Netflix Announces Its Top 10 Most Popular Movies Of All Time

In addition to confirming the most popular movies and TV shows of 2020 so far, Netflix has announced (via Deadline) the most-watched original movies on the platform of all time over their first four weeks.

The Chris Hemsworth action movie Extraction ranks No. 1–it was seen by 99 million households worldwide over its first four weeks. The movie was written by Avengers’ veterans Joe and Anthony Russo, and it was directed by stunts expert Sam Hargrave.

Following at No. 2 is the 2018 Sandra Bullock movie Bird Box, which was seen by 89 million homes in its first four weeks. After that, the Mark Wahlberg movie Spenser Confidential ranks No. 3 (85 million views over its first 28 days), with 6 Underground (83 million) and Murder Mystery (73 million) rounding out the top five.

Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman was No. 7 with 64 million homes watching it over its first four weeks. The movie picked up 10 Oscar nominations last year, but it did not win any.

It might be surprising to see that only one Adam Sandler movie, Murder Mystery, ranks on this list. Sander’s movies are wildly popular on Netflix–racking up more than 2 billion streaming hours–and the streaming Netflix has signed Sandler for four more films. Murder Mystery was, however, the most popular movie on Netflix in 2019.

Even if the numbers are sort of whack–requiring only a small amount of watch time to count as a view–they showcase which shows on Netflix claims are most popular.

Netflix Top 10 Original Movies All Time

Over first four weeks

  1. Extraction — 99M
  2. Bird Box — 89M
  3. Spenser Confidential — 85M
  4. 6 Underground — 83M
  5. Murder Mystery — 73M
  6. The Old Guard — 72M
  7. The Irishman — 64M
  8. Triple Frontier — 63M
  9. The Wrong Missy — 59M
  10. The Platform — 56M

Despite the impact of COVID-19 on Netflix’s ability to produce content, the network is planning to launch even more new content in 2021.

Now Playing: Top New Games Out On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Week — July 19-25, 2020

Top New Games Releasing On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Week — July 19-25, 2020

New Releases is here to highlight some of the top new games launching each week, and this episode features some indies you shouldn’t let slip under your radar, like the 8-bit Panzer Paladin, the bloody Carrion, and the snow-covered Roki. Nintendo Switch also proves its power with Crysis Remastered, and Dying Light gets its new Hellraid DLC.

Panzer Paladin — July 21

Available on: PC, Switch

This platformer puts you in control of Flame. The little pilot can take on the game’s 17 stages himself or hop into his mech suit to really bring the heat. While in the suit, you can steal weapons from enemies and turn them against your foes, or snap the weapons in half to unleash powerful magic. There are more than 100 of them to wield.

More Coverage:

Crysis Remastered — July 23

Available on: Switch

Crysis Remastered
Crysis Remastered

Crysis was once the benchmark title for top-of-the-line PCs, and after a delay, the remaster is coming first to Switch. As you explore its open world, you can wield all sorts of weapons as you battle enemy soldiers and aliens–some firefights even happen in zero gravity. Your super-powered suit lets you bring the pain with a variety of powers, too.

More Coverage:

Carrion — July 23

Available on: Xbox One, PC, Switch

Carrion
Carrion

Carrion is being called a “reverse horror game” because you actually play as the monster. Your goal is to escape the facility where you’ve been tortured by scientists and guards, and you’ll get your revenge as you grow in size and gain new powers. Xbox Game Pass subscribers can jump in on day one.

More Coverage:

Dying Light: Hellraid — July 23

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Dying Light: Hellraid

Hellraid was once a totally separate game from developer Techland, but it was put on hold. A few years later, the studio has revived the game as DLC for Dying Light. You can leave Dying Light’s city streets behind as you step into a tower filled with medieval monsters. As you take runs through the tower, you’ll rank up and earn new weapons–and those weapons can be taken back into the main game too.

