Hype builds as Death Stranding moves ever closer to its release date, in week 44 the games review embargo was lifted which helped it on its way to number one. Paris Games Week hosted the first showing of the Death Stranding launch trailer which led to 33.4% of PR being based around trailers, videos & gameplay. 18.4% of press was review-centric with the embargo being lifted as mentioned previously. Launch details was the next most popular topic accounting for 16.3% of the games PR.

Blizzcon was unsurprisingly a prominent topic in the video game press in week 44. Overwatch and Overwatch 2 came in second and third respectively with similar break downs of PR topics. The original games PR saw 24.6% for events & conferences, 11.5% for trailers, videos & gameplay and 9.9% on eSports. Overwatch 2s most covered PR topics were again events & conferences and trailers, videos & gameplay which accounted for 27.7% and 13.2%. Next for Overwatch 2 was the topic of leaks, rumours & speculation at 8.9% made up from articles which released prior to Blizzcon.

Things got spooky in Fortnite as Fortnitemares launched, although it wasn’t enough to keep the third position, Epic’s pride and joy slipped in to fourth in the previous week. In-game features was 11.1% of the online conversation, storyline accounted for a further 10.3% and guides, how to’s & walkthroughs were 9.3% of the PR with the King of the Storm, weapons and challenges all being discussed in great length.

One of the other major pieces of news from Blizzcon was the announcement of Diablo 4. In fifth place in week 44 it’s no surprise to see the breakdown of PR favouring the topics of trailers, videos & gameplay, event & conference and leak, rumour & speculation. These topics accounted for 26.5%, 26.5% and 8.3% respectively. Will the millions of Diablo fans be dedicating hundreds and thousands of hours to the latest in the series? Only time will tell.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare drops down once again this week in to sixth. Russian players showed their distaste for the way their country is depicted in the game by way of “review bombing” this fed in to a 20.4% chunk of PR based on the topic. Also discussed were a variety of in-game features which made up 13.6% of the games PR. 9.3% spoke about bug issues & patches whilst 7.2% touched on maps as a subject.

In seventh was Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order which saw an 89% increase in PR week on week. Retailers were the most talked about topic at 35.1%, mainly as news dropped that EA would be returning to Steam with the release of Star Wars. Trailers, videos & gameplay was next at 34.9% primarily talking about the newly release launch trailer. Details of the games upcoming launch made up 13.5% of the games PR in week 44.

The Outer Worlds came in at eighth after a week of positive press. Obsidians new space adventure saw a 45% decrease in PR for the week with focus shifting to guides, how to’s & walkthroughs at 17.2%, the games launch trailer saw some late coverage which led to trailers, videos & gameplay forming a 11.2% piece of the pie. Talk of in-game features and reviews also featured in weeks PR for 10.1% and 9.4%.

Returning to the top ten in week 44 was Red Dead Redemption 2. A launch trailer showing off the games new PC visuals dropped which led to trailers, videos & gameplay being the largest chunk of PR for the game at 26.4%, in-game features was the next most talked about at 11.5% mostly discussing the games Halloween event. 10.3% of the PR was based on play mode with content talking specifically about the Fear of the Dark game mode itself.

Finally in tenth place was Apex Legends which much like Star Wars benefited from the news of EA returning to Steam, the news meant that the topic of retailer accounted for 31.6% of Apex’s PR. 15.9% of coverage talked about in-game features talking about the duos mode coming to the game, sales & player numbers then followed with 10.4% as Apex celebrated a 70 million player milestone.