🎮 Video Games Market Analysis

📌 Project Overview

Conducted exploratory data analysis for "Streamchik", an international video game retailer, to identify key factors driving game success. The analysis helps the company focus on potentially popular products and optimize marketing strategies based on historical sales data and user preferences.

🎯 Objective

Identify patterns that determine game success across different platforms, genres, and regions to:

• Guide future game acquisition decisions
• Optimize marketing campaigns
• Understand regional market preferences
• Predict potential bestsellers before launch

📊 Dataset Description

Historical data on video game sales (up to 2016) including:

• Game information: Name, Platform, Release year, Genre
• Sales metrics: North America, Europe, Japan, and Other regions (in million copies)
• Ratings: Critic scores (0-100), User scores (0-10), ESRB age ratings

🔍 Methodology

Data Preparation

• Cleaned and preprocessed dataset (16,715 game entries)
• Handled missing values in release years, ratings, and user scores
• Standardized rating categories and created total sales metric
• Identified and removed duplicate entries

Market Analysis

• Analyzed sales trends across platforms and time periods
• Determined optimal analysis timeframe (2014-2016 for current market relevance)
• Evaluated platform lifecycles (average 10-year relevance period)
• Created regional user profiles for NA, EU, and JP markets
• Tested hypotheses about rating impacts on sales

Regional Analysis

• Compared platform preferences across North America, Europe, and Japan
• Analyzed genre popularity differences by region
• Examined relationship between critic/user scores and sales performance

📈 Key Insights

Top Strategic Findings:

• Platform relevance typically lasts 10 years (except PC which remains consistently popular)
• North America and Europe show similar preferences, while Japan has distinct tastes
• Action and Shooter genres dominate Western markets, while Role-Playing games lead in Japan
• Critic scores strongly correlate with sales, while user scores show weaker correlation
• ESRB "M" (Mature) rating games generate highest revenue globally

Regional Insights:

• North America: PS4/Xbox dominate, Shooter/Action preferred
• Europe: Similar to NA but with stronger PC presence
• Japan: Nintendo platforms lead, Role-Playing games most popular

The analysis provides actionable insights for targeted game acquisition and region-specific marketing strategies, helping the company maximize ROI by focusing on high-potential games and platforms.