With the ongoing pandemic that still keeps people at home, it’s no surprise to see a surge in online presence, and gaming is one of them that felt the large surge since early of 2020. With digital sales reaching high scores and not to mention a ton of awesome game titles that were released in the first half of the year. Social media for gaming is also at an all-time high.

Twitter just released its insights on gaming and esports for the first half of 2020, and the stats are pretty impressive. Video game-related tweets have reached 1 billion in just 6 months which an all-time high, and the global pandemic isn’t the only factor that contributed to it. In the first half of 2020, there were already four to five game of the year worthy titles that spearheaded more discussions. Another interesting part here is the top ten countries with the most tweeted discussions about video games and esports, with the Philippines still ranking at the tenth place, Japan of course, is still on the top spot as it is home to some of the most popular games from console to the mobile platform.

It’s no surprise to see the Philippines still being part of the top ranks considering many Filipinos are very active in social media and have a large following for games may it be from PlayStation, Nintendo, PC or mobile. They are also very active in esports especially during major tournaments like The International 2019 and the recent SEA Games in late 2019 where esports was included as a medal event.

Meanwhile, the top ten games that are most tweeted worldwide for 2020 are the following:

1. Animal Crossing
2. Fate/Grand Order
3. Final Fantasy
4. Disney: Twisted-Wonderland
5. Fortnite
6. Ensemble Stars
7. Knives Out
8. Apex Legends
9. Identity V
10. PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS

And here is from 2019’s top ten for comparison:

1. Fate/Grand Order
2. Fortnite
3. Final Fantasy
4. Identity V
5. Granblue Fantasy
6. Ensemble Stars
7. Monster Strike
8. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
9. Minecraft
10. Super Smash Bros.

Animal Crossing dethroned Fate/Grand Order with ease considering Animal Crossing: New Horizons was just launched in April, yet it continues to gain more traction as it already sold 22 million copies worldwide, placing it as the third best-selling Nintendo game of all time. Though dethroned, FGO is still sitting high at second place as the Gacha mobile RPG continues to release new contents every month, Final Fantasy maintained its third spot thanks to the recent release of anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake making waves to the RPG fans and let us not forget Final Fantasy XIV still gaining momentum, as one of the most popular MMORPGs. Other titles that are available for more than a year managed to earn a spot at the top ten such as Disney: Twisted-Wonderland, Knives Out and Apex Legends.