YouTube's Top Trending Games of July

It’s relatively straight-forward to look up what games are selling, but how do you compare the popularity of something like the free-to-play World of Warships with the episodic adventure Life is Strange? To answer this and life’s other difficult questions, we turn to YouTube’s Trending Games Chart which measures games that are growing in 1) watch time and 2) creators making content about that game. The top 10 trending games for July are …

1. Rocket League - Rocket League is like the song of the summer, but for gaming.
2. Life Is Strange - Episode 4 was released at the end of July.
3. Terraria - A major update added new items, characters, bosses, and events.
4. Godzilla - The newest Godzilla game arrived in the U.S. this fall.
5. NBA 2K16 - Details and footage building hype for this game's September release.
6. God of War III - A new remaster hit the PS4 this month.
7. World of Warships - Just launched in open beta.
8. Rory McIlroy PGA Tour - The July release coincided with the 2015 Open Championship.
9. Path of Exile - The Awakening, Path of Exile's third expansion, was just released.
10. J-Stars Victory VS - The manga all-stars fighting game is now available in the U.S.

Not only are Rocket League and Life Is Strange the #1 and #2 games of July, they are also the only games on the chart that aren’t established franchises that have been around for years. For Rocket League, more highlights of insane goals, last-second saves, and just plain luck are going up every hour. Life Is Strange has shown up on this list every time a new episode comes out, but episode 4 has been a real breakout and prompted about twice as many YouTube searches as any previous episode.

Life Is Strange seems to trend every time a new episode is released, but will Rocket League continue to grow? Check back in next month, and we’ll all find out together. Until then, Rocket League?

--Jeff Rubin

YouTube’s Top Trending Games of June

YouTube’s trending games list looks at games that are growing in both watchtime and uploads. Here’s what was trending in the U.S. this June:

1. Batman: Arkham Knight
2. Lego Jurassic World
3. Fallout 4
4. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
5. Lego Worlds
6. The Elder Scrolls Online
7. Skylanders: SuperChargers
8. Star Wars Battlefront
9. Final Fantasy VII
10. Heroes of the Storm

Let’s take a deeper dive into what’s trending and why:

Batman: Arkham Knight - The highly anticipated Batman simulator was a huge hit on YouTube. There are lots of angles to enjoy - YouTubers were interested in searching for easter eggs, learning how to pull of impressive combos and, of course, trying out the game with Adam West.
Don’t miss - Batmobile Wants to Help Too

Lego: Jurassic World - Lego video games are becoming as reliably popular as the toy they are based on (more on that a little later in the list). In June, the film "Jurassic World" broke several box office world records including the biggest North American weekend of all time. Put it all together and you’ve got the second fastest growing game on YouTube in June.
Don’t miss - Lego Jurassic World: Creating My Own Dinosaurs!

Fallout 4 - Fallout 4 won YouTube’s E3 trailer battle with 14 million views, the most votes, and the most comments. But remember, to be a trending game it’s not enough to just have a popular trailer - you need to have lots of YouTube creators uploading video about your game. Thankfully just a brief glimpse of Fallout 4 provided more than enough grist for commentators to start analyzing the game, its plot, and potential connections to the rest of the series.
Don’t miss - Fallout 4 -- E3 Showcase World Premiere

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - If you look at a calendar, we’re actually closer to the release of November’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III than 2014’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. But Advanced Warfare demonstrated it still has some life in it, growing since last month alongside the premiere of the Supremacy DLC.
Don’t miss - Exo Zombies “Carrier” Easter Egg Guide

Lego Worlds - Our second Lego game of the month, and with Lego Dimensions coming out in September you can probably expect to see more plastic bricks on the trending game list before 2015 is over. YouTube loves games that lets players show off their creativity, so this construction-themed Lego game has the potential to grow for some time.
Don’t miss - LEGO Worlds - Epic Vehicle Stunts! Building The Biggest LEGO Jump!

The Elder Scrolls Online - This massively multiplayer extension of the Elder Scrolls universe has been open since 2014, but its June release on consoles lead to a surge in uploaders creating content from Tamriel.
Don’t miss - Mother of God

SkyLanders: SuperChargers - The newest entry in the franchise is named after the “SuperCharger” vehicles the SkyLanders get to drive this time around but, based on the news that got the biggest reaction at E3, a better title might be “SkyLanders: Bowser & Donkey Kong Are In This One.”
Don’t miss - Sky Kids Surprised w/ Skylanders Superchargers @ E3 2015

