The gaming world was in for a treat in week 18 with the announcement of the latest title in the hugely successful Assassin’s Creed series, Valhalla.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla claimed the number one spot in the PR top ten as it amassed over 2800 pieces of coverage. The announcement topic made up 19.3% of this coverage which was then followed by trailer for 19% and then launch details at 7.8%.

Next up, with a still impressive 1750 activities, was The Last of Us: Part 2. Naughty Dog’s highly anticipated sequel grabbed the second spot after news of spoiler heavy, leaked content emerged for all to see. The leak/spoiler/rumour/speculation topic naturally dominated the share of the press at 39.1%. Further news revealing the games scheduled launch date meant that the launch details subject was 18.4% of the total press. The announcement topic made up 5.6% of the titles activity which again covered the launch date.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons dropped from first in the previous week down to third, still a strong press week despite the 45% drop in activity week on week. As is common with a game of Animals Crossing’s ilk, the most covered topic was guide/walkthrough which made up 29.5% of the press for Nintendo’s slice of life sim. Sales/player numbers was the second most talked about topic with articles speaking about the games continued domination of sales charts, the topic accounted for 12.8% of coverage. Activity coming under the in game elements umbrella made up 10.7% with articles covering what seasonal content was and is now available to the player.

Also dropping places week on week was Fortnite which went from second in week 17 down to fourth in week 18. The Fortnite coverage broke down in a fairly predictable manner which looked as follows: 17.6% eSports, 12% DLC/content update, 7.4% stages/locations/map/areas and then guide/walkthroughs with 7.2%. As is often the case, a new content season is on its way to Fortnite which contributed significantly to the topics listed.

Top ten mainstay Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reached fifth in week 18, just one spot down week on week. Modern Warfare had a major update which led the bug/issues/patches/updates topic to 17.1% and then the DLC/content update topic to 12.8%. Up next was launch details with 9% as the Modern Warfare 2 Remastered Campaign Mode was made available to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare players on the PC and Xbox One.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is a couple months past its launch and as such has seen a gradual decline in activity, that didn’t stop the latest series outing from grabbing the sixth place in the weekly PR Presence Top Ten. As news starts to shift towards what’s next for the series the development topic became the most prominent at 9.9%, sales/player numbers was 8.9% of the coverage as the title continues to sell well and 7.8% of the press came under the review topic as outlets continue to form pieces on their experience with the remake.

The 28<sup>th</sup> of April marked the release day of Gears Tactics, the surrounding press coverage pushed the turn-based Gears spinoff in to the seventh position. The usual release week topics took centre stage with the reviews topic making up 36.7% of the games PR, guide/walkthrough 14.7% and launch details 11.4%. As you would expect retailer was also a commonly featured topic as different stores tried to push their product, the topic was 7.9% of the overall coverage.

Ghosts of Tsushima received its release date at the same time The Last of Us: Part 2 did and as a result picked up enough coverage for it to make it to eighth. The launch details subject made up a hefty 37.4% of the games press activity. A further 13.7% came under the launch delay subject and then another 10% belonged to the announcement topic.

Another title which had its launch in week 18 was Streets of Rage 4, the release of sequel 26 years after the Streets of Rage 3 caused enough of a stir to make it in to ninth in the PR Presence Top Ten.

Much like Gears Tactics the Streets of Rage 4 coverage broke down over the usual release week topics. The breakdown was as follows: Reviews 22.9%, launch details 14.1%, trailer 12.5% and then a variety of smaller chunks on a range of topics. Rather surprisingly, given its recent placings, Call of Duty: Warzone only managed tenth in the previous week.

The coverage for Warzone was mostly shared with Modern Warfare and therefore had the same prominent topics. Bug/issues/patches/updates was 19.9% of the coverage, again speaking about the patch that came to both Modern Warfare and Warzone. DLC/content updates made up 14.9% of the press and then launch details at 10.3%. There was also some content about how to unlock certain weapons within game, these articles fell under the guide/walkthrough topic which made up 6% of the PR.