Nielsen Analysts Name the Most Anticipated Games for the Holiday Season

The holiday seasons are always dense with acclaimed titles for avid gamers to scoop up and spend [...]

The holiday seasons are always dense with acclaimed titles for avid gamers to scoop up and spend their winter indoors, and the Nielsen analysts has revealed which games they think will dominate the seasonal sales this year.

When attempting to figure out which games they think will reign supreme during the holidays, the Nielsen analysis firm takes in a number of factors including awareness of the game, intent to purchase, and other indicators to decide which ones look most appealing to buyers. From there, they assign an "anticipation" score to the game, a percentage that denotes that the anticipation for a certain game is XX percent higher than other titles in a similar release cycle.

But all of this number crunching essentially boils down to which games people want the most, and the analysts have now revealed their picks across different platforms.

Nielsen Most Anticipated Games
(Photo: Nielsen)

For Call of Duty fans, you can rejoice after hearing that Call of Duty: WWII carries the highest anticipation score at a near-perfect 99 percent. The upcoming historical war game tops the multi-platform category and is followed closely by Assassin's Creed Origins, another game that's received a fantastic amount of hype as it's Oct. 27 release date quickly approaches. Star Wars: Battlefront II and WWE 2K18 come in at the third and fourth spots in the category with scores of 90 percent and 80 percent, respectively.

As for console exclusives, console war combatants can put down their weapons for a moment since the top game for the Microsoft and Sony are listed with identical scores. Forza Motorsport 7 for the Xbox One and Gran Turismo Sport for the PlayStation 4 both have anticipation scores of 85 percent a neck-and-neck tie between two racing games.

Compared to the rest of the games, Nintendo actually has the highest collective scores for their games. Super Mario Odyssey dominates the Switch with 96 percent while Pokemon Ultra Moon and Ultra Sun top the 3DS charts at 99 percent and 97 percent.

Some of these games are still some time away while others are approaching their release or already out, but as we move closer to the holidays, it should quickly become apparent if the Nielsen predictions hold true.

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