Welcome back to Fancensus Spotlight, LinkedIn's most reliable source for video game digital storefront data. With a bunch of major showcases approaching in the next couple of months, alongside some long waited title releases, we have our own showcase-focused stream hitting your feed in the not too distant future. If you want to know which showcase is best for you to amplify your tile's performance, be on the look out for that!

If you're new here please bear in mind:

All data here is curated by the Fancensus team via our Fusion platform. You'll notice each title is assigned a Flare Score. For console discoverability this refers to the visibility of placements across console homepages, banners and curated sections, indexed out of 100. It gives a clear indicator of who's actually visible when billions of gamers open their stores.

Let's tuck into some data shall we?

Console Discoverability – Indie Titles Only

Focusing just on indie titles, Hollow Knight: Silksong commanded Xbox's store with a perfect 100 Flare score, appearing prominently on the Xbox home page and Game Pass dashboard as part of ongoing Game Pass Premium subscription promotions. The title also secured dedicated placements in store sections like Metroidvania and "souls-like journeys", giving it structural visibility beyond just subscription marketing.

Phasmophobia (63 Flare Score), Poppy Playtime (42 Flare Score) and The Mortuary Assistant (39 Flare Score) all benefited from the Indie Horror Sale on Xbox stores. Cleverly branded the "Unhalloween" sale (exactly six months from Halloween) which earned home page placements designed to shine a spotlight on indie or less high profile titles. Phasmophobia gained significant additional lift by also appearing in "top paid games" and "indie selects" sections, while Poppy Playtime's visibility centred largely around Chapter 4 in the ongoing series.

Tiny Bookshop (40 Flare Score) appeared in the "new games" section following its console release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on 10th April 2026 (after being available on PC and Switch since August 2025), marking a key multi-platform expansion moment.

Blue Prince led PlayStation at 100 Flare as the literal face of the Brain Teasers collection, securing placements across both the main Latest page and Collections page dashboards. The title was also on sale last week at 34% off, though this discount wasn't highlighted on the primary dashboards.

Who's Your Daddy (77 Flare Score) anchored the exclusive PlayStation discounts section with a 40% off promotion. Where Winds Meet (64 Flare Score) earned premium "Must See" dashboard placements specifically in US, Australia and Germany stores, plus appeared in the "top games in your country" section on the Hong Kong store.

Hellreaper (45 Flare Score) focused on "games to wishlist" placements across the Collections page, despite still lacking a firm release date. Mouse: P.I. For Hire (41 Flare Score) which released on 16th April and has earned positive press reviews – featured prominently on the "What's Hot" dashboard and "New Games" section of the Latest page.

Press & Social Flare – Next 30 Days

Heroes Of Might And Magic: Olden Era (5th) dominated Twitch ahead of its 30th April release under new publisher for the series, Hooded Horse. Last week saw hundreds of Twitch streams as streamers received early access versions, with influencer Grubby (known for real time strategy content, particularly Warcraft 3 and Age of Empires 2) delivering the top stream at over 60k views. A new gameplay trailer also pulled in 120k YouTube views further adding to the wave of content for this title.

Dead As Disco (4th) is a unique title, syncing martial arts combat to music. This type of game lends itself well to generating viral TikTok clips. Top gameplay video from Killerwolf3443, featuring combat gameplay set to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", reached 2.6 million views with 500k likes and 60k shares.

Invincible VS (3rd), releasing 30th April, extended its beta momentum (9th-11th April) with influencers posting YouTube clips of character interactions and combos. A short 18-second clip from MrRedRivers showcasing interactions between Omni-Man and Invincible reached over 1 million views.

Saros (2nd), also set for 30th April as Returnal's spiritual successor, peaked in press and X/Facebook around the PS5 Pro trailer dropped on 16th April. The trailer hit 250k X views (and an additional 150k views on YouTube) from PlayStation accounts, with additional conversation around file size, exact start dates/times and other features.

Spotlight Title – Forza Horizon 6

Forza Horizon 6, from Xbox Game Studios, the next entry in the Forza Horizon series set entirely in Japan – enters the final stretch before its 19th May launch on Xbox consoles and PC (PlayStation versions planned for later in 2026).

Press activity spiked dramatically on 17th April around the Tokyo City Biome Showcase Trailer, featuring 39 seconds of pure environments highlighting specific landmarks like Tokyo Tower, Shibuya Crossing, and Daikoku Parking Area. Additional press beats included reports of 500k copies already sold one month from launch, plus new details on achievement lists, release schedules, and early access information. The title featured in 240 headlines from over 100 unique sites.

Social Media stayed consistently high throughout the week. On Facebook, the official Forza account's 10-second gameplay clip reached over 600k views with 10k likes, while the Tokyo City Biome Showcase pulled 430k views. On X, racing influencer Don Joewon Song dominated with a gameplay clip showcasing the game's sense of speed that hit 1.9 million views – dramatically outperforming official Forza Horizon posts (100-200k views each). AR12Gaming's 20-minute video featuring the new Honda E car crossed 100k YouTube views.

Players are increasingly open-minded, actively seeking new worlds, fresh stories, and vibrant communities that feel personal. What is the secret weapon publishers are using to help achieve this success? Data of course, tailor-made data highlighting strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat to each of their releases.

Contact us for your own tailor-made data, 2026 could be a game-changer for you.