One of the things that has become absolutely clear the world around is that the PlayStation 4 is selling propitiously for Sony and has marked a strong resurgence of the Japanese company in the gaming marketplace after a rather rough start with the PlayStation 3 during the seventh generation. Well, the strong sales isn't just some sort of anomaly that's taking place, it's also attached to market trends and mind-share, showing a strong interest from gamers the world around... if Google Trends are anything to go by.
DualShockers did a comprehensive comparison chart between all three of the eighth generation home consoles, rolling out a very detailed look at the trends happening across the search engine.
They measure the performance of the Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U from January of 2014 to July, and the stats are definitely... not surprising.
The image below shows the search results of the three consoles from around the world, check it out below.
As you can see, there's a massive disparity between the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U in terms of general interest. Even when it comes to our own coverage of the systems, there's definitely a slant in what garners the most interest (outside of articles railing on the Xbox One). The Google Trends actually seem to fit in line with the current market sales as well, so it's not as if it's something happening away from real world sales data or apart from the current perception that the gaming community has of each console.
The more interesting stat from the article has more to do with the reception of the three consoles following the E3 showcases. All three consoles received some massive spikes from YouTube – according to the stats from Google Trends – and most surprisingly, the Wii U actually surpassed the Xbox One as far as engagement and interest goes. Check it out.
That's some impressive moxie by the little console-that-could. Nintendo's bankroll on an E3 Direct instead of a stage conference really paid off, and their all-access and very open media coverage of their games at E3 – a very risky move that even Microsoft and Sony didn't do – was so well put together that it amazed me at just how much they showed off for upcoming Wii U games with only nary a hitch in getting some events started in a timely manner.
Nintendo followed up their amazing E3 showing with a Smash Bros invitational that saw the legendary return of Ken, pitting him against long-time rival Hugz; words cannot do justice to the excitement that poured forth from the audience, with the echoing appreciation from fans filling up the auditorium.
The trends are definitely showing that the PS4 has stable (and growing) momentum, while the Wii U is picking up its slack and finally starting to turn things around. It's actually amazing how much the search and interest trends from Google mirror the actual sales data for each of the home consoles.
It'll be interesting to see what the data looks like this holiday season.
