Which Xbox and Summer Game Fest games made the most headlines?

It’s been quite a week for the games industry with not one, not two, but… well, lots of live shows and events taking place last week and more to come later this month.

Arguably two of the biggest were Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, which aired on Friday, and the Xbox Games Showcase, which went live on Sunday – both promising big announcements and fresh looks at upcoming software.

Interestingly enough, Geoff would introduce his show via a Twitch Q&A by clarifying that this year’s Summer Game Fest would focus more on already announced titles rather than massive premieres. In retrospect, it was a smart move; the overall feedback is quite critical of the show, with over 40% of its 250,000+ gamers giving it a D grade and less than 10% an A grade (according to Geoff’s own survey on X).

A few days later, Xbox would deliver one of its best showcases in years, at a point where it desperately needed it, with a number of high-profile games set to release in 2024, 2025 and beyond. Once again, another poll from Geoff on

But how did the games do with the press? Which ones made headlines and stole the spotlight after the two shows?

Rather than just looking at the number of articles, Fansensus’ Flare Score also takes into account a host of other metrics, including the reach of approximately 3,000 recommended websites, the split between headline and title-only articles, and the presence of articles on the front page of a website. Essentially, it provides an overall performance that focuses on quality and not just quantity, awarding a score of 100.

When you look at the 24-hour window after each of the two respective shows, it’s clear that the Xbox Games Showcase had the bigger impact on the press; the top five grossing titles all appear in this show, with another three in the top ten.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 saw the greatest success, not only scoring the highest Flare score overall, but also by a huge margin, likely due to the fact that it had its own showing after the Xbox Games Showcase.

When we look at the entire list, two things stand out; The first was Summer Game Fest, a weaker show in terms of big name titles and fresh new reveals (with the exception of Lego Horizon Adventures and a few other arguably notable announcements), with the Flare Scores of featured games perhaps reflecting Geoff’s comments.

Xbox, meanwhile, came out of the gate with fire, the true power of the massive array of studios acquired being truly palpable. Activision Blizzard, MachineGames, Id Software, Compulsion Games, Playground Games… all with something to show, and something big too.

The second takeaway is that even though the industry is going through a tumultuous time, this hasn’t stopped established franchises from making their presence known. 17 of the Top 20 titles come from existing franchises/brands.

With embargoes set to ease over the course of the week, it will be interesting to see the tail end of some of these games beyond their initial 24-hour run.

Top 20 games from Summer Game Fest or Xbox Games Showcase with the highest Flare Score 24 hours after the respective showcase