More Coverage:

Roki — July 23

Available on: PC, Switch

Roki

Roki is based on Scandinavian folklore, so expect to encounter a few different monsters on your journey. Protagonist Tove goes into the wilderness to find her missing family, and her quest will include exploration and puzzle-solving. Her handy journal will help you keep track of where you’ve been and the loot you’ve collected.

July isn’t over just yet. Next week, New Releases will wrap the month up with some chances to revisit games you might’ve missed the first time around: the Destroy All Humans remake and the Xbox One release of Yakuza Kiwami 2.

Now Playing: Top New Games Out On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Week — July 19-25, 2020

PGA Tour 2K21 Will Have Some Commentary Lines That Only Ever Play Once

PGA Tour 2K21 is releasing August 21, and it’ll contain some audio lines that players will hear once and then never again. The commentary team of Luke Elvy and Rich Beem recorded some lines while “in full flight” that won’t repeat after you hear them the first time.

This news comes via a tweet by John McCarthy, the senior audio designer at developer HB-Studios, which previous developed The Golf Club series. He says that he’s been going over the commentary, and found a “classic” that he had forgotten about.

What exactly this means isn’t clear, but judging from the tweet, they’ll likely be strange, funny lines. McCarthy gave one example to Elvy when he asked what he was referring to, discussing an “aside” that will make its way into the final game.

We also know that these two commentators will also make fun of you if you make a bad shot, which should be interesting.

The EA-produced PGA Tour series also had some strange, self-referential commentary–one of the commentators in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 would sometimes explicitly reference the fact that you were playing a video game, rather than real golf.

PGA Tour 2K21 has revealed several of its courses, including the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut and TPC Summerlin from Las Vegas, Nevada, along with 13 others. We also have the full player roster and a pre-order guide.

Now Playing: The Golf Club 2019 – Official Announcement Trailer

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After A Long Wait, NHL 21 News Is Finally Coming Soon

NHL 21 was nowhere to be seen at EA Play Live in June, but it seems the game may finally be getting close to its proper reveal. The game’s community manager said in a July 17-dated tweet that a an “update” on NHL 21 is coming sometime this week.

EA not announcing NHL 21 at EA Play was no surprise given that the company historically focuses on FIFA and Madden in June before announcing the year’s new NHL game later on.

The real-world NHL season will resume on August 1, and hockey fans are in for a treat. Instead of playing out the rest of the regular season, the NHL is picking up with the playoffs. An expanded roster of 24 teams will compete, and there will be five or six games per day at the beginning.

NHL 21 is expected to release on PS4 and Xbox One, while the game will also presumably be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X through backwards compatibility. EA’s Madden NFL 21 has a “Dual Entitlement” program where you can receive a free upgrade to the PS5/Xbox Series X edition of the game, but no such program has been announced for NHL 21 as of yet.

EA’s NHL series has recently made headlines for how NHL 20 features racist player and team names. EA is taking action against these offending players, while the game has been updated with a new new splash page about Black Lives Matter.

Now Playing: EA Sports Montage | EA Play 2020

Jurassic World: Dominion Is Filming Again, And One Actor Is Amassing New Bruises

Jurassic World: Domination has returned to filming, after the shoot stopped in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK set, which has had over $5 million spent on making it safe, is now housing actors Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, and a returning trio from the original. And now we have photos showing that filming has started–and Howard is amassing bruises.

Howard, who has played the character Claire in the last two Jurassic World movies, posted a “Throwback Thursday” photo of herself and co-star Chris Pratt, both of whom have been isolating together in the UK for weeks ahead of the shoot.

Pratt prompted Howard, via Twitter, to post photos of some of the bruises she’s gotten doing stunt work. It’s unclear whether these are also “throwback” photos, but the tweet text indicates pretty clearly that she’s performing own stunts again right now.

Howard has previously talked about the precautions being taken on set to ensure that everyone is safe from the pandemic. “We would never go back to work if we didn’t feel safe,” she said in June. “And, you know, we’re taking it a day at a time and I’m very grateful to have a job.”

