I'm trying to work out the demographics of the top sellers list and one thing that really sticks out for me is EA sports. I'm sure that the battle royale crap is inevitably being astroturfed due to the fact that it's 'free' but it's baffling how that 'game' which really isn't a game let's be honest has consistently stuck in the top 20. As near as I can work out from youtube and the types of people that seem to be playing it, it seems to be football nerds that are giving it the main bump and normies on top of that.
I supposed I should be grateful that there are some somewhat gamer games popping up on the top seller list lately. I'm bringing it up because I'm deeply suspicious of a lot of these bland corporate titles given how much everybody even the people who used to like playing them is fed up now yet they still keep churning away making money which is very curious. If I had half their marketing skills and marketing team I'd be a billionaire already but I wouldn't be surprised if there was something more going on here because of how often Valve deliberately looks the other way when it comes to fake reviews especially.
I'm just amazed there are people out there who will spend $60+ on a game they don't even like and admit has gotten shit then clearly keep buying micro-transactions for that very same game.
I think there are a lot of guys who will buy the NFA or NBA game because it's the NFL or NBA game, even if they hate what EA has done.
They'll pay full price for the "new" game every year so that they can have the up-to-date roster even though that's the only significant change. This has been going on since the PS1 days, though there were more releases that genuinely added features. People hated it then too, but they clearly kept buying.
But more importantly, they'll upgrade so that they can play with their friends who also have the latest year/version.
All of this would end if there were competition for games with the official leagues, teams, and players. But it won't because the parties involved make money hand over fist while spending as little as possible.
You also have to understand that they only buy the latest sports title and CoD, very little else. Serious gamers look at it as "I could buy so much more game for the $70 this costs" they look at as "this is half of my gaming purchases, who cares"