What's popular right now?

So, lately I realized that my genre preferences are so specific that I've got no idea what most people are playing now. Apparently something called Fortnite is the most popular game in the world, and I've never even heard about it until yesterday

Please throw at me a few titles of what is the most mainstream and most popular at the moment. With comments on them, if you feel especially generous. Most likely I won't ever play these games, but I want to educate myself on current trends in gaming.

Let's see, two of my mates are going through Battletech this week, and have been telling me I need to get on board and play it. One other is playing Nino Kuni, and I'm currently playing Phantasy Star Four, after recently replaying the second and third games in the series.

I've never even heard of Fortnite. Well, until now.

Player Unknown Battlegrounds seems to be pretty massive. Its a battle royale FPS thing I think, I've never played it but it was all the rage recently.

(Although, a bit like teenage slang, if I've heard of it then it's probably already old news! )

Everyone and his mother will be making Battle Royale for the next two or three years, min.

Aside from that, MOBA's, Overwatch, etc.

that might be true but i nor will my mother be playing Battle Royale today/tomorrow or for the next 3 years. Therefore I'm not sure that it is true even if it might be true.

Originally Posted by BoboTheMighty
Everyone and his mother will be making Battle Royale for the next two or three years, min.

Aside from that, MOBA's, Overwatch, etc.

I haven't played any of them, but you can educate yourself by going to twitch.tv and check the front page, you'll probably see there:
DOTA 2: A F2P multiplayer arena (they're called MOBA for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena)
where basically you pick a character, each character having different abilities, and the game puts you in a team that plays against another team in different maps.
League of Legends: Another MOBA.
Fortnite: This is the newcomer that's taking the world currently. It's a Battle Royale game where a bunch of players go into a big map, there is a bit of resource gathering/building, and as time passes the map shrinks until last person standing wins.
Hearthstone: A F2P card collection game.
Overwatch: A team based multiplayer FPS.

Popular and earning crapload of $ are first three @wolfing mentioned. Besides those three, enormous popularity and enormous amount of $ earners are also Maple Story and PUBG. Do I have to mention World of Warcraft? Yea, after all these years, no WoW killer appeared. CS and CoD are still alive, still popular and still and kicking.

After initial ovehype of the garbage, Hearthstone and Overwatch are clinically dead. Add Destiny 2 to the same pile of misery. There are no newcommers nor will ever be, old players are leaving.

Battle royale, I'm assuming that's some kind of action genre? Maybe with player versus player elements?

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Battle royale, I'm assuming that's some kind of action genre? Maybe with player versus player elements?

Online multiplayer, where everyone kills each other until the last man standing.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Online multiplayer, where everyone kills each other until the last man standing.

And at least recently with a decreasing combat area in order to limit the timeframe and keeping the density of players.

Man, I'd find Pong about ten times more attractive than that premise, and I kind of loathe Pong.

Originally Posted by Elel
So, lately I realized that my genre preferences are so specific that I've got no idea what most people are playing now. Apparently something called Fortnite is the most popular game in the world, and I've never even heard about it until yesterday

Please throw at me a few titles of what is the most mainstream and most popular at the moment. With comments on them, if you feel especially generous. Most likely I won't ever play these games, but I want to educate myself on current trends in gaming.

I had a very similar feeling with music until a few years ago.

All I wanted was Progressive Rock, and I realized that I'm the only one there. Because Prog had died out.
Then, 2 years ago, I found the British Prog Magazine in a shop in the main railway station …

Now I'm educating in that field again. And I do learn that I was *not* the only one left - and tht Prog had *not* died out …

Maybe you just need to find a similar thing ?

Originally Posted by Elel
Please throw at me a few titles of what is the most mainstream and most popular at the moment.

You're asking us??

Best place to find out is here: https://store.steampowered.com/stats

PUBG is way ahead of everyone - and that's after dropping off a bit. The game went over very well in China and, well, China is huge.

GTA5 is pretty high up… ah, I see, they're having a big sale on that. I played GTA3 and didn't really like it so I haven't paid much attention. (Guess I'm more of a Saints Row guy.)

Awesome. Now I know what to watch on stream to see what people like. And those links are great, both to Steam and to Twitch. Never heard of PUBG. Or rather I had, but I always assumed that it's an acronym for something, haha, like "Public Game", i.e. a game on public servers… Oh well.

Originally Posted by Elel
Awesome. Now I know what to watch on stream to see what people like. And those links are great, both to Steam and to Twitch. Never heard of PUBG. Or rather I had, but I always assumed that it's an acronym for something, haha, like "Public Game", i.e. a game on public servers… Oh well.

When I first heard PUBG I thought it was some new slang word. Like lets go to the Pub G! I couldn't work out why people were using it in the context of gaming and assumed they were trying to be ironic.

Battle Royales are the hot new thing.

Behind that I'd say survival servers remain popular, such as RUST, Conan, upcoming Fallout 76, etc.

MOBAs are getting a little long in the tooth by now, aren't they?

I have played none of the above, just what my impression is.

I'm still not used to all these terms (like Battle Royale) and abbreviations (PUBG)!!!

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I'm still not used to all these terms (like Battle Royale) and abbreviations (PUBG)!!!

Or "lol"…hey man, that's still standing for Lands of Lore!

Originally Posted by Silver
When I first heard PUBG I thought it was some new slang word. Like lets go to the Pub G! I couldn't work out why people were using it in the context of gaming and assumed they were trying to be ironic.

I had a similar problem with "the kingly battle".

And yes, survival games are an additional new fashion now.

Word usage these days is super strange. Tweet is a bird sound, a stream is a smaller version of a river, and trolls are seriously physically augmented specimens that tend to reside under bridges or in caves, with regenerative capabilities. These people that try to change the meanings though do amuse me.