Pop open a bag of Doritos, crack a Mountain Dew, and fire up the PlayStation — it’s National Video Game Day!
To celebrate, BetTennessee.com takes a break from Tennessee sports betting updates by ranking the most popular video games in the state. Our analysis looked at the Statista’s data on last year’s Top 10 best-selling video game franchises. We also used Google Trends to evaluate what video games generated the most search engine traffic between June 27, 2022 and June 27, 2023.
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Tennessee’s Favorite Video Games
See below to find out which video games Tennessee residents love the most.
| Rank | Video Game Franchise | Search Interest (Compared To Topics During Same Timespan) |
| 1 | Minecraft | 46 |
| 2 | Pokémon | 39 |
| 3 | LEGO | 23 |
| 4 | Grand Theft Auto | 22 |
| 5 | Super Mario | 17 |
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Minecraft Holds At No. 1
At No. 1 is the hugely successful video game Minecraft. Not only is Minecraft the most popular game in Tennessee, but it’s also the best-selling video game of all time — over 200 million copies have been sold worldwide.
As simple as it is engrossing, Minecraft was created by Swedish video game developer Markus Persson, who began work on the open-world builder in 2009. Two years later Minecraft 1.0 was released, taking the world by storm. Then in 2014, Persson sold Majong, the company he founded while developing Minecraft, to Microsoft for a walloping $2.5 billion dollars.
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Tennessee Video Games: The Runners-Up
Tennessee’s second favorite video game is Pokémon. The adventure RPG centered around collecting and training battle monsters has exploded in the popular consciousness since Nintendo first released it in the late 90s.
In fact, the game has even inspired its own international competition called the Pokémon World Championship. This eSports challenge is an invite-only event, with players earning their spot through a series of local qualifiers. Tennessee residents may recall that Nashville hosted the Pokémon World Championship at the Music City Center back in 2018.
We counted the LEGO games as the third favorite video game of Tennessee residents. Over Twenty LEGO video games have been released, with most adapting the narrative of a popular feature film with LEGO-brick-style animation. And yes, if you’re wondering, there is a LEGO game based on 2014’s “The Lego Movie.”
The fourth most popular is Grand Theft Auto. The notoriously violent game allows players to run amok in fictionalized American cities, stealing cars and beating up strangers — whether or not you actually complete the game’s many missions is totally up to the player. Fans of the long-running series have been waiting since 2013 for the next GTA release. It’s scheduled to become available sometime in 2024 or 2025.
Finally, Super Mario — possibly the most recognizable video game character of all-time — rates out as Tennessee’s fifth favorite game. Hot off the success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” it was announced last month that the mustachioed plumber will next appear in a new video game called Super Mario Bros. Wonder, set to debut later this year.
While playing any of these five games is a great option on National Video Game Day, you may also want to consider placing an eSports wager at one of the best Tennessee sportsbook apps.
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Author
Jeff Parker is an entertainment writer for BetTennessee.com. A writer for film, television and the internet, Jeff is a life long movie buff, with a Masters Degree in Popular Culture. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he works full time as documentary filmmaker and producer.
