First a prelude of sorts. While wandering around different gaming forums, I came across lots of people complaining ABC console is less diverse but found no hard facts(numbers) to back that up. After the great response (and criticism) for my previous five-parter series Consoles in Numbers ( links can be found at the end of this article) , I thought why not find the facts about genre diversity. Hence, here we are with a new series focusing on genre diversity and we start with PlayStation 4.

A Short History of Source Data

The data consists of genre info for all games released in PlayStation 4 collected from different sources (Steam, Metacritic to name a few).

To make the visualization readable, we are using two dimensional matrix, which means a title can have multiple entries in count. Example: Bloodborne’s genre is Action,Adventure,Role-playing, so it will appear in Action-Adventure, Action-Role Playing and Adventure-Role Playing cells.

One title can have multiple entries due to diverse genre

Matching classes (e.g. Action-Action) refer to any game which does not have any other two genre combination.

The analysis is based on all the games released from 1st January,2016 to 1st June,2017.

Now off with the analysis.

Analysis

Not much words required for analysis because visualizations speak loads more than mere words. Below is the Genre Diversity Matrix for PlayStation 4 games with 15 genres covered.

Surprisingly, Action-Shooter leads with 149 entries considering PS4 is often considered not shooter heavy. Action-adventure trails close with 146 entries

From the heat map above, it is apparent that PS4 is dominated by Action genres with all red categories contain Action as genre. Surprisingly, Action-Shooter leads wit 149 entries with Action-adventure(PS4 is regularly stereotyped as this genre-heavy console) trailing close with 146 entries.Action-Platformer is next with 107 entries in last one and a half years.

Outside of action categories, pure Strategy titles lead with 75 entries. RPG and adventure are next with 67 and 63 entries respectively.

Filtering the Worthy

Generalized genre heatmap like above confirms what we have known for years(or at least since the 3D era)- The action genre is what people wants. But does the same holds true for play-worthy games.

Below is the same heatmap for games having metacritic critic score>=75.

The action categories still lead but they are not as dominant as before. And worthy matrix reveals a startling fact. Less than 20% titles in most genres are play-worthy.

For strategy games, the chance of a play-worthy game dips down to 16% probably highlighting consoles’ drawbacks to capture the essence of the genre yet

Leading genres like action-adventures and action-shooter has the probability of 28% and 20% respectively of having a play-worthy game. In case of strategy games, it dips down to 16% probably highlighting consoles’ drawbacks to capture the essence of strategy genre.

Itching for a puzzle game? Purchasing without research will leave you with a bad quality game 9 out of 10 times.

Itching for a puzzle game? Purchasing without research will leave you with a bad quality game 9 out of 10 times

End Notes

To sum up, not so much genre diversity with Shooters and Action-Adventures ruling the field. But the key takeaway is research before you buy. Otherwise, more than 80% time you will get sub-par product.

As other consoles’ results are not available, it is difficult to comment on whether the symptom is for PS4 only or consistent through all consoles. We will soon find the answer, as I’m planning to do the same for other consoles in coming weeks.

That’s it for today. Stay tuned and keep on commenting and sharing your views.

You can also keep up with our previous five-parter series Consoles in Numbers by visiting the links below: