YouTube Video Viewership Numbers and correlation with other stuff *spawn*

[Silent_Buddha]

The number of gamers who follow games day-to-day and watch E3 conferences in full are a tiny, tiny minority. The mass market just don't. They're casual, it'll take days or weeks for them to catch up. That's why I'm interested in the stats in a week.

How do viewer rates for the big conferences for E3 2017 look now? It doesn't help that you can find these on different channels like IGN, Polygon etc. The stats are split across outlets duplicating coverage with their own top-and-tailing (pre and after shows etc).



Thanks, yeesh. I had no idea. Ok, so hope is not lost.

Not to mention a lot of early viewers are also attracted to live streaming platforms. Twitch, Mixer, etc. Sony also hosted their own stream as well as putting it on Twitch and YouTube. For example, the MS conference on Twitch got up to about 2 million viewers towards the end, IIRC. I forgot to check where the Sony conference was at when I was watching it. After going through all the conferences before it, my brain was sort of in cruise mode by then.

I'm also seeing more YouTube content creators slowly abandoning YouTube in favor of live streaming (some will later put edited clips of their Stream on YouTube). Some of them also used to produce heavily watched E3 comment VODs. They make more money on Twitch and they prefer it due to the live interaction with their viewer base. That might also mean less people needing to catch up on E3 on YouTube.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shortbread]

I'm also seeing more YouTube content creators slowly abandoning YouTube in favor of live streaming (some will later put edited clips of their Stream on YouTube). Some of them also used to produce heavily watched E3 comment VODs. They make more money on Twitch and they prefer it due to the live interaction with their viewer base. That might also mean less people needing to catch up on E3 on YouTube.

Regards,
SB

Well Amazon/Twitch have a long way to go...

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Well Amazon/Twitch have a long way to go...

Yes, some things are unsuited to Twitch. VODs are a great example, there's no good way to search for specific VODs on Twitch. And those are important for say instructional videos which get a lot of views on YouTube. It's also unsuited for IRL content which is absolutely HUGE on YouTube. Seeing people go through real life things in real time in one long take isn't as enjoyable as an edited version that only highlights the interesting things that happened. There's a lot of things where live streaming is never going to come close to edited videos.

You're not going to get people streaming their Cat for hours on end or people wanting to watch a Cat on stream for hours on end either. But edited clips of cute Cat antics? Bingo!

The context here is game content creators. That's where you see content creators moving more towards Twitch. Especially when they constantly have to deal with constant content claims on YouTube. Often due to accidentally leaving the in game music on in a VOD. Not a problem for a live stream, although the VOD of the stream might get portions of the audio muted.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shortbread]

Yes, some things are unsuited to Twitch. VODs are a great example, there's no good way to search for specific VODs on Twitch. And those are important for say instructional videos which get a lot of views on YouTube. It's also unsuited for IRL content which is absolutely HUGE on YouTube. Seeing people go through real life things in real time in one long take isn't as enjoyable as an edited version that only highlights the interesting things that happened. There's a lot of things where live streaming is never going to come close to edited videos.

You're not going to get people streaming their Cat for hours on end or people wanting to watch a Cat on stream for hours on end either. But edited clips of cute Cat antics? Bingo!

The context here is game content creators. That's where you see content creators moving more towards Twitch. Especially when they constantly have to deal with constant content claims on YouTube.

Regards,
SB

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't Google/YouTube offer live streaming and game streaming services, including real-time DVR functionality?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't Google/YouTube offer live streaming and game streaming services, including real-time DVR functionality?

Yes, but from what content creators say, their streaming service and tools are not good. And the monetization on Twitch is better.

In terms of service and tools, there's a lot of creators that say Mixer is the best, but no big content creator really wants to risk going to Mixer because you lose the discoverability of Twitch.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

But wouldn't that apply to all?



Well of course. But, the same applies to preorders as well (no guarantees, other than potential sales). And yes, potential sales can be extrapolated from analytical data, of all manners, including video platforms which can provide feedback, trending patterns, likes/dislikes, repeated visits, unique visits and so-on. I'm pretty sure Disney/Marvel, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and other Film and Production companies do gauge consumer interest and potential sales from trailers released on social media video platforms, such as YouTube.

