2017 in video games
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2017 saw the release of numerous video games as well as other developments in the video game industry. The Nintendo Switch console was released in 2017, which sold more than 14 million units by the end of the year, exceeding the under-performing Wii U lifetime sales. This has helped to revitalize Nintendo, along with the "retro" Super NES Classic Edition console, the refreshed New Nintendo 2DS XL handheld and a strategy for mobile gaming. Microsoft also released the higher-powered Xbox One X targeted for 4K resolutions and virtual reality support.
Series with new installments in 2017 include Assassin's Creed, Bomberman, Bubsy, Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Danganronpa, Dawn of War, Destiny, Digimon, Dragon Quest, Doom, Dynasty Warriors, The Evil Within, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, Gravity Rush, Halo Wars, Injustice, Kingdom Hearts, Kirby, The Legend of Zelda, Life Is Strange, Marvel vs. Capcom, Mass Effect, Metroid, Need for Speed, Nier, Persona, Planescape: Torment, Pokémon, Prey, Professor Layton, Resident Evil, Sniper Elite, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, Sonic the Hedgehog, Splatoon, Star Wars Battlefront, Super Mario, Tekken, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Uncharted, Wipeout, Wolfenstein, WWE 2K, Xenoblade Chronicles, Yakuza and Yoshi.
In addition, 2017 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Arms, Cuphead, Doki Doki Literature Club!, ELEX, Fortnite, Hellblade, Hollow Knight, Horizon, Nioh, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Financial performance
According to analyst firm Newzoo, the video game industry had $116.6 billion in global revenues, a 10% growth from 2016. This growth was primarily driven by mobile gaming, as 43% ($50.4 billion) of those revenues came from this sector, a growth of 23.3% from 2016. Of the remaining, 29% (US$33.3 billion) came from consoles hardware and games, and 28% ($32.3 billion) from personal computer games.[1] SuperData similarly estimated the global video game market in 2017 was around $108.4 billion, driven heavily by free-to-play mobile and computer games.[2] Analyst firm Sensor Tower, which tracks revenue within the mobile industry, reported that of the $58.6 billion in total revenues in 2017, $48.3 billion came from mobile games.[3]
Within the United States, the video industry grew from 2016 by 18% to a total revenue of $36 billion, with $6.9 billion from hardware sales (gaining 19% from 2016) and $29.1 billion (18%) from software and microtransactions, according to NPD Group and the Entertainment Software Association.[4] Further, $10.7 billion was spent on mobile gaming in 2017 in the United States, according to Sensor Tower.[3]
Highest-grossing games
The following were 2017's top ten highest-grossing video games in terms of worldwide revenue (including physical sales, digital purchases, microtransactions, free-to-play and pay-to-play) across all platforms (including mobile, PC and console platforms). Six of the top ten highest-grossing games are published or owned by Tencent, including the top three titles.
| Rank | Game | Revenue | Publisher(s) | Genre | Platform(s) | Business model | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honor of Kings / Arena of Valor | $2,400,000,000 | Tencent | MOBA | Mobile | Free-to-play | [5] |
| 2 | League of Legends | $2,100,000,000 | Riot Games / Tencent | MOBA | PC | Free-to-play | [6] |
| 3 | Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) | $1,900,000,000 | Nexon / Tencent | Beat 'em up | PC | Free-to-play | [5] |
| 4 | Monster Strike | $1,641,000,000 | Mixi | Physics | Mobile | ||
| 5 | Crossfire | $1,605,000,000 | Smilegate / Tencent | FPS | PC, Mobile | Free-to-play | [a] |
| 6 | Fantasy Westward Journey | $1,500,000,000 | NetEase | MMORPG | Mobile | Free-to-play | [6] |
| 7 | Clash Royale | $1,200,000,000 | Supercell (Tencent) | Strategy | |||
| 8 | Clash of Clans | $1,200,000,000 | Strategy | ||||
| 9 | Call of Duty: WWII | $1,000,000,000 | Activision (Activision Blizzard) | FPS | Console, PC | Buy-to-play | [8] |
| 10 | Fate/Grand Order (FGO) | $982,000,000 | Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) | RPG | Mobile | Free-to-play | [6] |
Highest-grossing free-to-play games
The following were the top ten highest-grossing free-to-play games in 2017. Six of the top ten titles were published or owned by Tencent, including the top three titles.
