A GAME made by three developers and released two years ago beat out video gaming’s biggest titles to become the year’s most popular game — at least in the Google search boxes of Pinoys.
Among Us, a small, independent game developed by US-based Innersloth Studios, was the most searched game in Philippine Google in 2020.
This was followed by Genshin Impact, an open-world game released by Chinese studio MiHoYo just last September.
In third place was Rules of Survival, a multiplayer competitive shooter in the free-for-all, battle royale format, developed by another Chinese company, NetEase. (The actual search term was ‘Rules of Survival gift.’)
What unites the three titles? They are all free to play. All three are also both available on PC and mobile devices.
These two factors arguably give them a bigger reach than, say, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which — despite its local widespread popularity — is only available on mobile devices; or game of the year contenders like The Last of Us Part II, which are only available on consoles.
Among Us and Genshin Impact also made a big pop culture splash this year as the world went into lockdown and searched for new games to play.
Party game Among Us became the most streamed game in worldwide platform Twitch in the middle of this year. Pinoy streamers were quick to hop in on the trend… and for some, like this Pinoy content creator, were rewarded with a thousandfold increase in followers.
Genshin Impact immediately made a splash right out of the gate, breaking records when it launched on consoles, mobile phones, and PC. Its gacha (or chance-driven) mechanics powered an addictive loop on top of already solid gameplay, and grossed over $100 million in just two weeks. Not bad for a free-to-play title.
Meanwhile, Rules of Survival celebrated its third anniversary in November 2020, and offered a whole slew of gifts and bonuses for players to commemorate the event. If you look at the Google Trends for RoS in 2020, this “RoSversary”, as they called it, coincided neatly with a massive spike in search volume in the middle of the month.
Elsewhere on Google’s list? Adorable Home, Valorant, and League of Legends: Wild Rift — all of which launched or (in the case of 2019 app Adorable Home) trended this year.
Here are the top 10 most searched gaming-related terms on Google PH:
1. Among Us
2. Genshim Impact
3. Rules of Survival gift
4. Adorable Home
5. Valorant
6. League of Legends: Wild Rift
7. Krunker.io
8. Codashop PH
9. Shinobi Life 2 codes
10. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
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