th Anniversary Direct with 8.9M views, in the 48 hours after the event. Press reported on Super Mario 3D All-Stars more than any other titles featured.” Other Featured Titles 1142 Articles
Super Mario 3D All-Stars 1525 Articles
Super Mario Bros. 35 662 Articles
Mario Kart Live Home Circuit 724 Articles Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury 703 Articles
“Publishers made up for the lack of physical events by hosting their own, amassing millions of views in the process.” Ubisoft Forward July 1.7M+ Views EA Play Live June 1.2M+ Views
Devolver Direct 2020 240K+ Views 35
KEY INFLUENCERS “40% of all Key Influencer video views, in 2020, came from videos on the three most watched titles.” 1.
2.
Minecraft
3.
Roblox
Fortnite
Month
Views Most Watched Title Views % of Total Views
January
6.98B
Minecraft
1.33B
19%
Flamingo
February
7.11B
Minecraft
1.46B
21%
Flamingo
March
9.31B
Minecraft
1.75B
19%
Flamingo
April
9.59B
Minecraft
1.82B
19%
FGTeeV
May
9.45B
Minecraft
1.83B
19%
FGTeeV
June
8.82B
Minecraft
1.72B
19%
FGTeeV
July
7.56B
Minecraft
1.59B
21%
Aphmau
August
7.37B
Minecraft
1.43B
19%
Aphmau
September 7.85B
Among Us
1.83B
23%
Aphmau
8.26B
Among Us
2.26B
27%
Aphmau
November 7.53B
Among Us
1.41B
19%
Aphmau
December 6.08B
Minecraft
1.03B
17%
Flamingo
October
Top KI
1.
Flamingo
2. Aphmau
3. Jelly
4. FGTeeV
5. ItsFunneh
6. Slogoman
7. SSundee
8. Felipe Neto
9. iamSanna
10. Arab Games Network
11. Lyna
12. WhenGamersFail Lyon
13. ЕвгенБро
14. TheGrefg
15. Mikecrack
16. JP Plays
17. Trolerotutos
18. Typical Gamer
19. Julia MineGirl
20. Поззи
37
INDIE VIDEO VIEWS 1.
Among Us
2. Fall Guys
3. Brawl Stars
4. Hello Neighbor
5. Phasmophobia
6. Clash of Clans
7. Human: Fall Flat
8. BeamNG.drive
9. Ark: Survival Evolved
10. Rocket League
11. Mount And Blade 2: Bannerlord
12. Scrap Mechanic
13. Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
14. Escape From Tarkov
15. Gang Beasts
16. Maneater
17. Ark: Genesis
18. VRCHAT
19. Ultimate Chicken Horse
20. 7 Days To Die
39
MID TIER VIDEO VIEWS 1.
Dead By Daylight
2. Farming Simulator 19
3. Genshin Impact
4. eFootball PES 2020
5. Clash Royale
6. SnowRunner
7. Hello Neighbor 2
8. Grounded
9. War Thunder
10. Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated
11. The Dark Pictures: Little Hope
12. Dragon Ball Legends
13. World Of Tanks
14. Lego: Jurassic World
15. Rogue Company
16. Destroy All Humans!
17. Euro Truck Simulator 2
18. Warframe
19. Hearts Of Iron IV
20. Mortal Shell
41
A TIER VIDEO VIEWS 1.
Super Mario Maker 2
2. Valorant
3. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
4. F1 2020
5. Dragon Ball FighterZ
6. Hearthstone
7. Minecraft Dungeons
8. Demons Souls
9. Mafia: Definitive Edition
10. eFootball PES 2021
11. Sea Of Thieves
12. Luigi’s Mansion 3
13. Call Of Duty: Mobile
14. Pokemon Go
15. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
16. WWE 2K20
17. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2
18. Predator: Hunting Grounds
19. Legends Of Runeterra
20. Total War: Warhammer 2
43
AAA VIDEO VIEWS 1.
Minecraft
2. Roblox
3. Fortnite
4. Grand Theft Auto V
5. Call Of Duty: Warzone
6. Fifa 20
7. Playerunknowns Battlegrounds
8. Fifa 21
9. The Last Of Us: Part 2
10. Cyberpunk 2077
11. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
12. Animal Crossing New Horizons
13. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
14. Apex Legends
15. NBA 2K20
16. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
17. Rainbow Six: Siege
18. Forza Horizon 4
19. Assassins Creed: Valhalla
20. Counter Strike: Global Offensive
45
INDIE PRESS COVERAGE 1.
Fall Guys
2. Ori And The Will Of The Wisps
3. No Man’s Sky
4. Cris Tales
5. Streets Of Rage 4
6.
Stardew Valley
7. Among Us
8. Ghostrunner
9. Dead Cells
10. Disco Elysium
11. Torchlight 3
12. Ark: Survival Evolved
13. Untitled Goose Game
14. Spiritfarer
15. Star Citizen
16. Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night
17. Toki
18. Cuphead
19. Divinity: Original Sin 2
20. Spelunky 2
47
MID TIER PRESS COVERAGE 1.
Yakuza: Like A Dragon
2. Genshin Impact
3. The Outer Worlds
4. The Medium
5. Wasteland 3
6. Dead By Daylight
7. Ring Fit Adventure
8. Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions
9. Bugsnax
10. Desperados 3
11. Mortal Shell
12. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4
13. Warframe
14. Gwent: The Witcher Card Game
15. Trials of Mana
16. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2
17. eFootball PES 2020
18. WRC 9
19. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan 20. Observer: System Redux
49
A TIER PRESS COVERAGE 1.
Pokemon Go
2. Valorant
3. Dirt 5
4. Immortals: Fenyx Rising
5. Godfall
6. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2
7. Sea Of Thieves
8. Minecraft Dungeons
9. Nioh 2
10. Mafia: Definitive Edition
11. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
12. Gears Tactics
13. Call Of Duty: Mobile
14. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
15. Hyper Scape
16. Baldurs Gate 3
17. Outriders
18. Dragon Ball FighterZ
19. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
20. Monster Hunter World
51
AAA PRESS COVERAGE 1.
Cyberpunk 2077
2. Fortnite
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons 5. The Last of Us: Part II
6. Call of Duty: Warzone
7. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
8. League of Legends
9. Grand Theft Auto V
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
11. Ghost of Tsushima
12. Doom Eternal
13. Apex Legends
14. Marvels Avengers
15. Final Fantasy VII
16. Counter Strike: Global Offensive
17. Halo Infinite
18. Fifa 21
19. Red Dead Redemption 2
20. Spider-Man: Miles Morales
53
ABOUT US Timely communication is vital to building awareness for all successful entertainment products. Fancensus not only provide this insight with a number of visualisation tools, complete insight into all competitive products can also be understood regardless of when launched in the previous decade. With over 16 years of data gleaned from print, social and online, Fancensus’ communication analytics grant up to the minute knowledge of coverage and sentiment analysis allowing dynamic decisions to be made instantly.
WE BSITE w ww.f ancensu s.c o m
EMAIL info @ f an c e n su s.c om
P HONE +4 4 (0 )16 28 52 0 7 7 6
All rights reserved. Errors and ommissions excepted. Any unauthorised copying in full or in part without prior permission of Fancensus.com Limited will constitue an infringement of copyright. Copyright Š 2021 Fancensus.com Limited. All trademarks, service marks and company names are the property of their respective owners.