| Rank | Game | Revenue | Publisher(s) | Genre | Platform(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honor of Kings / Arena of Valor | $2,400,000,000 | Tencent | MOBA | Mobile | [5] |
| 2 | League of Legends | $2,100,000,000 | Riot Games / Tencent | MOBA | PC | [6] |
| 3 | Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) | $1,900,000,000 | Nexon / Tencent | Beat 'em up | PC | [5] |
| 4 | Monster Strike | $1,641,000,000 | Mixi | Physics | Mobile | |
| 5 | Crossfire | $1,605,000,000 | Smilegate / Tencent | FPS | PC, Mobile | [a] |
| 6 | Fantasy Westward Journey | $1,500,000,000 | NetEase | MMORPG | Mobile | [6] |
| 7 | Clash Royale | $1,200,000,000 | Supercell (Tencent) | Strategy | ||
| 8 | Clash of Clans | $1,200,000,000 | Strategy | |||
| 9 | Fate/Grand Order (FGO) | $982,000,000 | Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) | RPG | ||
| 10 | Lineage 2: Revolution | $980,000,000 | Netmarble Games | MMORPG |
Sensor Tower reported that the highest-grossing mobile games were the free-to-play titles Monster Strike, Honor of Kings, Fate/Grand Order, Clash Royale, and Candy Crush Saga.[3] The top-grossing mobile games in the United States were Candy Crush Saga, Game of War: Fire Age, Clash of Clans, Mobile Strike, and Clash Royale.[3]
Best-selling premium games
The following were the top ten best-selling premium games (including buy-to-play titles) in 2017. Four of the top ten titles were published by Nintendo.
| Rank | Game | Units sold | Revenue | Genre | Publisher(s) | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) | 30,000,000[9] | $900,000,000[9] | Battle royale | PUBG Corporation (Bluehole) | |
| 2 | Call of Duty: WWII | < 19,630,000[10] | $1,000,000,000[8] | FPS | Activision (Activision Blizzard) | |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto V / Online | 15,000,000[11] | $521,000,000[6] | Action-adventure | Rockstar Games (Take-Two Interactive) | |
| 4 | Super Mario Odyssey | 9,070,000[12] | Unknown | Platformer | Nintendo | NS |
| 5 | Star Wars: Battlefront II | 9,000,000[13] | Unknown | Shooter | Electronic Arts | |
| 6 | Pokémon Sun / Moon / Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon | 8,530,000[b] | Unknown | RPG | Nintendo / The Pokémon Company | 3DS |
| 7 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | 7,780,000[12][16] | Unknown | Action-adventure | Nintendo | |
| 8 | Mario Kart 8 / Deluxe | 7,470,000[c] | Unknown | Kart racing | ||
| 9 | FIFA 17 | Unknown | $409,000,000[6] | Sports | EA Sports (Electronic Arts) | |
| 10 | Overwatch | Unknown | $382,000,000[6] | Shooter | Blizzard Entertainment (Activision Blizzard) | WIN |
Best-selling games by country
The following were 2017's top ten best-selling video games by country, in terms of software units sold (excluding microtransactions and free-to-play titles) on PC and console platforms, for the United States, Japan, and United Kingdom.
Top-rated games
Top-rated games in 2017 included The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5, Divinity: Original Sin II, and Horizon Zero Dawn. One of the most influential games of 2017 was PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which was released in early access for personal computers in March 2017 and by the end of the year had sold 30 million units,[9] breaking several concurrent player count records and established the battle royale genre. The highest-grossing game of the year was the mobile game Honor of Kings, known as Arena of Valor internationally. Considerable debate was held over the use of loot boxes in video games and whether they constituted gambling, coming to a head with the release of Star Wars Battlefront II.
