Gaming News What are the most popular games in France? One PC game dominates all others
Which games are most searched for in France in the Google search engine? Let’s look back year after year.
As you probably know, today Google is such an effective search engine that it even becomes an excellent indicator of current trends in society. As for video games, a recently published study gives us a good overview of the most desirable productions in the world. The results won’t cause big surprises, the usual giants of course emerge as big winners from the video compiled by YouTuber Sundellviz, who has divided his work by country. It should be noted that the work is based on data collected by the Google Trends platform since 2004.
What is the trend specifically in France? Counter-Strike, The Sims, Grand Theft Auto followed unsurprisingly on the podium in 2004, while the following year, The top spot is monopolized by World of Warcraft, although a number of other countries are also opening up to FIFA, Call of Duty or even Football Manager. It’s not like that locally, Blizzard production remains king of our PCs. WoW retains its most coveted game title until 2011, when it’s finally dethroned by a new kid more appealing to western Europe: Minecraft, which remains in first place while most of Europe gradually takes on the colors of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim upon release. In 2012, the game from the Mojang studio will finally conquer the entire continent before disappearing the following year with the advent of Grand Theft Auto. France will then juggle between the two giants until 2015, when it will concede a brief spot to FIFA and Fallout. 2016 will then include Pokémon GO, a global phenomenon that will prevail until the arrival of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in France., much less popular in other countries. The year 2017 will be more heterogeneous, the country juggles between Pokémon, Minecraft, FIFA, GTA and Call of Duty.
The most searched games on Google in July 2016 (left) and April 2018 (right)
December 2022, a month dedicated to Fortnite, World of Warcraft and Roblox
Who Owns 2022?
Then you can imagine, Fortnite took over the country in 2018 without letting go once a year, while Minecraft has again imposed itself a little on our neighbors. A first place almost always held and rarely ceded for Pokémon and FIFA. Then comes 2022, initially surprised by the MMO Lost Ark, which is quickly swept away by Elden Ring, two trends more in line with Western Europe. And finally, Fortnite takes over the end of the year. It looks like Epic’s free-to-play has maintained its popularity over the years. However, remember that the game has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. The Canadian judiciary will indeed investigate a class action lawsuit accusing Epic Games of “create an addiction“assimilable”to what heroin or cocaine can produce“According to a document from the Superior Court of Montreal dated December 7.”The court concludes that there is a serious question to be discussed (…) as to the existence of risks and dangers arising from the use of Fortnite.we can read in particular.
In practice: mobile first
If Google is certainly one of the most reliable indicators of a product’s popularity, remember that for the time being, the annual report of the video game industry in France published by SELL remains the most shared indicator of our local practice. The latest report is from November 2022 and reports that 7 out of 10 French people play video games at least occasionally. And despite the research results published this year, casual and mobile games actually predominate in practice with no less than 36% (see screenshot on the left).. In second place we find car racing peaking at 24%, then platform games at 24%. In parallel, and more anecdotally in terms of social practice, the document will also tell us that 50% of gamers like online games and 31% say that video games have helped them make friends.
