In this year’s report on the Top 100 global brands published by BrandZ, it was deemed that Xbox is a more valuable global brand than competitors Sony and Nintendo. Both Microsoft and Xbox were on the list separately, whereas Nintendo and Sony both failed to break the Top 100. This change comes as a surprise since Xbox also didn’t make the same Top 100 list in 2018, indicating a surge of market value.
The report, published by BrandZ and reported by Financial Times, displayed numerous interesting data points regarding the U.S. economy and brand recognition. In order to create the ranking system, BrandZ “calculates the value that brand contributes to businesses by combining financial and market data with surveys of nearly 4m consumers in 51 countries on their views about brands.” One of the biggest overall points that this year’s ranking proved was the growing superpower of Amazon, which hit number one and broke the previous “duopoly” of Google and Apple, which were consistently the first and second places respectively.
For the gaming industry, the data was surprising in that only Xbox made the cut. Landing at number 87, Xbox managed to earn a place on the list whereas Sony and Nintendo did not, suggesting Xbox is a more valuable global brand than its close competitors in the gaming industry. Xbox’s parent company Microsoft was also at the top of the ranks, sitting pretty at number four.
This surge in value for Xbox and the absence of Sony and Nintendo (neither of which were on the 2018 list either) raised a few eyebrows and caused people to question how exactly the list was compiled, especially given the dominance of Nintendo in Japan, where Xbox is struggling. Whatever the secret is to this report’s success, Microsoft and Xbox have it down. That said, there are other surveys that acknowledge Nintendo and Sony as the market powers that they are, such as a Forbes list which has Sony in the top 100, but not Nintendo or Xbox.
