Epic Games Is Officially The Most Popular Gaming Brand In The World

[Nergal]

 

According to research conducted by UK publication BusinessFinancing.co.uk, Epic Games, home to Fortnite, is considered the world's most popular gaming brand in the vast majority of countries around the globe. Epic Games' growth in its 30 years of existence is nothing short of fascinating.

The company had a number of smaller hits under its built upon truly breaking ground with Unreal in the late 1990s. Throughout the following decade, Unreal, its spinoffs, and the rise of Gears of War buttered Epic's bread, as did the seminal graphics engine, Unreal Engine. Yet, there were times at which Epic appeared to teeter on the edge of shuttering, something it managed to avoid thanks to Chinese holdings company Tencent acquiring a large stake in the company in 2012. Then Fortnite's battle royale mode broke out as a surprise hit, fostering monumental success that earned Epic $3 billion in 2018 alone.

Curious about the world's most popular consumer brands, UK-based publication BusinessFinancing.co.uk used Google Keyword Planner to determine the most-searched brand in every country. Out of about 190 countries, Epic Games is the dominant gaming brand in 141 countries, raking in 4,716,375 searches. The publication found that Nintendo sits in second place, dominating 24 countries with a total of 3,120,010 global searches. Popular mobile gaming company Gameloft comes in a third place. Meanwhile, Atari and Activision follow at third and fourth place, respectively.

That Epic Games and Nintendo both appear at the top of the list comes as no surprise. Fornite's regular updates and licensed crossover content most assuredly keeps Epic's name at the top of many a search function. The Epic Games Store no doubt helps the company dominate in this regard, too. And Nintendo is, well, Nintendo. What does seem surprising is Activision's relatively low placement. Given Call of Duty's continued expansion as a brand, especially over the last two years, it's hard to believe Activision didn't even manage to crack the top three in most-searched gaming brands.

Also worthy of note is the absence of PlayStation and Xbox, both of which experienced historic console launches just a few months ago. Perhaps that doesn't translate to day-to-day search engine use, however. Still, the work done by the likes of BusinessFinancing.co.uk is always fascinating to peruse. It provides interesting insight into the wider world of gaming that often goes ignored.