Blog: Gaming

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

85% of Rocket League players do NOT count electronic music as a favourite music genre – own goal or opportunity?

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Rhys Elliott
Key takeaways from this blog: Only 15% of Rocket League players list EDM as a top genre, per MIDiA data, despite its dominance in the game Players are twice as likely than average to prefer EDM, often due to in-game exposure (per MIDiA interviews) Psyonix should diversify its soundtrack, as explored in MIDiA’s ‘Pixels to Playlists’ report, to boost engagement and match broader player tastes Anybody who has played Psyonix’s Rocket League knows that the game is almost synonymous with electronic music.
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20% of gamers love couch co-op: Split Fiction’s success is proof players want more

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Rhys Elliott
Key insights from this blog: MIDiA's research shows that a significant portion of gamers consider couch co-op a favourite genre. The runaway success of Split Fiction supports these findings Producing more couch co-op games would cater to gamer segments that MIDiA has identified as being underserved, including women and older gamers As growth across gaming slows, couch co-op games are a key opportunity the industry needs to seize Split Fiction , the co-op-only adventure game from Hazelight Studios, has sold over 2 million copies in one week, generating revenues of over $100 million.
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The case for more digestable games: Over a third of console and PC gamers play LESS than 5 hours a week

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Rhys Elliott
The attention economy is oversaturated. Games are not just competingwith other games but with TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, and well ... life. But the games industry – especially premium games on console and PC – has a unique twofold challenge: Supply : New AAA games can take five years or more to make (and often have budgets in the hundreds of millions) Demand : Player attention and play time are already maxed out MIDiA’s consumer research for Q4 2024 underlines just how little time consumers have to play.
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Social platforms are eating passive entertainment. Are games eating social?

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Hanna Kahlert
At Sony Music’s Interactive Tech Day in London on 22nd October, gaming was, ironically, the highlight. From artist takeovers of Roblox destinations to concert-type experiences in Fortnite Islands, the company’s music strategy is increasingly crossing over with the gaming world – a goal mirrored in the increasing closeness of Sony Music and Sony Interactive Entertainment, according to their respective speakers at the event.
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Are we approaching an analogue revival?

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Hanna Kahlert
It is now 2024 (yikes), and New Year’s resolutions are making the rounds. Anecdotally, at least seven of us at MIDiA have resolved to go more analogue this year. More broadly, many people, alongside the traditional attempts to go to the gym more or do ‘Dry January’, seem to be opting to cut down on their social media and broader smartphone usage.
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Embracing the cultural ascent of games: Zelda, Sony, and games-video symbiosis

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Perry Gresham
Gaming has been mainstream for a while, but in recent years it has started flexing its cross-cultural muscles, intersecting with music, sports, and increasingly with video . The latest example is a new live-action movie, based on The Legend of Zelda games franchise, announced this week as a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony Pictures.
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Grand Theft IP

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Perry Gresham
This week gaming entered leak season, with large amounts of content unexpectedly released for two major upcoming titles: Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA) and Diablo IV. GTA developer Rockstar Games confirmed : “We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto”.
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