Epic Games' juggernaut battle royaleFortniteled the pack ofwhich games were being discussed the most on Twitter in 2018. However in 2019 it was usurped by the mobile role-playing gameFate/Grand Order, according to metrics released by the social media company Tuesday.
Fate/Grand Orderis a free-to-play, turn-based character collecting game from Delightworks first released in 2015 that spins off theFatemultimedia empire. The series began as a visual novel in 2004 calledFate/stay nightby developer Type-Moon, and the mobile title largely keeps up its predecessor’s visual novel roots in presentation. According to the Twitter’s blog post, it made up the largest percentage of over 1.2 billion Tweets made about gaming throughout 2019.
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The fact thatFate/Grand Ordertook overFortnite’s spot at the top of the hill is somewhat surprising given the battle royale’s continual dominance of streaming sites like Twitch, and given it wasthe highest-grossing video game in 2019. However, the rest of Twitter Gaming’s “Most Talked About Games” list is also largely more diverse than last year, when Nintendo franchises and sports games took a majority of spots.
The continual presence ofSuper Smash Bros.makes sense given its waves of DLC released throughout 2019 (with rumors abound that the next new fighter will be revealed soon). As does the high placement of Square Enix’sFinal Fantasyfranchise, which is riding off the imminent release of aFinal Fantasy VIIremake.
But in general mobile games were the kings of Twitter considering Mixi’s puzzle-centric physics gameMonster Strike, HappyElements' anime card collecting gameEnsemble Stars!, and Cygames' role-playing gameGranblue FantasyjoinedFate/Grand Orderon the list. It also includes NetEase’s asymmetric horror gameIdentity V, whichcrossed over withPersona 5in July.
Twitter’s released metrics discuss other gaming trends from 2019. For instance, the top three countries producing Tweets about games were Japan, the United States, and South Korea; E3 and theLeague of LegendsWorld Championships were the most discussed events; and Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was the most talked about “Gaming Personality,” likely in-part due to his widely publicizedshift from Twitch to Microsoft’s streaming platform Mixer.
It’s impossible to know what Twitter’s “Most Talked About Games” will look like by the end of 2020, but it will be interesting to watch and see whether the conversation continues to be dominated by mobile games likeFate/Grand Ordergoing forward, or ifFortnitewill reclaim its crown.
