Welcome back to the Fancensus Spotlight, where taking the time to understand how games compete for attention is a smart advantage, not just a curiosity.
As the release calendar winds down for the year, discoverability battles are only getting sharper. This week shows how Call of Duty keeps muscling into the frame while Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and a fresh wave of racers and superhero epics fight to claim their share of mind.
Console Discoverability
It’s clearly the “season of the shooter”, with three of the top five most discoverable titles on both Xbox and PlayStation belonging to the genre. Recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 led the charge, hitting 100 Flare on Xbox and ranking as the only title to sit inside the top five on both storefronts, while its ongoing rivalry with Battlefield 6 continued to play out in real time across the stores. On Xbox, recent releases dominated the spotlight with evident Black Friday discounts helping them climb. Black Ops 7 held high prominence across multiple store sections, with a particular push for the Vault Edition, firmly securing the top spot. Fortnite enjoyed another strong week as its Simpsons season gathered momentum and new Stranger Things skins dropped. The Outer Worlds 2 benefited from a 20% Black Friday discount and highly visible placements despite being a month post-launch, while Battlefield 6 (15% off) and Ninja Gaiden 4 (20% off plus Game Pass inclusion) were featured across the dashboard, spotlight tiles, and deals sections.
On PlayStation, Ghost of Yotei continued its reign as one of Sony’s flagship 2025 releases, occupying prime hero positions across the store in the week it received 7 TGA nominations. Black Ops 7 followed closely behind with hero placements in multiple sections, particularly spotlighting its Zombies offering. World of Warships: Legends received a significant push from Wargaming, achieving broad coverage across territories through strong Free-to-Play section placement and a hero slot on the featured page, despite relatively low buzz elsewhere. Arc Raiders enjoyed multiple features across “New for You,” “Must See,” “Top Games,” and the welcome page, while Battlefield Redsec capitalised on Battle Royale interest with hero positions timed around the Elite Series tournament announcement.
Press & Social
With year-end release schedules thinning out, this week’s press and social landscape shifts the spotlight firmly onto fresh faces only, focusing purely on upcoming titles with no prior releases.
Rounding out the top five, Kill It With Fire 2 (Flare Score of 11) exits early access and jumps to consoles with a day-one Game Pass launch. While overall headline share remains modest, key coverage from sites like 3Djuegos and its status as one of the week’s few notable releases help it punch above its weight. In fourth, Octopath Traveler 0 (14) leans heavily on Square Enix’s own social push, with behind-the-scenes content featuring producer Hirohito Suzuki and director Yasuhiro Kidera driving engagement, despite more limited headline coverage.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion lands in third with a score of 33, fuelled by a December 1st launch across all major platforms and day-one Game Pass availability, a key talking point for both press and potential players. Project Motor Racing is in second with 57, powered by strong traction on Twitch and TikTok plus high-performing YouTube promos, especially around its detailed car roster and sim credentials.
Top Title Spotlight - Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is finally stepping out of legend and into launch week, and the buzz between 17th–23rd November shows just how big this moment is for Nintendo. With a 4th December release on both Switch and Switch 2, this long-awaited sequel is shaping up to be one of the biggest releases of the year in what is otherwise a relatively quiet launch window. Announced all the way back in 2017, this nearly 40-year-old franchise has been a mainstay across Nintendo home systems and handhelds, and the fact that Prime 4 is arriving on both Switch and Switch 2 means it could be one of the last truly major first-party titles to straddle generations. Conversation has been electric around new companion character Myles MacKenzie, sparking debate that has helped keep Metroid Prime 4: Beyond sitting at number one or two among brand-new, unreleased titles on almost every major press and social platform.
Press buzz kept building throughout the week, with around 160 sites covering the game and giving it prominent front-page treatment. Articles ranged from sweeping think pieces on the significance of Samus’s return, to deep dives into companion dynamics, technical specs, and speculation about potential launch discounts. On social media, Nintendo has gone on the offensive, pushing the game hard through its global Facebook and X accounts; the Nintendo US pages alone reach 5.6 million Facebook likes and 14 million X followers, and their posts have dominated the top-performing content with tens of thousands of reactions. IGN and other major outlets have amplified that momentum with their own high-engagement posts.
While YouTube and TikTok have yet to see a truly breakout viral video for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in this period, the sheer weight of coverage on traditional press and text-based social platforms shows a fanbase that is already at tipping point, counting the days until they can finally step back into Samus’s visor.
In a market where even giants have to hustle for visibility, guessing is no longer a strategy. Fancensus turns fragmented storefront placements, press beats, and social chatter into a single, clear picture so your next launch lands where it matters most: at the top of players’ minds and platforms’ pages. If you are planning your 2026 slate, now is the moment to turn data and insights into your competitive edge.