Critically acclaimed games
Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities.
| Game | Developer | Publisher | Release Date | Platform | Average Score out of 100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Nintendo EPD | Nintendo | March 3, 2017 | NS | 97 |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Nintendo EPD | Nintendo | October 27, 2017 | NS | 97 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Nintendo EPD | Nintendo | March 3, 2017 | WiiU | 96 |
| Divinity: Original Sin II | Larian Studios | September 14, 2017 | WIN | 93 | |
| Persona 5 | P-Studio | Atlus | April 4, 2017 | PS4 | 93 |
| What Remains of Edith Finch | Giant Sparrow | Annapurna Interactive | July 19, 2017 | XBO | 92 |
| Undertale | 8-4 | August 15, 2017 | PS4 | 92 | |
| Ōkami HD | Capcom | December 12, 2017 | WIN | 92 | |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Nintendo EPD | Nintendo | April 28, 2017 | NS | 92 |
| SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition | Image & Form | December 28, 2017 | NS | 91 | |
| Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove | Yacht Club Games | March 3, 2017 | NS | 91 | |
| Retro City Rampage DX | Vblank Entertainment | August 3, 2017 | NS | 91 | |
| Bayonetta | PlatinumGames | Sega | April 11, 2017 | WIN | 90 |
| Opus Magnum | Zachtronics | December 8, 2017 | WIN | 90 | |
| Pinball FX 3: Universal Classics Pinball | Zen Studios | September 26, 2017 | XBO | 90 | |
| Linelight | My Dog Zorro | January 30, 2017 | WIN | 90 | |
Major awards
- Certain award presentations combine these categories.
Events
| Date | Event | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| January 3–7 | The 2017 Consumer Electronics Show was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. | [citation needed] |
| January 9 | Video game writer Corey May leaves Certain Affinity to work for 2K Games. | [29] |
| January 13 | Nintendo's Nintendo Switch console reveal, detailing its release day, price, and technical specifications, was held at Tokyo Big Sight, and livestreamed online on Nintendo Direct. | [citation needed] |
| January 13 | Sony Interactive Entertainment closes Guerrilla Cambridge. | [30] |
| January 16 | Hidetaka Suehiro announces that he has formed a new independent studio called White Owls. | [31] |
| January 19 | Ubisoft acquires FreeStyleGames from Activision. FreeStyleGames is renamed into Ubisoft Leamington. | [32] |
| January 19 | Video game designer Kim Swift is hired by Electronic Arts into their Motive Studios division. | [33] |
| January 24 | Avalanche Software, previously shuttered by Disney in May 2016, is acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and re-opened. | [34] |
| January 31 | Global production of the Wii U has officially ended. | [35] |
| February 1 | ZeniMax Media acquires Escalation Studios. | [36] |
| February 1 | Take-Two Interactive acquires Social Point. | [37] |
| February 1 | ZeniMax Media is awarded $500 million from Oculus VR over intellectual property and contract issues over the virtual reality technology used in the Oculus Rift. | [38] |
| February 17 | Writer Erik Wolpaw leaves Valve. | [39] |
| February 21–23 | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit and 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Todd Howard inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. | [40][41] |
| February 23 | Irrational Games is rebranded as Ghost Story Games. | [42] |
| February 27 | Peter Moore steps down as head of EA Sports to become CEO of the Liverpool Football Club. | [43] |
| February 27–March 3 | The 2017 Game Developers Conference held in San Francisco. | [citation needed] |