Its a bit different since MS owns mixer and a lot f their fans are on it and watch streams on it. I don't think the other companies have them and so I don't think Disney cares about mixer, pretty sure they only put their trailers on youtube and so for them it would make sense

 

[Rangers]

It's a possibility. But looking how Halo Infinite falls in at #6 and Gears 5 at #39, doesn't seem XBOX 2018 E3 was lacking userbase viewership, more like certain games just didn't standout that much.

Seems about right. So Halo infinite beat all PS exclusive except TLOU2, and ww PS4 has sold 2X as much...It would make sense the most popular exclusive on PS4 would beat the most popular on Xbox.

Also TLOU2 was very fleshed out gameplay and doesn't that game have a real release date? Infinite was some non specific thing and no date.

Most interesting to me was Cyberpunk being in the lead. CDPR has become a megacorp in terms of hype and production values from tiny beginnings. In interviews they've mentioned Rockstar and they seem to possibly be on a similar track (making spare no expense mega hits, only releasing them when they feel like it/it's ready).

 

[djskribbles]

Seems about right. So Halo infinite beat all PS exclusive except TLOU2, and ww PS4 has sold 2X as much...It would make sense the most popular exclusive on PS4 would beat the most popular on Xbox.

Also TLOU2 was very fleshed out gameplay and doesn't that game have a real release date? Infinite was some non specific thing and no date.

Most interesting to me was Cyberpunk being in the lead. CDPR has become a megacorp in terms of hype and production values from tiny beginnings. In interviews they've mentioned Rockstar and they seem to possibly be on a similar track (making spare no expense mega hits, only releasing them when they feel like it/it's ready).

I don't think this is a fair comparison. Reveals of high profile games tend to get the biggest hits. This is TLoU2's like 4th video.

And I'd argue that TLoU2 isn't even Sony's biggest exclusive... Spider-Man and God of War probably take that crown, at least this gen. I'd say even Uncharted edges out TLoU. Mind you their reveals are obviously much older, but Spider-Man and GoW's reveals are at 16M and 19M respectively on the main Playstation youtube channel alone. TLoU2's reveal is at 8M and Uncharted 4 is at 10M.

FWIW, TLoU2 doesn't have a release date either, but it is likely a ~Q4 2019 title. It is definitely further along in development than Halo.

 

[Recop]

Seems about right. So Halo infinite beat all PS exclusive except TLOU2, and ww PS4 has sold 2X as much...It would make sense the most popular exclusive on PS4 would beat the most popular on Xbox.

Tsushima is a new IP, same for Death Stranding. How should they be more popular than Gears of War, Crackdown and Foza Horizon ?

Also, you should check again the data, because Halo is currently below all of these games... :

http://vizioneck.com/forum/index.php?topic=6396.0

This confirms what i was saying : Sony games attract far more interest and this can't be explained by the larger player base alone. Also, MS = Xbox players + PC players.

Youtube is a neutral metric. Based on view count, Sony won this E3 again vs MS.

And I'd argue that TLoU2 isn't even Sony's biggest exclusive... Spider-Man and God of War probably take that crown, at least this gen. I'd say even Uncharted edges out TLoU. Mind you their reveals are obviously much older, but Spider-Man and GoW's reveals are at 16M and 19M respectively on the main Playstation youtube channel alone. TLoU2's reveal is at 8M and Uncharted 4 is at 10M.

10M for Uncharted 4 is a huge number, especially about 4 years ago because the number of PS4 sold was much lower.

There's an indisputable correlation anyway. Games that have plenty views on Youtube tend to sale better.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Tsushima is a new IP, same for Death Stranding. How should they be more popular than Gears of War, Crackdown and Foza Horizon ?

That argument can go either way. 1) They're new IP so fewer fans so less people watching. 2) They're new so more curiosity and people watching to learn about them where they wouldn't watch an IP they already know and will buy.

