Most Popular Video Game in Italy

It was hard to find the most popular video game in Italy so rather than finding the most popular video game for this week for a specific country I decided to state some of the gaming facts that are within Italy. 

Italy has 21.0 million gamers and 5.4 million of them play games on a tablet – this equal to 25.5% of all Italian gamers. Italy is currently number 9 in the world in terms of games revenues, just before Spain. 56.5% of the gamers in Italy pay for games, higher than countries like France (56.2%) and Spain (55.3%). When looking at the monthly mobile game revenue rankings for Italy the highest rank is the number 10 position for the iPad store. Italy is ranked 12^th for the iPhone store and 13^th for the Google Play store. By far the largest share of the game revenues goes to console gaming, mobile games are the 2^nd biggest platform in Italy.

Social/Casual games are the most popular segment in Italy in number players, followed by PC/Mac and TV console games. When it comes to cross-screen gaming, we can see that 23.7% of Italian gamers play on all screens. The computer screen is most popular, played by 93.0% of gamers – a percentage that is above average in Europe. 42.6% of the Italian gamers plays on the floating screen (tablet and/or handheld console). This is the second highest percentage in Europe – only Spain scores higher (48.6%).

Most Popular Game in Australia

The Most Popular Video game in Australia is Call of Duty Black Ops 3. Similar to the United States a game involving guns and a sort of gore was the most popular in Australia. This may not come to as surprise because the media such as television and computer that is shown to the youth of Australia is very much similar to that of the United States. So understanding that a first person shooter game that allows you to play online and amongst your group of friends or with people around the world with the ability of freedom to shoot guns and kill other players as you please can be very intriguing to the youth of Australia. Also with the increase of moderately violent movies such as Marvel movies, this further drives them to want to have the freedom to use guns and some other stuff and that can be only done through Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto sort of games.

The Least popular video game in Australia happens to be Anime. The Demographics of Australia show that primarily only Australians live there, it really isn't much of retirement destination and that mainly if you grew up in Australia you most likely end up staying in Australia. Also with Anime most of the time being in a Chinese or Japanese language its understandable of why it really hasn't caught on with Australians, with the language barrier and that lack of appeal with not much violence.

Most Popular Game in the Philippines

The most Popular Video Game in the Philippines isn't on a gaming console but rather is on the PC. There is no specific game on the computer that is popular but rather all MMO and LAN type of gaming on the computer. This is because computer cafe's which are cafe's that are filled with computers that have access to the internet for a small fee and a time limit are very popular and common around the Philippines and with it being a third world country most families don't have electronics in their home and because of that most kids after school would go to these cafe's to hang out and game together. Which makes these computer cafe's the local hang out spot and also boosting the popularity of computer gaming within the Philippines. One word: access. 

"The reason that Filipinos would go out to a net cafe and play with friends is because it’s accessible anywhere at any time, not to mention that it’s much more affordable than buying a console. It’s easy entertainment. Playing games in net cafés has been so popular these past few years that some even have dividers to separate the gamers from everyone else. Even without a net café in sight, all you really need is a PC. Sure the net connection is not the best here in the Philippines, but it’s decent enough for people to still keep on playing.Even if every Filipino gamer had the resources to get a console, most would only go so far as to buy games that they’re comfortable or familiar with. That means games that are common and popular like the MGS series, NBA 2k13, not to mention the usual FPS games. Of course there are several Filipino gamers who would love to get out of their comfort zones and play something new like Mass Effect, Catherine or Yakuza, but again, these games are too pricey for the majority, that or too experimental for their taste, which is why they lean towards the comforts of PC gaming.

Another plus worth mentioning is that generally Filipino gamers love playing with a friend, which is why MMO or LAN games are such a hit. Filipinos love playing with other Filipinos. Filipino gamers call out to each other, even in non-Asian servers, and find instant connection and team up, even just temporarily. Of course, there’s no doubt that there are Filipinos that love to play solo, but you can never discount the fact that Filipinos would always want to play as a group and rarely by themselves. If ever they’re going to play a game like NBA 2k13, they’d be scheduling the night between friends.So what’s the gaming scene in the Philippines like? It’s more or less a party of a dozen people dominating a small net café with their victory cries just in time for the next class."

(http://ap.ign.com/feature/60304/overview-gaming-in-the-philippines)

Most Popular Video Game in Japan

The Most Popular Video Game in Japan this past year sold is called Yo-kai Watch 2: Shin Uchi (Level 5) which is sold on the Nintendo 3DS console. It is an anime based game and this game being the top selling game in Japan doesn't surprise me because of how popular anime is in Japan.  Anime which is a type of cartoon is very common amongst the youth and teens and in Japan its a sort of common ground that brings the youth together and allows them to have something in common and to talk about. Sports aren't as big in Japan compared to other countries in the world but technology and video games are very big and completive there. The games that are popular in Japan such as the one listed above as being the most popular I believe wouldn't be as popular in the UK or US because anime isn't that popular in those countries and a majority of the time when Japan creates video games they tend to only make a Japanese version of the game and no english version causing a language barrier when a person from the US or someone from another country wants to purchase the game. 

Most Popular Game in the UK

The Most Popular Video Game of the past year in the United Kingdom is Fifa 16 which is a soccer based sports game that is available on almost all platforms. In the UK unlike the U.S. soccer is the number one sport there is no American Football and basketball is slowly on the rise but in the UK they grew up with soccer all their life, and with over 40,000 youth association clubs in the UK soccer is very easily accessible at a young age for them. When families get together on weekends in the UK to watch sports there is no sunday football for them in the UK but rather soccer is constantly being watched in most households, so because of that for these young teens always being around soccer whether that is physically playing or through technology it comes to no surprise to me that FIFA is the number one game sold.


I do believe the movies and television shows in the UK are a bit different than the US which might be why a game that introduces fighting and war may not be as popular there as it is in the US. Also education is at a much higher level in the UK than it is in the US so they may not have time to even be exposed to television and movies with all the time that is being put into education.

Blog Topic 2/4

My Blog Topic involves looking at countries in different parts of the world and seeing which games are the most popular and which games are the least popular in each country. I will also be looking into to see why this might be the way it is for each country and how much of an influence these certain video games have on the country.

I think this is interesting to do because it would be cool to see which games are popular in different parts of the world and also what can be done so that one game could be the most popular in all countries rather there possibly be a different game for each country.

How have Video Games influenced my life?

Video Games ever since I've been at a young age up until this day have always been a part of my life whether it had a big or small impact at the time of my life, it was always there and accessible to me. Its a way for me to either have some time to just relax from stress and go into my own world, but at the same time its a way to connect with friends and just enjoy and live in the moment with one another. I would say video games didn't impact me as much as sports did because of how much my parents encouraged me to stay active and to go outside and play but when i did play video games whether that be on the computer or on the tv on gaming consoles I still have memories till this day that I will probably have for the rest of my life with people that I'm able to call friends even though we have never met face to face that I encountered through these video games. It's pretty amazing to look back at my life and look at all the times video games have impacted my life in its own unique ways.