| March 15 | Kevin Bruner steps down as CEO of Telltale Games, with Dan Conners replacing him. | [44] |
| March 30 | Club Penguin shutdown its servers after 12 years. | [citation needed] |
| March 31 | Square Enix withdraws from IO Interactive. | [45] |
| March 31 | Nintendo closes the Nintendo DSi Shop on the DSi and DSi XL. | [46] |
| April 3 | Christophe Balestra steps down as co-president of Naughty Dog. Evan Wells remains in his role as sole president. | [47] |
| April 27 | The Kirby franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary in Japan. | [48] |
| May 2 | Chet Faliszek announced he has left Valve. | [49][50] |
| May 10 | Owlchemy Labs is acquired by Google. | [51] |
| June 7 | Jay Pinkerton announces he has left Valve. | [52] |
| June 10–12 | EA Play was held at the Hollywood Palladium. | [53] |
| June 13–15 | E3 2017 was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. | [citation needed] |
| June 16 | IO Interactive becomes an independent studio from Square Enix, retaining rights to the Hitman franchise. | [54] |
| June 27 | Arkane Studios founder Raphaël Colantonio leaves the company. | [55] |
| June 30 | Triumph Studios, the developer of the Age of Wonders series, is acquired by Paradox Interactive. | [56] |
| July 18 | Casey Hudson replaces Aaryn Flynn as the General Manager of BioWare. | [57] |
| August 1 | Electronic Arts confirmed that BioWare Montreal, the developer of Mass Effect: Andromeda, was absorbed into Motive Studios. | [58] |
| August 8 | Ubisoft announced the establishment of a new studio in Stockholm, Sweden. | [59] |
| August 7–12 | The International 2017, one of the highest paying eSports tournament in history, was held at the KeyArena in Seattle. | [60] |
| August 22–26 | Gamescom 2017 was held at Koelnmesse. | [citation needed] |
| September | People Can Fly opened a new studio in Newcastle, UK; their first outside of Poland. | [61] |
| September 13 | Bruce Straley, co-director of The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End departed from Naughty Dog after 18 years | [62] |
| October 3 | Andrew House, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment announced his departure from the company. | [63] |
| October 12 | Mike Laidlaw, the creator director of the Dragon Age franchise, left BioWare. | [64] |
| October 13 | IGN acquires Humble Bundle. | [65] |
| October 17 | Visceral Games, the developer of the Dead Space series, was shut down by owner Electronic Arts. | [66] |
| November 3 | Perfect World Entertainment shut down Runic Games and Motiga. | [67] |
| November 9 | Electronic Arts announced that they had acquired Respawn Entertainment, the creators of the Titanfall series. | [68] |
| November 20 | 100 Thieves is founded. | [citation needed] |
| December 7 | The Game Awards 2017 were held. | [69] |
| December 14 | Private Division, a new publishing subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive is formed. | [citation needed] |
| December 28 | A swatting in Wichita, Kansas, caused by a dispute between two Call of Duty: WWII gamers over a $1.50 wager leads to a man unrelated to the dispute being shot and killed by police. | [citation needed] |
Notable deaths
- January 10 – Tony Rosato, 62, actor who voiced Luigi in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World and provided additional voices for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
- January 19 – Miguel Ferrer, 61, actor who voiced Shan Yu in Mulan and its Disney's Animated Storybook adaptation, Covenant heretic leader Sesa Refume in Halo 2, and Death in Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know!.
