Strongest PR Presence Top 10 Week 40 2019

In week 40 two titles distanced themselves from the rest of the pack. The release of Tom Clancys Ghost Recon Breakpoint and Destiny 2’s Shadowkeep DLC were both talked about enough to get them in to first and second position respectively.

When it came to Destiny 2, guides, how to’s and walkthroughs were the hottest topic making up 10.2% of the weekly PR. Retailers occupied the 8.8% followed by trailers, videos and gameplay for a further 8.3%.

Breakpoint’s PR broke down differently with 18.2% being based around the video content for the game; including a large amount of coverage surrounding the gameplay launch trailer which released as the game came out. Breakpoint’s heavily criticised microtransaction system took up 8.9% of the talk for the week.

Fortnite held position in third, this week with 27% less activity than the previous. Death Stranding follows just behind, up by one position but also down 19% week on week.

A hefty 20.1% of Fortnite’s PR for week 40 came under the topic of in-game features, talk of the new match making system and Playstation’s cross-play feature leaving beta were the two major themes. 7.1% touched on eSports including, but not limited to, the creation of the Fortnite Professional Players Association.

PR for Death Stranding mainly focussed on the topic of trailers, video and gameplay. The new “The Drop” trailer gave players a glimpse at how the story of the game will transpire and accounted for a huge 25.6% of the games PR in week 40. News that Death Stranding’s soundtrack will be available as an album and features new music from CHVRCHES gathered some steam in the press, equating to 5.5% of the overall talk.

Fifa 20 was up next in fifth position. A week after launch the flavour of the weeks PR shifted over to reviews, esports and sales/player number data. Reviews were 9.1% of the conversation; various bits of esports news surrounding the game made up 7.9% and 7.7% of Fifa’s PR came from the game being featured on weekly best selling lists and the like.

The Last of Us: Part 2 took the biggest slip week on week, down from first to sixth due to its 73% drop in press activity. Discussion of animals, multiplayer, blue ray discs and more contributed to the topic of in-game features having an 11.2% stake in week 40s Last of US PR activity. 10.8% is the percentage of press which talked of trailers, video and gameplay, Naughty Dog’s "The Evolution of Ellie" trailer was heavily covered.

Into seventh position in week 40 was Gearbox Studios Borderlands 3. Celebrities, Key Influencers and Streamers were 9% of the Borderlands discussion for the week. Troy Bakers exclusion from the project was highly talked about. Launch details of the anniversary in-game celebration amounted to 7.9% of the Borderlands PR whilst talk of bug issues and patches came to 6.4%.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has made its way in to the top 10 once again, in week 40 Rockstar’s western made it in to eighth. It’s of no surprise that the most talked about topic was launch details with the news that Red Dead Redemption 2 would be making its way to PC, the news made quite a splash and the resulting press made up 39.5% of Red Dead’s PR in week 40. A much smaller 8.1% of press for the week spoke about in-game features, lack of single player DLC and new Frontier Pursuits were common themes.

Also returning to the top ten this week was Apex Legends, sitting in ninth. Season 3 of Apex Legend launched in week 40 which was represented in the weeks PR activity. The Season 3 PR broke down as follows; 16.5% trailer, video and gameplay relating to the seasons launch trailer, 11.1% stage, location and area talking about the new World’s Edge map, another 11.1% on in-game event talking about the season as a whole and 5.4% on characters speaking specifically about new character Crypto.

Wrapping up the top ten was Overwatch. Overwatch had a 97% increase in activity week on week. The games publisher Blizzard released details of their upcoming convention which generated a considerable amount of Overwatch related press. As well as Blizzcon, San Francisco Shock was also covered extensively which contributed to the topic of eSports making up 17.8% of the Overwatch PR in week 40. Characters was the next most talked about topic, Blizzcon skins and possible Smash Bros crossovers were among the article themes, the character topic made up 11.9% of the total Overwatch PR for week 40.