Hardware releases
| Month | Day | Console |
|---|---|---|
| May | 1 | Oculus Go |
| May | GPD Win 2 | |
| July | 20 | Phoenix One |
| 24 | NEOGEO mini | |
| October | 9 | THEC64Mini |
| 24 | Atari Flashback 9 | |
| November | 15 | Atari Flashback 9 Gold |
| 30 | Go! Retro Portable | |
| December | 3 | PlayStation Classic |
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|---|---|---|---|
| +... | |||
Numerous video games were released in 2018. Best-selling games included Madden NFL 19 , NBA 2K19 , NBA Live 19 , WWE 2K19 , Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 , Marvel's Spider-Man , Red Dead Redemption 2 , Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , Far Cry 5 , God of War , Monster Hunter: World , Assassin's Creed Odyssey , Spyro Reignited Trilogy , and Dragon Ball FighterZ . [1] [2] [3] Games highly regarded by video game critics released in 2018 included Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , Marvel's Spider-Man , Forza Horizon 4 , Monster Hunter: World, Dead Cells , Return of the Obra Dinn , and Celeste . The year's highest-grossing games included Fortnite , Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor , Dungeon Fighter Online , League of Legends , and Pokémon Go .
Among major trends in 2018 included the explosive growth of battle royale games such as Bluehole's PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Epic Games' Fortnite Battle Royale , [4] [5] the resurgence of Pokémon Go, [6] ongoing governmental review of loot boxes in light of national gambling restrictions, Sony Interactive Entertainment agreeing to allow cross-platform play between PlayStation 4 and other console users, and the entry of Fortnite-related internet memes into popular culture. With Fortnite's success, Epic was able to establish the Epic Games Store for personal computers as a strong competitor to the dominant but criticized position held by Valve's Steam digital storefront by significantly increasing the revenue split it gave to developers. Additionally, with a number of major sudden studio closures, including Telltale Games, there was an increasing call for video game developers to unionize. [7] A nearly year-long freeze on video game approvals by the Chinese government had a major impact on publishers Tencent and NetEase, and was anticipated to impact future revenues in the industry. [8]
Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities.
| Title | Developer(s) | Publisher(s) | Release | Platform(s) | Average score out of 100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | Rockstar Studios | Rockstar Games | October 26, 2018 | PS4, XBO | 97 |
| God of War | Santa Monica Studio | Sony Interactive Entertainment | April 20, 2018 | PS4 | 94 |
| Celeste | Extremely OK Games | Maddy Makes Games | January 26, 2018 | XBO | 94 |
| Undertale | 8-4 | September 18, 2018 | NS | 93 | |
| Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltd. | Nintendo | December 7, 2018 | NS | 93 |
| Forza Horizon 4 | Playground Games | Xbox Game Studios | October 2, 2018 | XBO | 92 |
| Divinity: Original Sin II - Definitive Edition | Larian Studios | August 31, 2018 | PS4, XBO | 92 | |
| Celeste | Extremely OK Games | Maddy Makes Games | January 25, 2018 | NS | 92 |
| Bayonetta 2 | PlatinumGames | Nintendo | February 16, 2018 | NS | 92 |
| Inside | Playdead | June 28, 2018 | NS | 91 | |
| Sonic Mania Plus | Christian Whitehead, PagodaWest Games, Headcannon | Sega | July 17, 2018 | NS | 91 |
| Dead Cells | Motion Twin | August 7, 2018 | XBO | 91 | |
| Shadow of the Colossus | Bluepoint Games | Sony Interactive Entertainment | February 6, 2018 | PS4 | 91 |
| Celeste | Extremely OK Games | Maddy Makes Games | January 25, 2018 | PS4 | 91 |
