RDR2 – Ranked Second Most Anticipated Holiday Game
As the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 draws near, the hype that has been building for nerly two years now is just about set to boil over.
With just two weeks to go, Rockstar has started being more open with new information, we’re getting new gameplay details, previews have uncovered even further specifics such as one particularly interesting tidbit about the map, and every now and then a leak springs in these final days.
But how anticipated is Red Dead Redemption 2, really?
Anticipation and other similar abstract metrics are difficult to quantify, but that’s what analysts are here for – to attach numbers to things that have none. Mainly through surveys, Nielsen Holdings specializes in product popularity rankings, among other things, even before said products have launched.
To give us an idea of where upcoming titles stand, surveys conducted throughout the year have ranked games with release dates between September and December 2018. These games were then given a score out of 100 – the higher the score, the more anticipated the game. Games were sorted into multiple categories based on availability.
Red Dead Redemption 2 came second in the multi-platform category with 97/100. The only game ahead of it by 2 points is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 with 99/100. Considering the far-reaching mainstream appeal of the series, which has been around longer than Red Dead and has put out significantly more games that Red Dead, this isn’t surprising. Instead, the fact that RDR2 is just 2 points behind is a significant achievement for Rockstar’s upcoming Western epic.
Following Red Dead Redemption 2 are Battlefield V with 94/100, Fallout 76 with 92/100 and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey with 91/100. In the PS4 category, the recent Spider-Man exclusive unsurprisingly scored 100/100. Since Xbox One isn’t strong in its exclusive games offering, the top ranking game – Forza Horizon 4 – only managed to score 84/100. On Nintendo Switch, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Mario Party tied for first place with 98/100.
Red Dead Redemption 2 will be released soon, so we’ll see how that anticipation translates into sales.