 

[eastmen]

Sony may have more youtube views but the content was lacking in a large way from their press conference which is most likely why the 4 games they showed had so many views. While MS showed off more games spread across exclusive and third party. Look at how many views the cyberpunk trailer got and that was at MS's e3 event not sonys.

Also as of my posting the last of us isn't even at 2 times what halo is at in terms of views even with Sony's install base being at least twice that of MS's. You can't even say its because of xbox + pc gamers since only Halo 1 like 15 years ago was released on the pc. So its not associated with pc gamers at all

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Then again, perhaps due to its story nature a higher proportion of TloU fans are avoiding spoilers and choosing not to watch the video?

There's no real data to be gotten from these numbers. Too many unknown variables at play.

 

[djskribbles]

Sony may have more youtube views but the content was lacking in a large way from their press conference which is most likely why the 4 games they showed had so many views. While MS showed off more games spread across exclusive and third party. Look at how many views the cyberpunk trailer got and that was at MS's e3 event not sonys.

But TLoU2, Spider-Man, God of War and even Days Gone have all had lots of views in previous E3s and other events when Sony showed tons of other games. Why do you keep trying to downplay the popularity of Sony's games?

Cyberpunk is a huge MP game and it's a reveal trailer (which again tends to get the most hits). I would be surprised if there wasn't more interest in it compared to an exclusive. It would've gotten just as many views if it was at Sony's conference.

Also as of my posting the last of us isn't even at 2 times what halo is at in terms of views even with Sony's install base being at least twice that of MS's. You can't even say its because of xbox + pc gamers since only Halo 1 like 15 years ago was
released on the pc. So its not associated with pc gamers at all

Like I said in the other thread, install base =/= software sales. Nintendo has the smallest install base of the big 3 and yet their exclusives generally sell the most. The larger your install base gets, the more diversified it gets.

A lot of console gamers have switched to PC. I'm sure that is especially true for Xbox since they release their exclusives on PC as well.

 

[Rangers]

Here;'s some different like, data points I guess

https://twitter.com/x/status/1007347476980854784

Doesn't surprise me, I know Skyrim was the most traffic on IGN for ages and ages, people searching for guides and tricks. Fallout 76 immediately struck me as potentially huge. It sort of seems like a marketing mishmash of the most popular brands today.

12 year old boys love that stuff...

 

[Rangers]

Tsushima is a new IP, same for Death Stranding. How should they be more popular than Gears of War, Crackdown and Foza Horizon ?

Also, you should check again the data, because Halo is currently below all of these games... :

http://vizioneck.com/forum/index.php?topic=6396.0

This confirms what i was saying : Sony games attract far more interest and this can't be explained by the larger player base alone. Also, MS = Xbox players + PC players.

Youtube is a neutral metric. Based on view count, Sony won this E3 again vs MS.

10M for Uncharted 4 is a huge number, especially about 4 years ago because the number of PS4 sold was much lower.

There's an indisputable correlation anyway. Games that have plenty views on Youtube tend to sale better.

Tsushima is a new IP, same for Death Stranding. How should they be more popular than Gears of War, Crackdown and Foza Horizon ?

Well Tsushima/Stranding are MUCH more hyped on forums than Gears/Crackdown/Forza, and have been for months/years. Check reset era thread sizes about those games. Stranding has the Kojima culty factor, so it's not exactly fair to cast it as a new, unknown IP.

Also, you should check again the data, because Halo is currently below all of these games... :

http://vizioneck.com/forum/index.php?topic=6396.0

I should caveat I dont know the methodology the poster you keep quoting is using. And I dont feel like doing my own count, or if I did I would do something simple like look at the top trailer for each game, since I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. It's quite possible his methodology is designed to make the Sony exclusives look good, as in my recollection these YT view threads (on any forum) are usually designed with the goal of "look, Sony is doing better" in mind by the OP.

There's an indisputable correlation anyway. Games that have plenty views on Youtube tend to sale better

I would say the most hyped game MAYBE EVER was The Last Guardian. I'm assuming it had HUGE YT views. It was what, ten years of million upon millions of comments about hat one. It didn't sell well. So, it depends. Lets not forget Journey, Resistance, Killzone, Infamous (?), Little Big Planet, No Mans Sky, all of which probably had at one time tons of YT views, but didn't sell enough to stay viable as franchises.

