The biggest gaming conference of the year, E3, wrapped up last week. Nearly all the major video game studios and publishers were in attendance to show off new titles, from AAA First-Person shooters to mobile games. Some saw great responses, some not so much.
If you are at all into gaming, your social feeds will already be spammed with predictions and reactions to all the new announcements. But using the data from Thinknum, we can work out a different angle as to who has come out on top after the conference. We also take a look at how the biggest trailers stacked up with fans online.
Microsoft ($MSFT) and Sony ($SNE) both announced many new exclusive titles for the their respective gaming platforms. Meanwhile, Maryland-based games developer Bethesda softworks stole the show with the announcement of its next installment in RPG franchise The Elder Scrolls as Electronic Arts worked damage control on its Battlefield series after a poorly received trailer in the weeks before E3.
EA
EA saw a drop in followers after their disastrous first Battlefield 5 trailer on May 23, but recovered during E3.
EA has also stepped up its hiring since the conference, gearing up for the release of some new titles in the fall.
Bethesda
Bethesda, who launched new trailers for Doom Eternal, an all-new Wolfenstein, and information about a new mobile-based Elder Scross game, saw a big jump in Twitter followers:
Microsoft
Unlike its smaller counterparts, Microsoft hiring has fallen since E3, although that may not be directly related to its Xbox division.
However, Microsoft's Xbox Twitter following count saw an E3 bump:
Sony
Not to be left out, Sony saw a twitter boost too:
CD Projekt Red
CD Projekt Red, makers of the critically acclaimed Witcher series saw a huge social media gain following the announcement of its near-future sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077
Raw views on trailers
Looking at the trailers and gameplay announcements from this year's conference, we can see CD Projekt Red have come out on top of the pack with almost 12 million views on the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077. Bethesda stole second and third place with Fallout 76 and the reveal of the Elder Scrolls 6. Bethesda saw poor performance for its other major announcement, Starfield, but that's likely due to the overwhelming popularity of the Elder Scrolls and the lack of details about the new game so far.
Ubisoft is likely disappointed with performance of its trailer for The Division 2, the follow up to the infamous ambitious original title that was plagued with bugs on release.
Ratio of trailer dislikes to likes
Looking at the ratio of dislikes to likes on the trailers, Cyberpunk 2077 leads the way once again, racking up 100 likes for every dislike. EA probably hoped to make up for lost ground after its disastrous release of the first Battlefield 5 trailer, which generated huge discourse online and earned almost 500,000 dislikes on YouTube. Sadly its gameplay release at E3 didn't seem to help the situation with a dislike ratio of 0.17, putting it just above last in the pack.
Nintendo’s releases for the Switch faired well with its more niche fanbase, maintaining a good likes/dislikes ratio with Super Smash Bros picking up a well-deserved 2 million views.
Sony’s releases of a new SpiderMan title, and a follow up to the hugely popular The Last of Us came middle of the pack in terms of reception with fans, but scored the japanese tech giant a good number of views.
However, the real shocker for E3 this year was the reveal of a new mobile game for the classic Command and Conquer series. The gameplay trailer bombed, racking up 43,000 dislikes compared to only 2,000 likes. Many fans of the real time strategy series, which had its first release in 1995, took to the comments to voice their anger. Publisher EA will surely not be happy with the reception.
About the data
Many trailers had multiple releases on multiple official accounts, but for this report, we focused on main YouTube Channels for each company.