Colin Trevorrow, who directed 2015’s Jurassic World, is coming back to direct Dominion. J.A. Bayona directed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and now he’s directing the Lord of the Rings TV show.

Now Playing: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review

Madden 21–See Player Ratings For All 2000+ Players In The Game

After drip-feeding the initial Madden NFL 21 player ratings–including all five 99-rated players–EA Sports has now released the player ratings for every single athlete in the game.

You can search through this database on EA’s website to see how your favorite players stack up against the competition. There are more than 2,300 entries on the site, and there are filters for team, position, division, and more. The widget also lets you compare player ratings on the fly.

As usual, these are the “launch” ratings, and these numbers will change regularly throughout the season depending on how the players perform on the field.

There is a new level of uncertainty around the NFL this year due to COVID-19. With just weeks to go before the NFL pre-season is set to kick off in August, the NFL and the players’ union have not agreed to a return-to-work plan that includes new health and safety measures. Despite that, the 2020-2021 NFL season is expected to begin in early September.

Madden NFL 21’s five 99-rated players include Aaron Donald, Christian McCaffrey, Michael Thomas, Patrick Mahomes, and Stephon Gilmore.

For more Madden NFL 21 ratings, here’s the list of the top ten quarterbacks in the game. You can also read more about how Madden NFL 21 improves AI and expands the playbooks.

In other news, EA Sports has confirmed that it’s making a last-minute change to Madden NFL 21 to remove the Washington Redskins after the real-world sports team dropped the name that was widely criticized for being racist. The game will be updated with a generic Washington team and logo until the actual sports group decides on and announces a new name.

Madden NFL 21 is coming on August 28 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It will also be coming to the next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X, with free upgrades for current-gen owners through EA’s Dual Entitlement program. For more details, check out our Madden NFL 21 pre-order guide.

Now Playing: EA Sports Montage | EA Play 2020

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Dead By Daylight Is Adding Cross-Play And Progression Across All Consoles

Dead By Daylight is getting a big update for the console versions soon, and it will add cross-play and progression to the game, as well as letting you access your full list of friends who are playing the game across different systems.

In an update on the game’s site, the development team has detailed how all of this will work. The game, which already features cross-play between the Steam and Windows 10 versions, and after extensive testing the game’s team is planning on expanding out further.

Cross-play and friends lists are coming to the Switch, PS4, and Xbox One versions of the games, allowing them to play with friends on other consoles or on the PC version. A specific date has not been set, but it’s “coming really soon,” the post says. The team will continue to monitor the situation once the update is live to make sure that the game is balanced and fair. Players will also be able to opt-out if they want to.

The upcoming Stadia version is not part of this line-up, but it will be receiving cross-progression. The first rollout of cross-progression will target the Stadia, PC, and Switch versions in September, and players “will be able to share their progression, purchases, and inventory.” Making this possible was pretty complicated, the post explains, so players will need to create a new “Behaviour Account” to merge their progression between systems.

The post also addresses the mobile version of the game, and says that making it part of their cross-play agenda is not on the cards for now. “The game system and architecture are significantly different,” the post explains. “We are prioritizing the release of cross-play between PC & Consoles first to make sure that the experience is smooth for the players on those platforms.”

Dead by Daylight recently added Silent Hill content, which is the closest thing we’ve had to a new Silent Hill game in some time.

Now Playing: Dead by Daylight – Official Stadia Announcement Trailer

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Halo Infinite Partnership With Mondo Teased For Reveal At Comic-Con This Week

Mondo, the American art company that makes collectibles, posters, apparel, and more, has teased a collaboration with Microsoft for Halo Infinite.

Mondo will make some kind of Halo Infinite announcement on July 24 as part of the virtual San Diego Comic-Con, known as Comic-Con At Home. July 24 is one day after the July 23 Xbox Series X showcase where Microsoft will show more of Halo Infinite’s campaign.

