Video Games Sales Trend — EDA in Python
Introduction
Growing up, I loved playing video games. From Gameboy to PlayStation Portable (PSP), I would spend hours a day completely engrossed in them. This project gives me the perfect opportunity to further explore the popularity trend of video games and find out the correlations between that and their characteristics. Some initial guiding questions that I have include:
- What are the top 10 most popular games based on global sales?
- Does genre affect sales regionally and globally?
- How has the market for video games changed over the last 10 years?
Dataset
The dataset that I have selected lists video games which sales are greater than 100,000 copies. The list of games are diverse in terms of genre, and their release years date back from 1976 to 2017. For my analysis, I will be focusing on the sales performance of these video games and compare them with their features (eg. genre, platform, etc.).
Trend
To start off, since the last time I played video games was in 2012, I am curious to learn how the video game industry has performed so far. As 2007 is the year where I started playing video games, I will look at the data starting from 2007 to 2017. As seen below, the number of video games sold globally increased between 2007 and 2008. However, 2008 onwards, their global sales kept falling, ultimately only reaching around 100,000 copies sold in 2017.
Based on this data, since 2008, the video games industry appears to be shrinking as the its global revenues decline. This phenomenon may have occurred due to the growth of the mobile games industry and emergence of other forms of media entertainment.
Most Popular Video Games by Sales
Next, I’d like to explore is the popularity of these video games. I’m curious to find out what the Top 10 most popular games is based on their individual total global sales.
Globally, Wii Sports is the most popular with over 80 million copies sold since its release in 2006. Something that stands out here is the huge gap, around 40 million copies, between the first and second place (Super Mario Bros.). The subsequent video games in the top 10 sold around similar number of copies.
This chart makes me wonder if this popularity rank is similar regionally as it is globally.
North America:
A similar trend is observed in the North American region. Wii Sports still holds first place as the most popular game, with sales of over 40 million copies. The second place is also taken by Super Mario Bros. with around 30 million copies sold.
However, the subsequent video games in the top 10 ranking are different than that globally. This implies that North American players have a different game preference compared to the rest of the world.
Europe:
For the European region, the first place is still held by Wii Sports with close to 30 million copies sold. However, the second place is now taken by Mario Kart Wii with around 13 million copies sold.
Moreover, the subsequent video games in the top 10 are completely different than that in the North American region, highlighting how game preference differs regionally.
Japan:
Interestingly, the video game preference in Japan is completely different from the other two regions. Ranked first is Pokemon Red/Pokemon Blue, followed by Pokemon Gold/Pokemon Silver, while Wii Sports is not among the top 10 games in Japan. Based on the graph, it looks like Pokemon games are most popular in Japan, claiming 5 out of 10 spots in the top 10.
These results lead me to hypothesize that the variations in popularity of the games among regions lie in their genre. Due to differences in sociocultural dynamics among nations, different consumer groups have different game preferences. Hence, the same video game may be received differently depending on the market conditions.
To test my hypothesis, I decided to explore the rankings of the various genre globally and regionally.
Most Popular Genre
Global:
The Action genre is the most popular globally, with an average of over 40 million copies sold annually between the years 1976 and 2017. What strikes me as interesting is how the Sports genre is ranked second globally despite Wii Sports (Sports genre) being the most popular game in terms of global sales. This implies that while Wii Sports ranks first (sales-wise), the other games in the Sports genre may not be performing as well such that it brings down the overall global sales for that genre. Thus, the games in the Action genre collectively perform better consistently each year, generating the highest average global sales annually.
North America and Europe:
Similarly, in North America and Europe, although the top game there is Wii Sports (Sports genre), the Action genre ranks first followed by Sports genre. Thus, the same implication can be said for the North American and European region as the same observations are also made globally.
Japan:
As seen earlier, in Japan, the Pokemon games are most popular (5 out of top 10 spots) and this is further justified by the chart below. The role-playing genre ranks first followed by the Action genre. This underscores how the role-playing genre is indeed the most popular in Japan and that all the games in that genre collectively perform well, generating the highest sales each year.
Based on this set of observations, it seems that my earlier hypothesis is proven to be false. Although a particular game may be ranked first, it does not necessarily translate to that game’s genre also being ranked first. Other factors such as individual game’s performance and consumer preference and choice play an important role in determining a genre’s popularity.
Therefore, the variations in popularity among games lie in the game’s unique features and not the genre as a whole.
Most Popular Platform
Lastly, I’d like to find out which game platform is most popular globally. Growing up, I owned a Gameboy, DS, and PSP, and my favorite was the DS because the kind of games that I liked were most compatible on it. Hence, I’m interested to know what is the global favorite, and whether they share the same preference as I do.
Based on the chart below, games for PS2 are most popular with the highest average global sales each year. This underscores how PS2 seems to be the global favorite, resulting in the highest number of PS2 games sold compared to games for other platforms.
Conclusion
Some key takeaways that I have gathered from my exploration are:
- Between 2008 and 2017, the video games market was declining due to falling global sales revenue.
- The popularity ranking of video games is not determined by its genre, rather, it is based on each game’s unique characteristics and traits.
- PS2 is most popular game platform globally.