So I would say in the end, "it depends". My guess would be the Tsushima game for example is at risk of not actually doing that great at the box office. Just by feel.

There's an indisputable correlation anyway. Games that have plenty views on Youtube tend to sale better.

Where's your proof of that? I suppose to an extent it's a truism, but only weakly. I dont expect Tsushima to sell nearly as well as a lot of those other games, for example. Are you willing to bet Ghosts or even stranding will sell lifetime more than Infinite even on a 2X install base? I bet it wont (ignoring the difficulty of getting numbers anyway).

And again, there are 2X (some people claim more) PS4's install base ~80 million vs ~40 million Xbox's worldwide.. Shouldn't that be factored in? Wont PS4 owners be more interested in the gamers they can play? Do we half all Sony YT numbers vs MS to make it fair? How's it look then?

Here is the top ten YT views out of E3 going by that post you linked right now

1. 13,030,143 views 308,854 likes 62.69 L/D Cyberpunk 2077 - official E3 2018 trailer
2. 9,590,938 views 127,128 likes 14.27 L/D Fallout 76 Trailer - E3 2018
3. 8,811,000 views 356,524 likes 13.67 L/D The Last of Us Part II - E3 2018 Gameplay Reveal Trailer | PS4
4. 6,729,595 views 194,769 likes 61.69 L/D The Elder Scrolls VI - Official E3 Announcement Teaser
5. 6,237,045 views 146,269 likes 20.44 L/D Devil May Cry 5 - Announcement Trailer
6. 5,897,722 views 130,593 likes 46.57 L/D Ghost of Tsushima - E3 2018 Gameplay Debut | PS4
7. 5,826,060 views 148,987 likes 26.77 L/D Death Stranding - E3 2018 4K Trailer | PS4
8. 5,758,684 views 146,331 likes 26.07 L/D Halo Infinite - E3 2018 - Announcement Trailer
9. 5,539,073 views 192,391 likes 21.88 L/D FIFA 19 | Official Reveal Trailer with UEFA Champions League
10. 5,502,927 views 66,034 likes 128.22 L/D DOOM Eternal - Official E3 Teaser

I dont really see too many issues here with there eventual sales It looks fairly right. Here's the 2017 NPD ten best selling

1. Call of Duty: WWII
2. NBA 2K18
3. Destiny 2^
4. Madden NFL 18
5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Ghost Recon: Wildlands
8. Star Wars: Battlefront II^
9. Super Mario Odyssey*
10. Mario Kart 8*

So you're dominated by multiplats either way. Last of Us 2 will be huge. I think Halo will get more views when it comes closer to existing next E3, but it's a somewhat flagging franchise on a much smaller install base. The ones I'd have an issue with are Stranding and Tsushima, I'd guess they will not sell as well as their YT rank, especially the latter. It's kinda hard for me to judge Stranding sales potential actually, kinda have no clue on that one, could flop due to weirdness or be big IMO. Need to see more. Weird games dont "necessarily" sell, Detroit is a cautionary tale IMO. That was weird and artsy and didn't seem to do that great. Stranding will in no way be in Detroit's sales category but yeah.

Youtube is a neutral metric. Based on view count, Sony won this E3 again vs MS.

Exclusives wise, probably . It's just IMO exclusives matter a lot less than people think. Maybe 1 or 2 non Nintendo exclusives will make the ten bestsellers annually. Bigger than all this IMO would be if MS had dropped the X to 399 (which they didn't). Or many other things.

Some people cast Sony's success with PS4 down to exclusives, I'm sure it was down to having a lot more power and the same or lesser price for the formative 1-3 years of the generation (plus of course Sony having a natural Europe advantage and being the favorites in general, they have to screw it up royally ala PS3 to end up tied). Hell PS4 did not have great exclusives for years 1-3 that I recall. That's where they won the gen. We wont change each other's minds. I do think there's been a (somewhat) change in focus to exclusives though lately, because the Xbox X took the power crown. You could say something like, the side with more power emphasizes that, the other side talks about software/exclusives/whatever else. I also think, Sony's exclusive advantage tends to be overrated. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But those are my positions here.