There is no word on what Mondo might be creating for Halo Infinite, but the company is well known for selling very stylish posters for The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, among others. Mondo has worked with numerous big-name pop culture franchises over the years, and Halo is just the latest.

Given that merchandising is a big part of the Halo series, you can expect further partnerships beyond Mondo. Microsoft has already announced a partnership with Mega Bloks for new Halo Infinite toys, and the latest batch leaked some story details about the game.

For more on Comic-Con At Home, check out GameSpot’s hub page to discover everything you need to know.

Now Playing: Halo Infinite Master Chief Trailer | Microsoft Press Conference E3 2019

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No Man’s Sky Has Gained 1 Million New Players Since Coming To Xbox Game Pass

No Man’s Sky, the huge open-universe exploration game that has continued to expand since release, recently came to Xbox Game Pass. It’s been a bit over a month since the game joined the service, and according to programmer Sean Murray it’s led to a huge increase in players.

Posting to Xbox News about the game’s Desolation update and the addition of crossplay to the game, Murray has revealed that a huge number of new players has joined the game through Game Pass.

“Last month we welcomed over a million new players into No Man’s Sky by virtue of Xbox Game Pass and the Windows 10 release,” he writes. “This, together with our cross-play update, meant that we are seeing some of our biggest ever in-game numbers, all playing together regardless of their gaming platform.”

Murray calls this huge boost in players “genuinely humbling.”

We’ve reviewed No Man’s Sky three times as the game has received updates and improved, and its current iteration earned a 9/10. “The drastic improvements made to No Man’s Sky in its Beyond expansion are the new gold standard for how to gracefully cope with a game’s flaws post-release,” wrote reviewer Justin Clark.

Now Playing: No Man’s Sky – Exo Mech Trailer

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Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Responds To Price Increase For Next-Gen Games

Recently, 2K Sports announced that NBA 2K21 for PS5/Xbox Series X will cost $70 USD, which is a $10 price increase from the $60 USD that has been commonplace since the Xbox 360/PS3 era. Other publishers are expected to follow suit and raise prices for next-gen games, but the full picture has not yet become clear. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has now commented on the matter, telling The Washington Post that he sees no problem with the price increase. Gamers will ultimately vote with their wallets, after all.

“As an industry, we can price things whatever we want to price them, and the customer will decide what the right price is for them,” Spencer said. “I’m not negative on people setting a new price point for games because I know everybody’s going to drive their own decisions based on their own business needs. But gamers have more choice today than they ever have. In the end, I know the customer is in control of the price that they pay, and I trust that system.”

Spencer declined to say if Microsoft’s own new games will cost $70 USD, but the situation at Xbox is somewhat different. With Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft offers a subscription service that gets you all first-party Xbox games for around $10 USD per month.

Before the $10 price increase for NBA 2K21 was announced, PlayStation boss Shawn Layden spoke about how the current AAA games business is unsustainable.

“It’s been $59.99 since I started in this business, but the cost of games have gone up ten times,” Layden told GI.biz. “If you don’t have elasticity on the price-point, but you have huge volatility on the cost line, the model becomes more difficult. I think this generation is going to see those two imperatives collide.”

IDG Consulting’s Yoshio Osaki said that, despite increasing development costs, the price of games has not increased in the same way that something like a Netflix subscription has. “Even with the increase to $69.99 for next-gen, that price increase from 2005 to 2020 next-gen is only up 17%, far lower than the other comparisons,” he said. “While the cost of development and publishing have gone up, and pricing in other entertainment verticals has also gone up substantially, next-gen software pricing has not reflected these increases. $59.99 to $69.99 does not even cover these other cost increases completely, but does move it more in the proper direction.”

Osaki added that he believes other publishers are “exploring moving their next-gen pricing up on certain franchises.”

Now Playing: First Look Xbox Series X – Full Presentation