E3 isn't a popularity contest—wait, sorry, strike that. We've just been told E3 is in fact a popularity contest. And, since every contest needs a winner, let's figure out the empirically-proved winner of E3 2018.
Using some extremely unscientific methodology, we've ranked the games of E3 2018 according to the YouTube view counts of their main E3 trailers, including both official video posts and reposts from major outlets. As you read this, the numbers will already be out of date and the stats are complicated by games for which there are multiple trailers and those that got live gameplay demos, but, look—we just wanted to put the most popular trailers of E3 2018 all in one place, and that place is here:
1. Cyberpunk 2077
With around 13.5 million views across multiple reposts of the trailer, Cyberpunk 2077's cinematic montage was obviously the trailer of E3 2018. CD Projekt RED chose not to release public gameplay footage, instead showing it behind closed doors, but we were pretty damn impressed by what we saw.
2. Fallout 76
With over 9.8 million views, Fallout 76 comes in second—not, perhaps, because it is the most exciting game of E3, but because it's coming soon and there's a lot of curiosity around Bethesda's approach to online survival for the traditionally singleplayer RPG series.
3. The Elder Scrolls 6
We added up over 7 million YouTube views for The Elder Scrolls 6, but the teaser being so short, you can probably find a few million more between Twitter and other platforms. It probably still wouldn't eclipse Cyberpunk, but considering that all we see is a bird's eye view of some mountains, that's pretty impressive. Bethesda got millions of people to look at the fantasy equivalent of the National Geographic Channel.
4. FIFA 19
With over 5.5 million views, FIFA 19 has confirmed that the most popular sport in the world is quite popular.
5. Doom Eternal
The surprise reveal of a new Doom game brought in over 5.4 million views. There is seemingly more excitement over a Doom game than a Halo game in this, the year two-thousand and eighteen.
6. Halo Infinite
With more than 4.5 million views, people are clearly excited about the Chief's return. Though if you were alive in the early 2000s, when Halo was a religion, it feels unnatural that it isn't all anyone is talking about. Apparently things change over time. Who knew?
7. Battlefield 5
The Battlefield 5 multiplayer trailer attracted over 3.7 million pairs of eyeballs, but this is where our methodology really fails us—the most popular BF5 videos weren't the trailers, but the gameplay footage posted by Nvidia and popular YouTubers.
8. Anthem
Add a few million more to Anthem's roughly 2.7 million trailer views if you include the gameplay demo. It seems folks are curious about what Anthem is all about, but having seen it last year there's a bit less buzz this time around. It's Destiny, but BioWare—we get it.
9. Devil May Cry 5
Devil May Cry 5 pulled in around 2.5 million views, proving that Dante and crew still have their charms.
10. Forza Horizon 4
Over 1.9 million views makes Microsoft's flashy racer the second biggest sports game of the show, beating out NBA Live 19 and, more narrowly, Madden NFL 19—though both have huge fanbases which E3 doesn't fully draw from.
11. Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 brought in about 1.4 million views (mostly not on the official video post), but the extended gameplay footage also grabbed a couple million.
12. Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's cinematic trailer grabbed over 1.1M views, but it's worth noting that A) Ubisoft has different YouTube accounts for every country, and B) the gameplay footage showing off the rumored dialogue choices was viewed lots, too. That said, it's understandable that 13 million people aren't rushing to find out more about the next Assassin's Creed—they might play it, but it's mostly a known quantity, whereas Cyberpunk has the benefit of mystery.
