Project 8: Data Analysis Post
Video games have been an important part of my life since I could remember. From playing Nintendo when I was just five years old, to playing Xbox when I was 10 years old, to currently playing Playstation. Growing up into video games wasn’t just something I chose, it was something I was born with.
Since I was given so many options of games to choose from, I wanted to visualize the success of different video game companies I’ve touched base with growing up. Every company has made an impact on what I like to play and what I like to see in new media in the future. I picked 10 different companies to see how much they have earned since I experienced them as a child, and saw their success in the coming years.
In this project, I visualized the growth in net worth of 10 popular video game companies, from the year 2005 to the year 2015. To find this data, I used popular trend websites Statista and Macrotrends. I used two different sources of data because some companies I chose weren’t as popular in 2005 as they are in recent years.
The companies I chose were: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Take Two, Valve Corp, Ubisoft, Activision, Bandai Namco, Capcom, and Electronic Arts. Each name is linked to their individual trend pages, where I found a table listing their net worth over several years. I decided to stay between 2005 and 2015 to see a simple 10-year growth, which was a majority of my life with video games.
To clarify, I am aware that Sony and Microsoft are more than just video game companies. However, I still found them important to include since they are better known for entertainment.
Starting with the first (top) visual, we can see where these 10 companies were at the end of 2005 financially. Sony ranks very high at the top, with 1.524 billion dollars. Sony is coincidentally my favorite companies, with games like Spiderman and Infamous being some of my favorite games. Microsoft and Take Two follow not far behind, just shy of $200 million. Ubisoft rolls in last with only 29 million under their belt.
Now comparing ten years later to 2015, we can see that Sony is still the top dog at $31.3 billion, which is almost a 30-billion dollar increase in ten years. Activision still leads not far behind, being only $3 billion less roughly. Capcom made its home at the bottom, from what I can only guess is because their decrease in game popularity. Although they were still in the market, their games were making less and less than other competition.
Overall, each company has increased by at the least $30 billion. Valve Corp. had the biggest growth, with their success in the globally-popular game market Steam. Without Steam, Valve would probably not be as popular as they were in 2005. Bandai Namco had the least amount of change, growing only 3x since 2005. As important as all these companies are to me, I am glad to see that they are still succeeding, which means I can still play games like I did as a child.
