Microsoft has won the numbers game at E3

The unveiling of the Xbox One X has been the most talked about thing on social media this E3, with Assassin’s Creed Origins the top game.

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Although we don’t think anyone would say there’s been any clear ‘winner’ at this year’s E3, in terms of chatter on Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest it’s Microsoft who’s been the most popular.

Their pre-E3 media briefing, at which they unveiled the Xbox One X console accounted for 44% of all conference-related chatter on social media, according to ‘social intelligence company’ Brandwatch.

Nintendo was second with 15% and Sony was third with just 11%. Which considering the amount of complaints about the lack of new game announcements at their conference is rather surprising. Although this does account for all social media users, and not just gamers.


Everyone loves a hardware reveal (pic: Brandwatch)

Even with that in mind though it seems inexplicable that unremarkable-looking Assassin’s Creed Origins could be the most talked about game, with 75,000 mentions. Although it was no doubt helped by its prominence at the Xbox media briefing. (It was one of the first to be unveiled, whereas the considerably more interesting Anthem was the last.)



The second most talked about game was Metroid Prime 4, on 64,000, even though all Nintendo showed was a logo, and the third was Sony’s new Spider-Man game on 60,000.

For the record last year’s biggest game was Zelda: Breath Of The Wild on around 75,000 mentions, followed by Battlefield 1 on 45,000. So in terms of raw numbers this year and last year seem to be about the same.

But just to show how odd this year is proving to be in terms of what was actually being discussed Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was the second most talked about Nintendo game, and the fifth overall, on around 44,000. Coming in just ahead of Super Mario Odyssey on around 43,000.

None of these stats indicate whether the talk was positive or negative, but there is that old adage about all publicity being good publicity. And clearly Microsoft succeeded in its goal in ensuring everyone knows what Xbox One X is and that it’s out this year.

There’s no denying Ubisoft had a great E3 (pic: Brandwatch)

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