| Nier: Automata Become As Gods Edition | PlatinumGames | Square Enix | June 26, 2018 | XBO | 90 |
| Bastion | Supergiant Games | September 13, 2018 | NS | 90 | |
| Monster Hunter: World | Capcom | January 26, 2018 | PS4, XBO | 90 | |
| Hollow Knight | Team Cherry | June 12, 2018 | NS | 90 | |
| Into the Breach | Subset Games | February 27, 2018 | Win | 90 | |
| Astro Bot Rescue Mission | Japan Studio | Sony Interactive Entertainment | October 2, 2018 | PS4 | 90 |
| Bayonetta + Bayonetta 2 | PlatinumGames | Nintendo | February 16, 2018 | NS | 90 |
According to industry analysis firm NewZoo, the video game industry was worth $134.9 billion by revenues in 2018, a 10.9% growth over 2017. Of this, 47% of the revenues were generated from mobile gaming, with consoles taking 28% and personal computers taking the remaining 25%. [17] The top five largest video game markets of 2018 were China ($34.4 billion), the United States ($31.5 billion), Japan ($17.7 billion), South Korea ($5.8 billion), and Germany ($5 billion). [18]
According to the NPD Group, total revenue from the video game industry, including hardware, software, and accessories, in the United States grew by 17% to US$43.4 billion, nearly matching revenues for the American film industry for 2018. [19] [20] Of that, US$35.8 billion were from software sales, digital content, and subscriptions. Hardware sales, at US$7.5 billion, were up 15% from 2017, as despite the fact that there was no new hardware releases, several system-exclusive titles helped to drive hardware sales. [19]
Licensed merchandise based on video game franchises generated $20.68 billion in 2018 retail sales, a rise of 6.1% compared to 2017. [21]
The following were 2018's top ten highest-grossing video games in terms of worldwide digital revenue (including digital purchases, microtransactions, free-to-play and pay-to-play) across all platforms (including mobile, PC and console platforms). Six of the top ten highest-grossing games are published or owned by Tencent, including the top five titles.
| Rank | Game | Revenue | Publisher(s) | Genre | Business model | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortnite | $5,477,000,000 | Epic Games (Tencent) | Battle royale, survival | Free-to-play | [22] |
| 2 | Honor of Kings / Arena of Valor | $2,510,000,000 | Tencent | MOBA | Free-to-play | [23] |
| 3 | League of Legends | $1,900,000,000 | Riot Games / Tencent | MOBA | Free-to-play | [23] |
| 4 | Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) | $1,700,000,000 | Nexon / Tencent | Beat 'em up | ||
| 5 | Crossfire | $1,453,000,000 | Smilegate / Tencent | FPS | ||
| 6 | Monster Strike | $1,387,419,755 | Mixi | Physics | ||
| 7 | Pokémon Go | $1,300,000,000 | Niantic / Nintendo / The Pokémon Company | Augmented reality | Free-to-play | [4] |
| 8 | PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) | $1,224,800,000 | Bluehole / Tencent | Battle royale | Buy-to-play / free-to-play | [a] |
| 9 | Fate/Grand Order (FGO) | $1,200,000,000 | Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) | RPG | Free-to-play | [4] |
| 10 | Candy Crush Saga | $1,100,000,000 | King (Activision Blizzard) | Puzzle |
The video game franchise that has generated the highest licensed merchandise sales is Pokémon . Other video game franchises with significant licensed merchandise sales include Sonic the Hedgehog , Mario , Call of Duty , Overwatch , Roblox , Halo , Fortnite and Minecraft . [21]
The following were 2018's top ten best-selling video games by region, in terms of software units sold (excluding microtransactions and free-to-play titles) on PC and console platforms, for the United States, Japan, and Europe.
