I’ve shared videos of my Destiny spacecraft flying cinematically over the planet and taken snaps of my Exo looking cool (so I think) against a dramatic backdrop. A friend still regularly shares beautiful Skyrim vistas on Facebook.
Some games encourage this behaviour, and know full well that virtual photography like this encourages people to buy and keep playing. Photo mode was introduced way back in 2005 with Gran Turismo 4.
Which games are most popular for virtual photography?
Hardware company Crucial.com have been mining Instagram to find out which game is the most popular with virtual photographers.
| Game | Year released | Total Number of Instagram Posts | Number of Photography Posts | Percentage of Game Photography |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2018 | 2186388 | 457005 | 20.90% |
| Ghost of Tsushima | 2020 | 380397 | 65990 | 17.35% |
| No Man’s Sky | 2016 | 195557 | 27905 | 14.27% |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 2020 | 1051955 | 83145 | 7.90% |
| Horizon Forbidden West | 2022 | 148846 | 7824 | 5.26% |
| Spider-Man: Miles Morales | 2020 | 84283 | 2719 | 3.23% |
| Death Stranding | 2019 | 379743 | 9657 | 2.54% |
| God of War | 2018 | 1199637 | 24572 | 2.05% |
| Grand Theft Auto V | 2013 | 8216777 | 164451 | 2.00% |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | 2020 | 328597 | 6107 | 1.86% |
Are these the most beautiful games?
Red Dead Redemption is the most popular game for video game photography, with over 20% of Instagram posts about the Western adventure being game photos.
Horizon: Forbidden West just came out, but it’s already in the top 5 most popular virtual photography games, with more posts than games that came out a few years ago.
Some of the most popular games for photography are Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, which also have some of the highest system requirements. No doubt that’s the point hardware shop Crucial.com want to make!
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