Twitter is once again performing its annual autopsy of the previous year's gaming tweets. And once again, Japan just can't stop talking about video games.
In its latest blog update, Twitter said last year was the biggest year yet for gaming conversations on the platform. Compared to 2017, 2021 had ten times the number of gaming tweets and 14% more tweets than in 2020, with tons of new games leading the conversation and the controversial topic of NFTs making its way around the Twittersphere.
But it was old standbys that dominated the top ten tweeted games of 2021. Those games included Genshin Impact, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Apex Legends, Fate/Grand Order, and Final Fantasy, which also found their way into the top ten list of 2020. Fortnite and Minecraft are once again in the top ten, while newcomers Project Sekai, Ensemble Stars are both mobile games that are extremely popular in Japan.
Japan has an outsized voice when it comes to gaming. According to Twitter, Japan has once again tweeted about games more than any other country, beating out the USA and South Korea. Thailand managed to sneak into the fourth spot this year, beating out Brazil in a huge upset for the small Southeast Asian nation.
Here are the top ten tweeted-about games for 2021:
- Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact)
- Apex Legends (@PlayApex)
- Ensemble Stars! (@ensemble_stars)
- Final Fantasy (@FinalFantasy)
- Fate/Grand Order (@fgoproject)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (@animalcrossing)
- Knives Out (@game_knives_out)
- Minecraft (@minecraft)
- Project Sekai (@pj_sekai)
- Fortnite (@fortnitegame)
And here are the top ten countries tweeting about games in 2021:
- Japan
- United States
- South Korea
- Thailand
- Brazil 🇧🇷
- Philippines
- Indonesia
- United Kingdom
- France
- India
Twitter expanded its gaming categories for 2021 to include far more topics like esports leagues, esports teams, professional players, content creators, gaming events, and more. Check out its blog post here to learn more about what people talked about in 2021.
As for 2022, we expect that list to be dominated by Wordle.