Breanna Wells 
By: Khadee Hession
This past year, video games have been a big source of entertainment. Since COVID-19, gaming has helped accelerate several key trends, driving innovation and growth within the United States video game market. Games such as Call Of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Animal Crossing and even Madden NFL have had a rise in sales since COVID-19 and still have a great amount of players today. With such a large number of gamers, there continue to be many gaming conventions, such as The Big Fresno Fair and Mohegan Sun 2022. Thus, let us take a look at the best hit games of 2022!
COVID-19 started a jump in popularity of many games, which continued to catch the eyes of new players everyday. Game creators continue to make new updates to games causing many players to come back to play. A game that has been a hit for a couple years now is Fortnite. Fortnite is a free online game created by Epic Games in 2017. Fortnite creates new game modes to keep people entertained. These game modes include Battle Royale, Zero Build (No-build Battle Royale), the community-made games in Creative, and Save the World. You can play Battle Royale by yourself, or in a game with up to 3 friends. In the game, you drop onto an island and compete to be the last player/players still alive. Fortnite drops new items such as player skins, weapons, vehicles and seasons. Each new season brings a new theme to the island and new places to battle. Millions of players around the world play Fortnite, ensuring that you always have anywhere from 95-100 players in every game you play. Fortnite also contains cross play, meaning you can play with or against people who play on different consoles. Currently, Fortnite Battle Royale, Zero Build, and Creative are available to download together on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, and the Epic Games App on Android. There is no denial that Fortnite continues to keep people entertained around the world.
Since 2003, Call of Duty has been a top charting video game. They have come out with many different games such as Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Call of Duty is a first person video game that was first released October 29, 2003. Since its release, it has been a hit. Activision continues to improve the game. . They will be releasing a new version of the game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, expected to release on October 28, 2022. The game will be featured on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Microsoft Windows. It is the 19th game in the Call of Duty franchise, and the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The newest game that is already out is called Call of Duty: Vanguard. The game is based on World War II. Cold War Vanguard is integrated with Warzone, allowing players to progress and use weapons, operators and other cosmetic items across both titles. It also includes new maps, game modes and seasonal events all while the game continues to monetize via the battle pass system and cosmetic bundles featured in the in-game store. Activision even went on to release a teaser for an upcoming Vanguard update in April, featuring the addition of Snoop Dogg as a playable character. That’s great news for gamers, who have dealt with a drought of new games in 2021.
The year started off hot, with Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Horizon Forbidden West and eventually Elden Ring, which sucked up the industry’s oxygen for at least a quarter. It’s been slim pickings for the last four or five months, but that’s thankfully about to change. Splatoon’s high concept is genius — and extremely Nintendo. It takes the traditionally violent first-person shooter and flips it on its head. In this game, you’re shooting paint, not bullets. You don’t score points for shooting enemies but instead score points by shooting the environment itself. Splatoon 2 is one of the Nintendo Switch’s essential family fun games, though, it soon may be usurped by Splatoon 3, which was released on September 9th. Overwatch is often leading in popular video gaming. Overwatch 2 tweaks the format, making the squad-based shooter a 5v5 affair instead of the original’s 6v6. It also adds co-op gameplay, in case you want to shoot with your friends instead of against them. The biggest change is that you won’t have to pay to play Overwatch 2. Blizzard is shifting to a free-to-play model with battle passes and new content every season. Players will get a new hero or map every nine weeks, with the developers committing to updates in perpetuity. The hope is that the new model will combat the content drought that plagued the original. Overwatch 2 launches on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, the Nintendo Switch and PC. This year has been filled with tons of new games and releases. Will you be playing these new trending video games?
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