 

[Rangers]

Another way to look at it if you look at trailers shown at conferences the bigger multiplats were at Xbox conference

Xbox Conference

1. 13,030,143 views 308,854 likes 62.69 L/D Cyberpunk 2077 - official E3 2018 trailer
2. 9,590,938 views 127,128 likes 14.27 L/D Fallout 76 Trailer - E3 2018
3. 6,237,045 views 146,269 likes 20.44 L/D Devil May Cry 5 - Announcement Trailer
4. 5,758,684 views 146,331 likes 26.07 L/D Halo Infinite - E3 2018 - Announcement Trailer
5. 3,918,852 views 78,709 likes 37.77 L/D KINGDOM HEARTS III - E3 2018 Frozen Trailer
6. 2,446,155 views 52,194 likes 57.86 L/D SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE 2018 E3
7. 2,343,978 views 47,631 likes 49.67 L/D Jump Force Announcement Trailer
8. 1,847,454 views 61,423 likes 54.65 L/D Forza Horizon 4 - E3 2018 - Announcement Trailer
9. 1,831,667 views 81,742 likes 90.93 L/D Cuphead DLC Announcement Trailer - Xbox One | Windows 10
10. 1,807,286 views 31,646 likes 6.85 L/D Tom Clancy's The Division 2: E3 2018 World Premiere Gameplay Walkthrough Trailer | Ubisoft [NA

Sony conference


PlayStation:
1. 8,811,000 views 356,524 likes 13.67 L/D The Last of Us Part II - E3 2018 Gameplay Reveal Trailer | PS4
2. 5,897,722 views 130,593 likes 46.57 L/D Ghost of Tsushima - E3 2018 Gameplay Debut | PS4
3. 5,826,060 views 148,987 likes 26.77 L/D Death Stranding - E3 2018 4K Trailer | PS4
4. 4,600,719 views 134,477 likes 76.89 L/D Marvel's Spider-Man - E3 2018 Showcase Demo Video | PS4 | PS4
5. 3,281,960 views 58,543 likes 9.73 L/D E3 2018 PlayStation Showcase
6. 2,851,520 views 62,419 likes 65.64 L/D Kingdom Hearts III - E3 2018 Pirates of the Caribbean Trailer | PS4
7. 2,809,877 views 72,387 likes 56.95 L/D Resident Evil 2 | E3 2018 PlayStation Showcase Trailer | PS4
8. 2,409,623 views 60,590 likes 51.39 L/D Resident Evil 2 - E3 2018 Announcement Trailer | PS4
9. 1,737,204 views 28,022 likes 42.33 L/D Spider-Man Live Gameplay Walkthrough - E3 2018
10. 779,838 views 16,221 likes 37.20 L/D Control | E3 2018 Announce Trailer | PS4

One through ten Xbox conference seems stronger on trailer views. However, does being shown at your conference mean you have the co-marketing deal with that game, or are they not associated? Genuinely not sure. Otherwise it's not too meaningful.

 

[Recop]

That argument can go either way. 1) They're new IP so fewer fans so less people watching. 2) They're new so more curiosity and people watching to learn about them where they wouldn't watch an IP they already know and will buy.

Sure, but this isn't supported by current evidence. The most watched exclusive titles are from known IP from both constructors : Spiderman, Halo, Uncharted, God of War, etc.

Feel free to find a new exclusive IP (respectively to each company) that can compete with these titles in terms of views on Youtube...

Well Tsushima/Stranding are MUCH more hyped on forums than Gears/Crackdown/Forza, and have been for months/years. Check reset era thread sizes about those games. Stranding has the Kojima culty factor, so it's not exactly fair to cast it as a new, unknown IP.

If they are more hyped, it's because they have a greater attractive power... nobody hyped Knack...

