Gamers are different in every country. And some new research by YouTube shows that some games are uniquely popular in just one country, and some games are popular across lots of countries.
YouTube sifted through its data to understand the distinct geographic quirks to gaming on YouTube. The division of Google selected the 25 countries with the highest gaming viewership based on time watched in 2016 on YouTube.
We made an analysis to understand the distinct geographic quirks of gaming on YouTube.
Only two games appear on the most-popular lists of all 25 countries: Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V.
Of the two, Minecraft is the more popular, at No. 1 everywhere apart from Vietnam and Thailand. Even there, it only slips so far as No. 2. Two other games are popular in nearly every country’s top 25: Pokémon Go, which makes the most-watched list everywhere apart from Russia, and Five Nights at Freddy’s, which is popular in every country YouTube looked at apart from Taiwan and Japan.
Gaming, often touted as being larger than Hollywood, is an international phenomenon, with a sprawling YouTube community. Since football is so popular in North America, Madden NFL 16 takes the No. 1 spot in the U.S. In France, Dofus is uniquely popular, while Puzzles & Dragons is strong in Japan, and Tanki Online is popular in Ukraine. Check out the maps for more data.
The 25 countries included: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain, Indonesia, India, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Ukraine, United States, and Vietnam.