Star Wars Battlefront - This game trended in April when it was announced, and it’s trending in June now that we’re actually seeing gameplay footage. Call me crazy, but I think we’ll talk about this game again in November when it finally comes out.
Don’t miss - Star Wars Battlefront: Multiplayer Gameplay | E3 2015 “Walker Assault” on Hoth

Final Fantasy VII - 1997’s Final Fantasy VII is one of gaming’s all-time classics and is always in the conversation, but Square-Enix’s E3 announcement of a proper remake and HD update pushed the game to officially reach trending status.
Don’t miss - Live Reaction Final Fantasy VII Remake Trailer

Heroes of the Storm - Heroes of the Storm has been a game that’s knocked on the trending games list for a few months now, but leaving beta on June 3 seems to have resulted in enough watchtime and uploads for the game to officially chart. If this game continues to grow like other free-to-play MOBAs, it could be on the trending list for months to come.
Don’t miss - HeroStorm Episode 1: Aspire to Inspire

--Jeff Rubin

Who Won the Biggest E3 Yet? The Votes Are In

Every June, the gaming industry embarks on its annual pilgrimage to Los Angeles for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). This year, for the thousands who showed up in person, there were millions who tuned in virtually. New announcements, radical technology, and reveals from much anticipated projects pushed the number of E3-related searches on YouTube to double compared to 2014 - making this the most searched-for E3 on YouTube.

One of the popular questions to ask the week after E3 is “Who won E3?”. With the E3 Trailer Battle, we posed that question to the global gaming audience on YouTube. Sixty-one participating trailers were watched for over 2 million hours from Monday to Friday of E3 week - that’s twice the amount of time people spent watching trailers in last year’s battle. We also received five times the number of votes compared to 2014 and a clear winner emerged.

Congratulations "Fallout 4"! With the most votes, most comments and over 14 million views, this post-apocalyptic masterpiece is something we can’t wait to get our hands on.

From canine companions to dueling lightsabers and beyond, take a look at the five most voted for trailers in YouTube’s E3 Trailer Battle 2015. You can check out all the participating trailers at youtube.com/e3.

 

Gautam Ramdurai, Insights Lead, Gaming recently watched "No Man's Sky - Interview and Exclusive Footage [YouTube Live at E3]."

Introducing YouTube's top trending games

No matter what kind of gamer you are, one question you have to eventually ask yourself is “What game should I play next?” We’re a little obsessed with both video games and numbers at YouTube, so we’d thought we’d try to answer the question with data.

Those who love video games increasingly turn to YouTube to learn about and celebrate the newest titles, either by watching other people’s videos or creating their own. We noticed that if you measure those two things - the interest people have in watching a new game as well as the number of people celebrating that game by uploading new videos - you could start to predict what’s going to be popular. Today we introduce YouTube Top Trending Games, a chart that looks beyond what’s already big today to what’s going to be big tomorrow.

1. The Witcher 3
2. Life Is Strange
3. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
4. Splatoon
5. Kerbal Space Program
6. Rust
7. Batman: Arkham Knight
8. Assassin’s Creed: Unity
9. Smite
10. Project CARS

The #1 game for May is "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," an RPG based on a series of Polish novels. Watchtime was largely driven by thousands of Let’s Plays including instant classics from Conan O’Brien and PewDiePie. Interest in the new "Witcher" games is so high that it’s actually driving interest in the first two games of the series, as new fans drawn in by strong reviews try to catch up on the world’s dense mythology. YouTube search traffic for "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" was as high in May 2015 is as it has been since the game was released on consoles in 2012.

In May, "Kerbal Space Program" emerged from a successful early access program. Gamers who are just now picking up the spaceport simulator drove a spike in views to classic "Kerbal" creations like this rocket-jet powered Volvo, the mod that makes the game more like "Interstellar," and, of course, this spaceship that makes it all the way to Mars on a single 15 kiloton explosion. "Kerbal Space Program" is the kind of game that facilitates open-ended creativity, and now that it’s officially launched we expect more insane rocket ships for months to come.

A lot of the watchtime growth for "Batman: Arkham Knight" came from official trailers like Be The Batman and All Who Follow but, remember, there’s more to trending than people watching a trailer. For a game to be trending, the number of creators discussing it have to also be growing. Every time Rocksteady gives us a glance of their new Batman game, it’s met with hundreds of reaction videos from creators like Tyrone Magnus, The Reel Rejects, and Knightwing001.

"The Witcher 3" has trended for a few months now as hype and anticipation has grown, but will its fanbase continue to expand in June? Or will it be dwarfed by the official release of "Heroes of the Storm," the "Final Fantasy XIV" expansion "Heavensword," or some indie game we haven’t even heard of yet? Watch this space for June’s trending games and we’ll all find out together.