I would say the most hyped game MAYBE EVER was The Last Guardian. I'm assuming it had HUGE YT views. It was what, ten years of million upon millions of comments about hat one. It didn't sell well. So, it depends. Lets not forget Journey, Resistance, Killzone, Infamous (?), Little Big Planet, No Mans Sky, all of which probably had at one time tons of YT views, but didn't sell enough to stay viable as franchises.

It's not a perfect correlation but this correlation does exist... see Uncharted or God of War. Also, do you know games that sold well with no views on Youtube ?

One through ten Xbox conference seems stronger on trailer views. However, does being shown at your conference mean you have the co-marketing deal with that game, or are they not associated? Genuinely not sure. Otherwise it's not too meaningful.

But those views aren't related to MS :

You don't see any Xbox logo in this trailer and it's a different channel.

Edit : actually it's not true for all games. It's a good win for MS with Fallout :

 

[eastmen]

Then again, perhaps due to its story nature a higher proportion of TloU fans are avoiding spoilers and choosing not to watch the video?

There's no real data to be gotten from these numbers. Too many unknown variables at play.

and that is why youtube views are a stupid thing to look at. Which is what I've been saying this whole time.

 

[Recop]

and that is why youtube views are a stupid thing to look at. Which is what I've been saying this whole time.

It's like saying sponsoring or advertising are stupid... anything that allows your brand to be more visible to the general population is positive.

E3 is like a giant advertising for your brand and you judge a good advertising on how many people saw it.

 

[djskribbles]

Another way to look at it if you look at trailers shown at conferences the bigger multiplats were at Xbox conference

Xbox Conference

1. 13,030,143 views 308,854 likes 62.69 L/D Cyberpunk 2077 - official E3 2018 trailer
2. 9,590,938 views 127,128 likes 14.27 L/D Fallout 76 Trailer - E3 2018
3. 6,237,045 views 146,269 likes 20.44 L/D Devil May Cry 5 - Announcement Trailer
4. 5,758,684 views 146,331 likes 26.07 L/D Halo Infinite - E3 2018 - Announcement Trailer
5. 3,918,852 views 78,709 likes 37.77 L/D KINGDOM HEARTS III - E3 2018 Frozen Trailer
6. 2,446,155 views 52,194 likes 57.86 L/D SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE 2018 E3
7. 2,343,978 views 47,631 likes 49.67 L/D Jump Force Announcement Trailer
8. 1,847,454 views 61,423 likes 54.65 L/D Forza Horizon 4 - E3 2018 - Announcement Trailer
9. 1,831,667 views 81,742 likes 90.93 L/D Cuphead DLC Announcement Trailer - Xbox One | Windows 10
10. 1,807,286 views 31,646 likes 6.85 L/D Tom Clancy's The Division 2: E3 2018 World Premiere Gameplay Walkthrough Trailer | Ubisoft [NA

Sony conference


PlayStation:
1. 8,811,000 views 356,524 likes 13.67 L/D The Last of Us Part II - E3 2018 Gameplay Reveal Trailer | PS4
2. 5,897,722 views 130,593 likes 46.57 L/D Ghost of Tsushima - E3 2018 Gameplay Debut | PS4
3. 5,826,060 views 148,987 likes 26.77 L/D Death Stranding - E3 2018 4K Trailer | PS4
4. 4,600,719 views 134,477 likes 76.89 L/D Marvel's Spider-Man - E3 2018 Showcase Demo Video | PS4 | PS4
5. 3,281,960 views 58,543 likes 9.73 L/D E3 2018 PlayStation Showcase
6. 2,851,520 views 62,419 likes 65.64 L/D Kingdom Hearts III - E3 2018 Pirates of the Caribbean Trailer | PS4
7. 2,809,877 views 72,387 likes 56.95 L/D Resident Evil 2 | E3 2018 PlayStation Showcase Trailer | PS4
8. 2,409,623 views 60,590 likes 51.39 L/D Resident Evil 2 - E3 2018 Announcement Trailer | PS4
9. 1,737,204 views 28,022 likes 42.33 L/D Spider-Man Live Gameplay Walkthrough - E3 2018
10. 779,838 views 16,221 likes 37.20 L/D Control | E3 2018 Announce Trailer | PS4

One through ten Xbox conference seems stronger on trailer views. However, does being shown at your conference mean you have the co-marketing deal with that game, or are they not associated? Genuinely not sure. Otherwise it's not too meaningful.

