Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sparks Buzz boost, but there’s a catch

Final Fantasy has gained traction after the launch of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, according to data from YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks dozens of video game franchises. But while Buzz for the franchise has grown among gamers in general, scores have actually dipped among the core target audience – i.e., PlayStation owners.

A video game franchise’s Buzz score is the difference between the percentage of respondents hearing positive news and the percentage hearing negative news about an event in the past two weeks.

Among gamers in general, defined as those who play video games on PC or console for more than an hour each week, Buzz has risen from 9.4 on launch date (February 29) to 12.3 as of March 19. The pattern is closely mirrored among Xbox owners, with scores rising from 8 to 11.1, after having peaked at 14.7 on March 10.

Things have gone the other way among PS owners – scores have dipped from 15.4 to 11.4. This may be surprising because Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a PlayStation 5 exclusive and has reviewed well.

This may mean that the narrative around the game is largely positive among gamers looking from the outside in, but it hasn’t had quite the same success among those who might actually play the game. It could also represent a natural tailing off after the initial pre-release hype.

The Final Fantasy VII remakes, the first of which came out in April 2020 titled Final Fantasy VII Remake, were always going to bear the burden or huge expectations given that the original released in 1997 is considered one of the best mainline titles from the franchise. YouGov Ratings data shows that Final Fantasy VII is among the most positively rated titles in the US, with 30% of gamers saying they have a strongly positive opinion about it, and another 23% saying they have a slightly positive opinion.

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