It was quite the week for the games industry with not one, not two, but… well many live shows and events occurring last week with more still to come later this month.
Arguably two of the biggest were Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, which aired on Friday, and the Xbox Games Showcase, which went live on Sunday – both promising big announcements and fresh looks at upcoming software.
Interestingly, Geoff would preface his show via a Twitch Q&A with a clarification that this year’s Summer Game Fest would focus more on already announced titles as opposed to juggernaut premiers. It was a smart move in hindsight; the general feedback rather critical of the show with over 40% of over 250,000 gamers rating it a D grade and under 10% an A grade (according to Geoff’s own poll on X).
A couple days later Xbox would deliver one of its best showcases in years, at a point where it sorely needed it, with a number of high-profile games shown releasing in 2024, 2025 and beyond. Again, another of Geoff’s polls on X would emphasise just how well received the event had been with a massive 65% giving it an A grade (from over 163,000 respondents and counting).
But how did the games do with press? Which ones were making headlines and stealing the spotlight following the two shows?
Rather than just considering quantity of articles, Fancensus’ Flare Score also considers numerous other metrics including reach of approximately 3,000 featured websites, the split between headlining articles and those that merely mention the title, and presence of articles on a website’s front page. Essentially, it gives an overall performance that focuses on quality and not just quantity awarding a score out of 100.
When examining the 24-hour window following each of the two respective shows, it’s clear that Xbox Games Showcase had the bigger impact with press; the top five scoring titles all featured in this show, with a further three more featuring in the top ten.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 saw with the biggest success, scoring not only the highest Flare Score overall but doing so by a huge margin, likely a result of it having its own showing following the Xbox Games Showcase.
Looking over the entire list, two things are evident; the first being Summer Game Fest was a weaker show in terms of big name titles and fresh new reveals (with the exception of Lego Horizon Adventures and a couple other arguable notable announcements), the Flare Scores of featured games perhaps reflective of Geoff’s comments.
Xbox, meanwhile, came out the gate guns blazing, the true strength of the mammoth lineup of purchased studios it has really being felt. Activision Blizzard, MachineGames, Id Software, Compulsion Games, Playground Games … all with something to show, and something big at that.
The second takeaway is that despite the industry going through what feels like a tumultuous time, that hasn’t slowed established franchises from making their presence known. 17 of the Top 20 titles featured are from existing franchises/brands.
With embargoes due to drop throughout the week, it’ll be interesting to see the tail on some of these games outside their initial 24 hour performance.
Top 20 games featured in either Summer Game Fest or Xbox Games Showcase with highest Flare Score 24 hours following respective showcase
Rank
Title
Event
Est. Air Time
Flare Score
1
Call of Duty Black Ops 6
Xbox Games Showcase
25 mins
96
2
Doom: The Dark Ages
Xbox Games Showcase
2 mins
60
3
Gears of War: E-Day
Xbox Games Showcase
2 mins
53
4
Avowed
Xbox Games Showcase
2 mins
50
5
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Xbox Games Showcase
2 mins
50
6
Lego Horizon Adventures
Summer Game Fest
2 mins
49
7
Valorant
Summer Game Fest
4.5 mins
47
8
Perfect Dark
Xbox Games Showcase
3.5 mins
46
9
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
Xbox Games Showcase
2 mins
45
10
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
Xbox Games Showcase
2 mins
43
11
Civilization 7
Summer Game Fest
2 mins
43
12
Stalker 2
Xbox Games Showcase
2.5 mins
43
13
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Xbox Games Showcase
5 mins
42
14
Life is Strange: Double Exposure
Xbox Games Showcase
2 mins
42
15
Monster Hunter Wilds
Summer Game Fest
4 mins
42
16
State of Decay 3
Xbox Games Showcase
3 mins
42
17
Black Myth: WuKong
Summer Game Fest
1.5 mins
41
18
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred
Xbox Games Showcase
4.5 mins
41
19
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero
Summer Game Fest
1.5 mins
40
20
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions
Summer Game Fest
1 min
40