h2>Dating : 2020 was the year of the casual gamer
The biggest titles this year weren’t just ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Cyberpunk.’
Unlike most other forms of entertainment, video games weren’t hit as hard this year. Sure, the big live events like E3 and EVO were cancelled, but gaming is an activity enjoyed by most at home. That means the majority of big releases — like Doom Eternal, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Final Fantasy VII Remake — were able to go on as scheduled. But unlike previous years, them and their ilk didn’t drive the conversation in 2020. With live sports and movie theaters shut down, lots of people who normally wouldn’t consider themselves “gamers” turned to the for entertainment and solace. And the games they played weren’t always the big action-packed AAA titles.
One of the biggest selling titles of the year was Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which came out in March. It’s sold 26 million copies, making it the second-best selling Switch game of all time, outdoing franchise stalwarts like Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It’s even up there among the best selling titles on any system, period, sitting in the top 30 only 9 months after its release.
The timing was certainly ideal for the cute island-building game, as it came out just as many areas of the US were going into lockdown. People needed some way to pass the time, and the Animal Crossing series has always offered plenty to do in its candy-colored, slowly-paced world. Critics praised the new installment for being a comforting blanket during these troubled times.
However, to just say it came out during the perfect window is to ignore the changes Nintendo made in the series that helped build its fame: the presence of the share button on the Switch made it easy for players to take screenshots and spread them on social media, and a more streamlined friend code system made it easy to visit both friends and strangers alike.
New Horizons would have still sold well even without a pandemic, but these new features gave it more visibility and made it easier for the Animal Crossing faithful to spread the word. And they did, with the game ubiquitous on social media for its first month or so, inspiring countless parodies, brand advertising and eventually, a talk show with celebrity guests like Sting, Elijah Wood and T-Pain.
Another title that got celebrity attention this year was Innersloth’s 2018 title, Among Us. The two-year-game exploded over the summer for a number of reasons — not the least of which was its superficial resemblance to another popular title, Fall Guys. But it was also cheap to play, at $5 (or less) for the PC version and free on mobile, and it was super easy to set up games with friends or complete strangers.
The relatively simple game play made it a favorite of casual players, since it’s mostly just point and click, with the hardest part being the mind games you play on your fellow crew members. I’ve met a few people who don’t even bother with the larger goal of trying to suss out the imposter; they just enjoy being in space, doing their tasks and seeing how the whole drama plays out. It’s a fun game to watch — as evidenced by the 430,000 people who watched representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar face off against several prominent streamers on Twitch back in October.
