What Are the Most Popular Games and Genres in Mexico Today?
You may not immediately associate Mexico with the burgeoning $300 billion global video games industry, but the reality is that the nation is a hotbed of gaming fans. In fact, it has long emerged as the largest gaming market in Latin America, paving the way for wider adoption and development of homegrown titles in the Hispanosphere.
But what exactly are Mexico’s favourite games and genres? While this can be difficult to accurately ascertain, a cursory glance at regional best-seller lists and player numbers for multiplayer titles, where available, can give us a reasonable approximation.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Activision-Blizzard’s premier franchise FPS Call of Duty performs strongly in the Mexican market, as it does just about everywhere else. It is arguably the most popular multiplayer online triple-A title played in Mexico today. Though in most regions, it is the PlayStation 5 version that enjoys the greatest success, Mexico is unusual for being one of the few markets with Microsoft and the Xbox performing significantly better than rivals Sony.
In fact, a report from 2020 found that the Xbox accounts for over 60% of the console market here, with PlayStation a distant second at 29%. Import fees, legacy affiliations and the fact that Mexico serves as a vital manufacturing base for much of the US’ high tech industry are all reasonable factors for why it should buck the global trend in this way.
Online Slots
While it’s tricky to come by accurate regional figures for how many slots players are active in Mexico, there are multiple reasons why this classic game mode is guaranteed a place in our top-list here.
For one, Mexico as a developing economy experiences a gaming platform metric skewed towards mobile titles. Based on the findings of a large-scale survey conducted by DFC Intelligence, in markets such as Latin American, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia gamers are 1.5 times more likely to use their smartphone as their primary or sole gaming device, with household penetration of costly gaming PCs and consoles typically lower.
This pitches game choices in the direction of mobile titles – and of the various mobile-optimized games that are available on both iOS and Android, browser-based online slots are far and away the most popular.
The secret to their success is manifold, with their on-demand accessibility considered a key driver in their popularity. Another big element is the sheer variety and multiplicity of slots titles available out there. On reputable platforms furnishing players with online slots one can find a number of Mexico-themed titles to explore including Calavera Crush, Lucha Loot and Wild Chapo.
FIFA 23
Among the best performing franchises in the history of Mexico’s video game market, EA Sports’ annual FIFA soccer games are seldom far from the top. Whether this will continue following FIFA’s acrimonious split from EA at the end of the 2022 remains to be seen, with the series being rebranded as EA Sports FC going forward.
But in a country as soccer mad as Mexico, it’s reasonable to assume that any game that offers a best-in-class digital soccer experience will continue to do well here, with over 58% of the population considered fans of The Beautiful Game.
PUBG Mobile
While Mexico may be slower than other regions to catch the esports craze, its mobile-dominant market favours those competitive titles optimised for this format, with PUBG Mobile currently considered far and away the most popular in the country today.
This game, in its PC incarnation, kick-started the craze for battle royale games that has had an enormous impact on the wider games industry. That it manages to remain the most popular example of this genre, even after major studios like Activision-Blizzard have moved in to capture market share with their CoD: Warzone series, is even more impressive.
PUBG Mobile has been surging in popularity in recent years, and now outranks many more traditional console and PC-based esports, thanks in no small part to its popularity in developing smartphone-centric gaming markets like Mexico.