| Month | Day(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| January | 4 | Video game peripheral maker Mad Catz was re-established. [28] |
| 7–12 | The 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. | |
| 8 | Rebellion Developments acquired Radiant Worlds and rebranded the studio as Rebellion Warwick. [29] | |
| 10 | The inaugural season of the Overwatch League began. | |
| 22 | Yuji Naka announced that he joined Square Enix. [30] | |
| February | 14 | THQ Nordic acquired Koch Media. [31] |
| 20–22 | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2018 D.I.C.E. Summit and 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, [32] Genyo Takeda received the Lifetime Achievement Award. [33] | |
| March | 9–18 | The 2018 South by Southwest Festival was held in Austin, Texas. |
| 19–23 | The 2018 Game Developers Conference was held in San Francisco, California. | |
| 20 | Vivendi formally ended its attempt to acquire Ubisoft, selling all of its 30 million shares of Ubisoft to other companies, including Tencent. [34] | |
| April | 1 | Kaz Hirai stepped down as CEO of Sony Corporation while remaining as chairman of the board, with CFO Kenichiro Yoshida replacing him as CEO. [35] |
| 5–8 | PAX East was held in Boston, Massachusetts. | |
| 21 | Valve acquired developer Campo Santo. [36] | |
| May | 14 | Cliff Bleszinski's studio Boss Key Productions closed down. [37] |
| Bigben Interactive acquired Cyanide. [38] | ||
| 15 | 2K Games developer Hangar 13 opened a fourth game development studio in Brighton, England. [39] | |
| 16 | Polish developer People Can Fly opened a new studio in Rzeszów, Poland. [40] | |
| June | 1 | Facebook launched Facebook Gaming as a competitor to Twitch. |
| 10 | Microsoft announced its acquisitions of Undead Labs, Playground Games, Compulsion Games, and Ninja Theory and the formation of a new studio named The Initiative in Santa Monica. [41] | |
| 12–14 | E3 2018 (Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018) was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. [42] | |
| July | 11 | Electronic Arts announced its acquisition of Industrial Toys. [43] |
| August | 13 | Crystal Dynamics opened Crystal NorthWest. [44] |
| 14 | Sumo Group Plc acquired The Chinese Room. [45] | |
| 20–25 | The International 2018, a Dota 2 tournament with the largest prize pool in esports history, was held at the Rogers Arena in Canada. [46] | |
| 21–25 | Gamescom was held in Cologne, Germany. | |
| 26 | A mass shooting occurred at a Madden NFL 19 tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, with the shooter, a participant in the tournament who lost, killing two people and injuring ten others before committing suicide. [47] | |
| September | 18 | Wargaming opened a UK studio [48] |
| Capcom Vancouver shut down. [49] | ||
| 20–23 | The 2018 Tokyo Game Show was held in Tokyo. | |
| The UK's largest games show, EGX was held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England. [50] | ||
| 21 | Telltale Games announced a "majority studio closure", laying off more than 90% of its staff and cancelling several in-progress games. [51] | |
| 26 | Sony Interactive Entertainment revises its policy on cross-platform play and allows PlayStation 4 players of Fortnite: Battle Royale to matchmake across all supported platforms. [52] | |
| October | 6 | Skybound Entertainment acquires the rights and capabilities to finish off Telltale's work-in-progress, The Walking Dead: The Final Season , after Telltale's shutdown. [53] |
| November | 2–3 | The 2018 BlizzCon was held in Anaheim, California. |
| 9 | It was announced video game guide creator Prima Games would be shutting down after 28 years in business. [54] | |
| 10 | Microsoft announced the acquisitions of InXile Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment. [55] | |
| December | 3 | Starbreeze Studios files for financial restructuring after the commercial failure of Overkill's The Walking Dead . [56] |
| 6 | The Game Awards 2018 were held in Los Angeles, California. |
| Month | Day | Console |
|---|---|---|
| May | 1 | Oculus Go |
| May | GPD Win 2 | |
| July | 20 | Phoenix One |
| 24 | NEOGEO mini | |
| October | 9 | THEC64Mini |
| 24 | Atari Flashback 9 | |
| November | 15 | Atari Flashback 9 Gold |
| 30 | Go! Retro Portable | |
| December | 3 | PlayStation Classic |
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Series with new installments in 2018 include Anno , Assassin's Creed , Battlefield , Bloons Tower Defense , Bayonetta , Bit.Trip , BlazBlue , Bomberman , Call of Duty , Darksiders , Digimon , Donkey Kong , Dragon Ball , Dynasty Warriors , Earth Defense Force , Fallout , Far Cry , Forza , God of War , Hitman , Just Cause , Kirby , Life Is Strange , Mario Party , Mario Tennis , Mega Man , Monster Hunter , Ni no Kuni , Persona , Pillars of Eternity , Pokémon , Red Dead , Sakura Wars , Science Adventure , Shantae , Soulcalibur , Spider-Man , Spyro , State of Decay , Super Smash Bros. , The Bard's Tale , The Crew , The Walking Dead , Tomb Raider , Tropico , Valkyria Chronicles , WarioWare , Warhammer , Wolfenstein , and Yakuza .
In addition, 2018 saw the introduction of several new properties, including, Among Us , Astro Bot Rescue Mission , A Way Out , Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning , Celeste , Dead Cells , Deltarune , Detroit: Become Human , Firewall , Frostpunk , InnerSpace , Just Shapes & Beats , Marvel's Spider-Man , Moss , Octopath Traveler , Overload , Paladins: Champions of the Realm , Past Cure , The Persistence , Rust , Sea of Thieves , Subnautica , and Vampyr .
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