- January 22 – Masaya Nakamura, 91, businessman and founder of Namco.[70]
- February 17 – Alan Stone, 71, co-founder of Nintendo of America [71]
- June 2 – Peter Sallis, 96, English actor and voice actor best known for playing Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine. He voiced Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit franchise and he also voiced Rat in Cosgrove Hall's The Wind in the Willows. Sallis also voiced Wallace in several video games including Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.[72]
- June 9 – Adam West, 88, voice actor best known for the voice of Mayor Adam West in the Family Guy franchise.[73]
- July 18 – Harvey Atkin, 74, actor who played King Koopa in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World.[74]
- July 26 – June Foray, 99, voice actress best known for the voice of villainess Magica De Spell in the original Ducktales series, as well as the 2013 video game DuckTales: Remastered, which is a remaster of the original 1989 video game.[75]
- August 5 – Daniel Licht, 60, composer of the Dishonored series and Silent Hill[76]
- November 7 – Roy Halladay, 40, baseball player who appeared in the MLB 2K titles and was the cover star of MLB 2K11.[77]
- December 10 – Angry Grandpa, 67, YouTuber known for destroying video game consoles.[78]
Hardware releases
The following is a list of game-related hardware released in 2017:
Nintendo released two systems this year; the Nintendo Switch, which helped save the company in the home console industry from the failure of the Wii U, and the New Nintendo 2DS XL, the final revision model of the Nintendo 3DS as well as the final entry in the Nintendo DS family overall.
Microsoft also released the Xbox One X, the second revision model of the Xbox One and the main competitor to Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro.
As of 2026, the Nintendo Switch is the 3rd best-selling video game console of all time, right behind the Nintendo DS (#2) and PlayStation 2 (#1).
| Date | Console | Manufacturer | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 10 | New Shield Android TV | [citation needed] | |
| March 3 | Nintendo SwitchWW | [79] | |
| June 15 | New Nintendo 2DS XLAU | [80] | |
| July 13 | New Nintendo 2DS XLJP/KOR | [81] | |
| July 28 | New Nintendo 2DS XLNA/EU | [82] | |
| September 29 | Super NES Classic EditionNA/EU | [83] | |
| September 30 | Super NES Classic EditionAUS | [83] | |
| October 5 | Super NES Classic EditionJP | [84] | |
| November 7 | Xbox One XWW | [85] |
Games released in 2017
Cancelled / delisted games
Video game-based film and television releases
| Title | Date | Type | Distributor | Franchise | Original game publisher(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akiba's Trip: The Animation | January 4, 2017 | Anime television series | Funimation | Akiba's Trip | Acquire | [92] |
| Granblue Fantasy: The Animation | April 1, 2017 | Aniplex | Granblue Fantasy | Cygames | [93] | |
| Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light | April 17, 2017 | Drama miniseries | Netflix | Final Fantasy | Square Enix | [94] |
| The King's Avatar | April 19, 2017 | Chinese animated series | YouTube | N/a | N/a | [95] |
| Resident Evil: Vendetta | May 27, 2017 | CGI animated film | Kadokawa | Resident Evil | Capcom | [96] |
| Castlevania | July 7, 2017 | Animated series | Netflix | Castlevania | Konami | [97] |
| Candy Crush | July 9, 2017 | Game show | CBS (United States) | Candy Crush Saga | King | [98] |
| Parker Plays | July 15, 2017 | Television series | Disney XD | N/a | N/a | [99] |
| Player Select | N/a | N/a | [100] | |||
| Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! | Anime film | Toho (Japan) | Pokémon | Nintendo The Pokémon Company |
[101] | |
| Polaris Primetime | Television series | Disney XD | N/a | N/a | [102] | |
| The IGN Show | July 17, 2017 | Disney XD/YouTube | N/a | N/a | [103] | |
| Play With Caution | Disney XD | N/a | N/a | [104] | ||
| The Attack | July 31, 2017 | N/a | N/a | [105] | ||
| ESL Speedrunners | August 1, 2017 | N/a | N/a | [106] | ||
| Waypoint Presents | August 16, 2017 | N/a | N/a | [107] | ||
| Good Game | August 30, 2017 | YouTube | Game Grumps | N/a | [108] | |
| Overwatch Contenders | September 16, 2017 | Disney XD | Overwatch | Blizzard Entertainment | [109] | |
| Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle | December 20, 2017 | Feature film | Sony Pictures Releasing | Jumanji | N/a | [110] |
See also
Notes
- Not including PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, as PUBG Corporation did not share its sales figures with the NPD Group.
- Not including PC digital sales
- Not including digital sales