Welcome back to the Fancensus Spotlight, where we stop guessing why certain games won the week and actually show you. This is your weekly update on which titles are commanding attention, how they’re doing it, and what that means for your own roadmap in 2026. Flare Score is our way of simplifying press coverage, social noise, and storefront placement into a single 0–100 scale of how visible a game really is. One number that tells you who’s genuinely in the spotlight, and who’s just hoping to be.
Now, the data.
Console Discoverability – Deals Page Only (9–16 February)
On Xbox, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 led deals‑page visibility with a Flare Score of 100, riding two overlapping promotions: the “Co‑op and Chill” sale and a Focus Entertainment publisher sale, both of which occupied the main deals‑page banner, with it discounted by 60% just five months after launch. NBA 2K26 followed closely at 96 Flare Score, boosted by an ongoing 2K publisher sale, solo dashboard placements on the deals page advertising a 67% discount, and additional visibility through “Score More with Xbox” promotions. Hogwarts Legacy (76 Flare Score) benefitted from a Hogwarts Anniversary sale celebrating three years since release, with particular prominence for the Hogwarts Legacy + Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Deluxe Editions bundle. Borderlands 4 (68 Flare Score) also sat inside the 2K publisher sale, as well as the Super Deluxe Edition’s 30% discount earning its own banner slots. RoadCraft (65 Flare Score) rounded out the top five as part of the Focus Entertainment sale with 30% off and appeared in “Deals with Game Pass,” tying its visibility to the subscription ecosystem.
On PlayStation, Forza Horizon 5 topped the deals page with a 100 Flare Score. It enjoyed solo banner placements advertising a 40% discount—primarily for the base game but with some Premium Edition visibility—while both editions appeared in the “Deals for You” section, effectively doubling its exposure. NBA 2K26 ranked second again at 86 Flare Score, matching the 67% discount seen on Xbox and receiving solo main‑banner placements plus inclusion in a “2K Publisher Deals” promotion, much of which used sponsored inventory. Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (66 Flare Score), The Crew: Motorfest (56 Flare Score), and Star Wars: Outlaws (53 Flare Score) all participated in an “Ubisoft Deals” campaign that ran on the main deals banner, with several of these placements sponsored. Assassins Creed: Shadows, in particular, stood out thanks to solo sponsored placements highlighting its role in the Ubisoft promotion, giving it the strongest lift of the trio.
Press & Social Flare – Upcoming Products (Next 30 Days)
2K's WWE 2K26, launching 13 March, performed especially well on Facebook and X. A Facebook post from the WWE brand account highlighting a new “WWE Showcase” trailer voiced by CM Punk drew over 15k likes and around 650 comments, while an X post featuring an in‑game first look at Maryse Mizanin cleared roughly 660k views, reinforcing how talent‑driven content remains central to the series’ marketing. Capcom's Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection continued to benefit from its demo drop on 5th February. While initial hype for the demo has cooled, Twitch streams like CabraVoladora’s approached 3k views. In the press and a wave of preview impressions as well as a collaboration with Monster Hunter Wilds in the February update added more hooks to keep the title in conversation.
Bungie's Marathon, now just over two weeks from its 5th March release, saw a notable jump after gameplay was showcased at the PlayStation State of Play on 12th February. Bungie also announced a “Server Slam” playtest running from 26th February to 2nd March, giving players a free, time‑limited slice of the game that should generate substantial streamer and creator content while helping skeptical players buy in. Some creators already have early access; for example, The Burnt Peanut’s Twitch stream reached around 50k views, with a subsequent YouTube upload hitting about 250k, showing the appetite for deeper looks. Mob Entertainment's Poppy Playtime – Chapter 5, releasing 18th February, dropped its first official gameplay trailer on 11th February. While press pick‑up was more modest than for some competitors, the trailer exploded on TikTok with roughly 9.4 million views and 1.3 million likes, and matched that view count on YouTube with around 500k likes. Fan edits further amplified reach, such as a TikTok from rai._3dits that racked up about 2.1 million views and over 11k shares.
All of which brings us back to this week’s centre of gravity, Resident Evil Requiem.
Spotlight title: Resident Evil 9 – Requiem (9–16 February)
With just over a week until launch, Resident Evil Requiem’s campaign has move to the next level. Last week, Capcom rolled out the fourth official trailer during the PlayStation State of Play, using it to tease more details about Leon and Requiem’s overarching story, including the much‑discussed revelation that Leon is infected with the virus. The beat extended Requiems presence at a key platform event and gave both press and fans a new anchor for discussion.
Press activity reflects that precision. Resident Evil Requiem appeared in over 1.8k articles across 639 media sites during the week, with around 37% of those pieces mentioning it in the headline. A strong indicator that it is driving coverage. Activity spiked around State of Play as outlets dissected the new trailer and focused on the infection reveal, while a steady stream of previews and opinion pieces from journalists with early access added further texture. System requirements were published, answering practical questions for PC players, and a wave of guide content emerged: which entries to replay beforehand, story recaps, and “what you need to know before Requiem” explainers, all of which help lower the friction for both new and returning fans.
On social media, activity remained consistently high with a noticeable bump on 13th February, the day after State of Play. On Facebook, the Resident Evil brand page announced that the game has surpassed five million wishlists across platforms; that post earned roughly 34k likes and 1.4k shares, turning a milestone metric into a social proof moment. On TikTok, fan edits built around the latest gameplay trailer performed best, with a standout clip from Rottenzhv highlighting Leon’s infection and reaching over 3 million views and around 500k likes. Twitch is still functioning as a franchise‑warming channel, with many creators running full series playthroughs in the lead‑up to launch. On X, the Resident Evil brand account posted images of an NPC whom Grace will encounter; the post drew over 500k views and a dense thread of speculation about who the character is and what they might mean for both Grace and Leon. That mix of official beats, milestone flexes, and fan‑driven theory-crafting is exactly why Resident Evil Requiem continues to sit at the centre of the conversation.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, NBA 2K26, and Forza Horizon 5 show how publisher sales, cross‑category promotions, and double‑dipping placements (“deals for you”, Game Pass, co‑op bundles) extend the life of big releases. But Resident Evil Requiem, Poppy Playtime – Chapter 5, Marathon, and Monster Hunter Stories 3 underline a harder truth. Demos, trailers, playtests, and lore drops only move the needle when they are sequenced deliberately around platforms and creators, not fired off at random. If you are planning launches for mid‑2026 and still treating deals, demos, and streams as separate boxes to tick, it’s worth sitting with these patterns and asking what a joined‑up version of your own campaign could look like.
