Less than a month after its release, the online video game Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has become the most downloaded ever by PlayStation Plus subscribers worldwide. Digital copies of the game purchased from PCs have so far reached 7 million, for a total of over 22 million players distributed in eighty countries: thirty-three percent in the United States, eight percent in the United Kingdom, six percent. in Japan and almost three per cent in Italy.
They are considered exceptional numbers, also because it is an online game with a simple and essential structure, with puppets that run in bulk to avoid being eliminated, which can be played with just four commands. Yet it is believed that there are very specific reasons behind its success, starting with the period in which it was published.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a platform video game developed by Mediatonic and inspired by television shows such as Takeshi's Castle and Wipeout, those in which competitors were called upon to overcome obstacle courses to eliminate all opponents until victory. Each game of Fall Guys begins with sixty players randomly taken online. Level after level, each player must try to survive, finishing courses before the others or participating in team elimination games. There are no shortcuts or tricks and you only have one chance per game. The more you play, the more points you earn for customizing your character.
Never lose hope when you're playing Fall Guys ????
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– B / R Gaming (@BRGaming) August 19, 2020
Less than a month after its release, there is already talk of new levels and collaborations with brands from all over the world, which would like to take advantage of its visibility. The opinion among players and industry experts is that there are at least two or three factors behind the success of Fall Guys. The first is accessibility. The game is in fact still free for PlayStation Plus members, while its retail price does not exceed twenty euros. The games start quickly and there are no waiting times, often long, common to many other online games. Anyone can play it, not being complicated at all: it is played with three keys, in addition to the directional ones, and roughly you have to run, jump and push. The characters are different in appearance but not in performance.
He finally did it! timthetatman gets his first win in Fall Guys ???? @ESPN_Esports
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– ESPN (@espn) August 19, 2020
The variety of levels, which will also be updated frequently, eliminates the risk that such an elementary game also becomes repetitive and therefore boring in the long run. There is also a reason linked to the period that has been going through almost the whole world for a few months now. There is no violence in Fall Guys, just a little bit of cruelty. There's no shooting like in Fortnite and there's no gloomy atmosphere in Call of Duty: Warzone, for example – it's a fun and carefree way to spend time with fifty-nine other strangers and overexcited players, who will soon become even more numerous. . The game should arrive soon in the Chinese market and then also on smartphones and for the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch consoles.