People used to say video games are for kids, but let’s be honest, there’s a part inside us that still likes to feel like a child. For many, that glimpse returns us to memories of our favorite video games. Today, those lasting experiences are being built by the NBA 2K basketball series that has dominated the landscape since EA Sports’ NBA Live faded out of the picture in 2010. The once-popular series has released just five games on consoles since.
Their dismissal has only paved the way for NBA 2K to completely overtake the basketball video game community over the past few decades. It’s gotten to the point where EA Sports has thrown in the towel on creating basketball games, not releasing a new one since 2018.
It’s a complete 180 from them leading the way with the Madden NFL series, which faces zero competition due to EA Sports holding an exclusive rights deal with the NFL, giving access to actual players and teams.
There is no such law in place for producing basketball video games, but that hasn’t prevented the NBA 2K series from becoming the best in the business anyway. In fact, the NBA 2K series isn’t just the best basketball game made today, it’s also now the most popular video game in the United States, according to research conducted by OHgamblers.
After analyzing several Google searches, the sports gaming experts from OHgamblers determined that NBA 2K has catapulted to becoming the top-searched video game across 31 states. Massachusetts, New York, and California were the states most interested in searching for information about the game.
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NBA 2K first debuted in 1999 and has been releasing a new basketball game every year since, providing updated rosters and ratings for each player. As technology has improved over the years, bringing better graphics to nearly every edition, NBA 2K is as popular as ever.
Now there’s even an eSports NBA 2K League featuring gamers going toe-to-toe with other competitors throughout a full season, just as the actual NBA plays through the playoffs, culminating in an eventual NBA Finals victory for a hard-earned winner. All done by a controller instead of sweating it out on the hardwood.
But you don’t have to be a highly-competitive gamer to enjoy what NBA 2K offers and many fans have found that to remain true even with the onslaught of eSports taking over the gaming community.
NBA 2K23, the 24th edition of the series, featured Devin Booker on the cover of the standard edition and was released on September 9, 2022. As of this past May, the game had sold over 11 million copies.
NBA 2K24 is expected to drop sometime in early September, causing a frenzy of sports video game sales all over again. But will it hold the crown as the most popular game in the United States for the second year in a row? We’ll just have to wait to find out.
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