Views on MP games don't mean anything regardless. They draw interest from all the platforms they're available on. The majority of the views are from the game's main youtube channels, not specifically from MS' channel. It's actually surprising that some exclusives are even competing with the likes of Fallout and Cyberpunk etc.

I should caveat I dont know the methodology the poster you keep quoting is using. And I dont feel like doing my own count, or if I did I would do something simple like look at the top trailer for each game, since I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. It's quite possible his methodology is designed to make the Sony exclusives look good, as in my recollection these YT view threads (on any forum) are usually designed with the goal of "look, Sony is doing better" in mind by the OP.

So another conspiracy theory that everyone wants to make Sony look good.
I dunno what methods they use either, but you can look at the main YT channels and see the views yourself. Clearly Sony's exclusives are dominating MS'.

I would say the most hyped game MAYBE EVER was The Last Guardian. I'm assuming it had HUGE YT views. It was what, ten years of million upon millions of comments about hat one. It didn't sell well. So, it depends. Lets not forget Journey, Resistance, Killzone, Infamous (?), Little Big Planet, No Mans Sky, all of which probably had at one time tons of YT views, but didn't sell enough to stay viable as franchises.

I'm not sure if TLG had insanely high YT views. But forum hype =/= sales. I would say YT views is a better indicator, but it's by no means the tell all either.

And again, there are 2X (some people claim more) PS4's install base ~80 million vs ~40 million Xbox's worldwide.. Shouldn't that be factored in? Wont PS4 owners be more interested in the gamers they can play? Do we half all Sony YT numbers vs MS to make it fair? How's it look then?

Install base matters a bit, but not by much. As I've said several times, install base gets diversified as it grows, especially when they sell well internationally.

I dont really see too many issues here with there eventual sales It looks fairly right. Here's the 2017 NPD ten best selling

1. Call of Duty: WWII
2. NBA 2K18
3. Destiny 2^
4. Madden NFL 18
5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. Ghost Recon: Wildlands
8. Star Wars: Battlefront II^
9. Super Mario Odyssey*
10. Mario Kart 8*

So you're dominated by multiplats either way. Last of Us 2 will be huge. I think Halo will get more views when it comes closer to existing next E3, but it's a somewhat flagging franchise on a much smaller install base. The ones I'd have an issue with are Stranding and Tsushima, I'd guess they will not sell as well as their YT rank, especially the latter. It's kinda hard for me to judge Stranding sales potential actually, kinda have no clue on that one, could flop due to weirdness or be big IMO. Need to see more. Weird games dont "necessarily" sell, Detroit is a cautionary tale IMO. That was weird and artsy and didn't seem to do that great. Stranding will in no way be in Detroit's sales category but yeah



Exclusives wise, probably . It's just IMO exclusives matter a lot less than people think. Maybe 1 or 2 non Nintendo exclusives will make the ten bestsellers annually. Bigger than all this IMO would be if MS had dropped the X to 399 (which they didn't). Or many other things.

No I think exclusives matter more than you think. You keep bringing up the top 10 yearly software sales in one region to prove your point, but ignore the success of each individual exclusive, or the sales in other regions.

Some people cast Sony's success with PS4 down to exclusives, I'm sure it was down to having a lot more power and the same or lesser price for the formative 1-3 years of the generation (plus of course Sony having a natural Europe advantage and being the favorites in general, they have to screw it up royally ala PS3 to end up tied). Hell PS4 did not have great exclusives for years 1-3 that I recall. That's where they won the gen. We wont change each other's minds. I do think there's been a (somewhat) change in focus to exclusives though lately, because the Xbox X took the power crown. You could say something like, the side with more power emphasizes that, the other side talks about software/exclusives/whatever else. I also think, Sony's exclusive advantage tends to be overrated. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But those are my positions here.

I don't think anyone claimed that exclusives are the sole reason for Sony's success, just that it is a big reason.