Is there such a thing as ‘mainstream gamers’?

Spending a lot of time hanging around on Discord or Twitch, I find myself frequently chatting with people about video games and video game industry. I often hear ‘people buy this’ ‘people like that’, ‘people are interseted in this type of game’, etc. But who are them ‘people’? Not me, not you, not anyone you chat with, ironically. They’re always this vague concept that seems to imply that 'people' know nothing about video games, 'people' are a little daft, and 'people' only play best-selling games to entertain themselves once in a while.

Credits: Iron Pineapple & GoogleyGareth

As a disclaimer, I’m not a journalist, sociologist or well-versed in any kind of scientific research field. I’m just a video game translator and a gamer.

But, as I grew a little tired of speaking about something I don’t really know about, I got out of my way to research the best-selling games in 2024, sorted by countries. And this inquiry raised a few interesting questions.

Best-selling video games in 2024

All the screenshots come from Statista’s website.

USA best-selling games in 2024

UK best-selling games in 2024

Germany best-selling games in 2024

Japan console best-selling games in 2024

First things first, yes, EA Sports FC has a huge success worldwide, as well as Call of Duty. But a closer look reveals interesting facts.

USA best-selling games are sports games for the most part. A lot of japanese best-selling games aren't even included in the other countries lists. Germany is the only country to have a simulation game in its top ten. Hogwart's Legacy was best sold in the UK. 

These numbers reflect something that isn't quite taken into account when discussing the video game industry: it's deeply rooted in each country's own culture. Based on this fact, one can see it may not be relevant to compare the success of different games, knowing their conditions of reception can vary depending on the country you're living in. Furthermore, the reasons why a game has a commercial success can be intricate. For example, marketing must play a role, but I think the popularity of a franchise, the cultural pertinence of a particular title, the conformity to public expectations – or the other way around – can also explain this success. 

Numbers please!

Researching this topic, I found that industry numbers are hard to come by. Publishers choose to share them or not. As a result, a veil of secrecy wraps finances and budgets alike. Recently, I listened to a conversation on Twitch about AAA games. As a matter of fact, there is no specific definition of this expression.

Let's see what Wikipedia has to say about it: "In the video game industry, AAA (Triple-A) is a buzzword used to classify video games produced or distributed by a mid-sized or major publisher, which typically have higher development and marketing budgets than other tiers of games."

There is no budget range associated with the term, and it seems that the size of the developers teams and the financial significance of the publisher are the best criterias to qualify a game of AAA.

I also noticed people tend to associate AAA to what they deem poor quality games, and that we are only sure a game is an AAA when it is obviously a huge game in terms of sales and budget. Conversly, an indie game is viewed as the product of a very little team with a very limited budget, and often considered as more interesting and more deserving by passionate gamers. Nothing more concrete, noting in-between. Quite the flou artistique!

Without a budget breakdown, if you're not an insider, it's really difficult to have a good idea of what budget is necessary to make each part of a video game. Without precise and reliable numbers, we gamers are left to our own devices and we create an image of the industry and the audience for ourselves. This image depends a lot on our own preferences and wishes. It doesn't have to mean there is nothing relevant to say about the industry. My point is that speaking about "the industry" is generally misleading, because this industry is made of a patchwork of actors and markets that are likely not even to cross paths.

'People' are individuals with very various profiles

For a publisher, aiming at "the general public" is quite the ambition.There is not a market, but markets, plural.  Would a German simulation games player be interested in playing EA FC Sports? Would a player on mobile phone be willing to buy a console? Would an American sports games player find Hogwart's Legacy appealling? In other words, why a best-selling game in a specific market (even if this one is very big) would set any kind of reference for the whole industry to follow? It doesn't make any sense to me. 

You could be a EA Sports FC gamer AND someone who enjoys playing Zelda. Maybe you're German and you are quite disappointed that your compatriots like simulation games that much. Who knows? Once again, I haven't personnaly heard of any scientific study about the sociology of gamers, their habits and their preferences. (but if you know any, please advice!) We just have access to selected numbers the industry is willing to share.

Everyone has their own reasons to enjoy a specific video game genre, and there are no good or bad reasons for that.Video game industry has a lot of issues worth criticizing, but when we do criticize, maybe it's better to leave aside wide comparisons about games, markets, budgets, platforms, public, etc. 

Gamers are not the issue, the industry is

In spite of recent massive lay-offs, the video game industry is rich, very rich. In my opinion, a rich industry becomes overly cautious over time and tends to be conservative when it comes to artistic creation. Furthermore, it becomes more and more reluctant to spend money. As a result, best-selling games sometimes feel a bit dull, and quality concerns and good working conditions are no longer prioritized, resulting in growing anger among workers, and insatisfaction on the players' side. Because a rich industry hates risk and uncertainty, it spends a large amount of the budget to create 'engagement' and to make sure everyone play a game, sometimes forgetting gamers just want to have fun, and success cannot be guaranteed by any manner of strategy. Risk is part of the game.

Furthermore, if you're hellbent on selling your game to the largest crowd you can imagine, you're bound to erase the specificities of your game. Because there isn't a single public and a single market, you strive to join the different audiences and markets together, this impossible task resulting in games that fail to captivate, amaze or move the public. You never win on all counts, no matter what your marketing strategy could be.

Of course, best-selling games can be very good and very enjoyable, but once again, it doesn't have to set a reference for the whole industry. Cultural industries often believe blindly that a good recipe can be reproduced endlessly, but I don't think I know a single person who hasn't be dispappointed because of this particular belief.

In France, "mainstream" has a scornful connotation, but even if it hadn't any, it is still a vague notion, and it would be great to learn about what gamers actually love, and not only what they buy or talk about on social medias. Video games are a cultural product, but finances issues come first, artistic concerns are left aside. Nobody asked for this, this is a direct consequence of the fact that the industry grew so big so quickly. Workers suffer because of this, and some passionate gamers are jaded. I don't know what the future holds for us gamers and video game workers, but I do know things change eventually, so... Wait and see!