Gaming Buzz – Sep 2023: CoD makes upticks in the US; Pokémon shines in Britain

Call of Duty made major upticks in its Buzz score among American gamers during the month of September. They include a 7-point uptick for Call of Duty: Warzone, which YouGov BrandIndex tracks separately, and a 5.2-point jump for Call of Duty.

This growth in Buzz may have been in response to the launch of Season 6. While articles on gaming websites carried wistfully headlined news articles about the sunsetting of the original Call of Duty: Warzone game, this doesn’t seem to have affected narrative around the franchise negatively.

Dota’s Buzz score jumped 4.8 points, possibly in anticipation of The International, which will take place between October 12 to 29.

Over in Britain, Pokémon registered the sharpest uptick in Buzz scores, rising 7.8 points to 12.5. This lift may have been linked to the launch of The Teal Mask DLC, which marks the first expansion to the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games that were released last year.

Super Mario Bros., which has been in the news over the upcoming release of Super Mario Bros Wonder, witnessed a 6-point uplift. Minecraft rounds off the list in Britain, rising 5.4 points.

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Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on major video gaming franchises. Buzz score is based on the questions: “Over the past two weeks, which of the following video games have you heard something positive about?” and “Now which of the following video games have you heard something negative about?” and delivered as a net score between –100 and +100. Scores reported represent the change between the 30-day daily average between August 1 – August 31, 2023 and September 1 – September 30, 2023. Scores are based on an average sample size of 266 gamers in Great Britain and 468 in the US. Daily figures are based on a four-week moving average.