December in Gaming is Quiet... But That's Nothing New

By: Ryan Ramakrishnan

It is almost December and subsequently the end of another year of too many games to play. Over the last 11 months, many titles have released across all platforms. Many of 2019’s game of the year contenders hit store shelves and digital marketplaces alike over the course of September to now. With “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order” and “Pokemon: Sword and Shield” releasing last Friday, it is almost completely safe to say I have no new games coming out to worry about until next year. And I have a strong feeling that others can say the same.

But we still have a whole month. It sounds like I am skipping December. Sure I am worked for the holidays but the month is anything but exciting when it comes to brand new game releases. A quick dive into the titles still to come for the remainder of 2019 proved to me that the final month of the whole decade is going to be one of the quietest yet in gaming. But that’s expected.

I revisited December and its game release schedule over the decade and found a pattern. The trend is that it is a quiet month for games coming out, especially given the fact that it follows some of the most jam-packed months in the form of October and November, even September as of late. So the big fall releases really are just fall and not holiday season after all.

DISCLAIMER: the games releases I researched for December 2010 to December 2018 exclude ports. I found a ton of notably great games with December release dates but those were ports to other platforms. I am strictly going by initial launch.