CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński appeared on a video today to apologize on behalf of the company and the leadership team over the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Iwiński promises more updates will be regularly delivered along with free content, including the promised free next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X, now targeting the “second half of 2021” CD Projekt never revealed when a next-gen upgrade for Cyberpunk 2077 will be released, other than that it would be released for free sometime in 2021. But now, Iwiński confirms that players will likely not see the update until the latter half of the year. As Iwiński says in the video, Cyberpunk 2077 was developed with PC first and foremost in mind. This was reflected in IGN's review of Cyberpunk 2077 where the PC experience was relatively smooth but nearly unplayable on base PS4 and Xbox One systems. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/11/cyberpunk-2077-graphics-comparison-ps5-vs-ps4-base-model"] Currently, console players, even those with PS5 and Xbox Series X systems, are playing a backward-compatible version of the PS4 and Xbox One game. The performance issues for Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles are so widespread, CDPR opened up an unprecedented refund policy, and companies like Sony even removed digital versions of Cyberpunk from the PlayStation Store. CDPR is also currently being investigated by the Consumer Protection Agency regarding the launch. Iwiński's video, which is nearly five minutes long, briefly touched on several questions about Cyberpunk 2077's launch, including why there's such a gap between PC and console versions of Cyberpunk 2077, and over how it handled review copies.

Dear gamers, Below, you’ll find CD PROJEKT’s co-founder’s personal explanation of what the days leading up to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 looked like, sharing the studio’s perspective on what happened with the game on old-generation consoles. pic.twitter.com/XjdCKizewq

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) January 13, 2021

  In regards to bringing Cyberpunk 2077 to consoles, especially older ones, Iwiński says "things did not look super difficult at first, while we knew the hardware game, ultimately, time has proven that we've underestimated the task." He says the main culprit was the in-game streaming system, which is "responsible for 'feeding' the engine with what you see on screen, as well as the game mechanics." Iwiński cites the disk bandwidth performance on older systems as being unable to keep up with the packed city design. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/28/class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-cyberpunk-2077-publisher-ign-news"] Iwiński also says its internal testing "did not show many of the issues" players experienced and that each day of work "saw significant improvements" to performance. But even then Iwiński says the developers were working on optimizing the console version for the Day 0 patch up until launch. This accounts for the delay between getting PC review codes out and console review copies out on December 8th, according to Iwiński. As for early 2021, CD Projekt will push several patches regularly throughout the year. The first update will be released “in the next 10 days” and a larger “more significant update” will be released weeks after that. [caption id="attachment_2461125" align="alignnone" width="800"] CDPR's new road map. Source: CD Projekt[/caption] There are still plans to release free DLC as with The Witcher 3, but they may not target “early 2021” as previously expected as CDPR has shifted its priority to “working on the most important fixes and updates” and DLC will follow afterward. CD Projekt Red faces several hurdles since launching Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2020. The company faces lawsuits over "misrepresenting" Cyberpunk 2077 as a product and have had to deny rumors about its development problems. Despite these issues, Cyberpunk 2077 sold over 13 million copies, despite refunds, and earned back its full development and marketing costs. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Steam has released its 2020 Year in Review, which reveals that the hours played on Steam was 50.7% greater than 2019. Steam began its 2020 Year in Review by acknowledging the COVID-19 pandemic that is still ongoing, and noted that while Steam was seeing "significant growth" before the lockdowns began, video game playtime surged when people began staying at home. This change led to new record breaking stats for Steam, including 120 million monthly active players, 62.6 million daily active players, 24.8 million peak concurrent players, 2.6 million new purchasers per month, 21.4% more games purchased compared to 2019, and the previously mentioned 50.7% more hours played compared to 2019 statistic. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/30/the-best-and-worst-reviewed-games-of-2020"] The increase in people purchasing and playing games led to a huge increase of traffic, with March 2020 seeing a 30-40% increase in total traffic related to game downloads. Cyberpunk 2077 also added to that server stress, with the game breaking records for download traffic with a peak of 52 terabytes per second, which doubled the previous record. This, and so much more, led to 25.2 exabytes of data being downloaded from Steam in 2020. For reference, an exabyte is 1 million terabytes. While Steam had announced earlier this year that it made changes to game update downloads to manage bandwidth during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has now revealed here that "various countries' government bodies approached us and other large Internet companies to see how we could help mitigate the rise in global traffic that ISPs were seeing, because it was getting to a point where it was affecting people's ability to work from home and their children's remote schooling." Steam also revealed that it saw 104 million SteamVR sessions, 1.7 million first time SteamVR users, 71% more VR revenue, and a 30% increase in VR playtime. VR game sales rose 32% year-over-year, and that's not even counting Half-Life: Alyx, which added another 39% on top of that number. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-modern-pc-games-summer-2020-update&captions=true"] Controller usage on steam also saw an increase, with 46.6 million players using a controller, 1.68 billion game sessions with players using a controller occuring, and 452 million game sessions with Steam Input happening. Sales were also a big part of Steam's 2020, and this helped lead to a 36% increase in the number of games that grossed over $100,000 from the 2019 Winter Sale to the 2020 Winter Sale. In closing, Steam shared some initiatives it has planned for 2021, including Steam China, user experience improvements, steam login improvements, a possible revamp to the Steam Points program, improvements to Linux and Steam Labs, and much more. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/21/hades-igns-2020-game-of-the-year"] For more on Steam's 2020, check out its list of the top-selling and most-played games of 2020. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

With the revival of the Lucasfilm Games banner earlier this week and multiple game announcements, including a Ubisoft-developed Star Wars one, the galaxy far, far away is broadening outside the walls of EA Studios. And while the announcement may not be surprising given the turbulent stewardship of Star Wars at EA, it’s still an exciting prospect - one filled with hope for the future of Star Wars games and the potential freedom Lucasfilm Games may now have. In fact, Lucasfilm’s moves in the gaming space this week appear to be following in the footsteps of another Disney-owned entertainment - Marvel. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/13/the-future-of-star-wars-games-is-bright-beyond-episode-683"]

There’s Been an Awakening

Lucasfilm Games revives the pre-LucasArts branding from the ‘80s, and evokes classic adventure games like Indiana Jones, Monkey Island, and Sam and Max. However, its name appears to be a nod to the past, not a return to it - Lucasfilm promises to be “the official identity for all gaming titles from Lucasfilm, a name that encompasses the company’s rich catalog of video games and its eye toward the future.” The rebranding announcement preceded the, erm, massive news that Division 2 developer Massive is working on an open-world Star Wars game to be published by Ubisoft, billed as “the beginning of a long-term collaboration with Disney and Lucasfilm Games,” as well as a new Indiana Jones adventure from Wolfenstein studio MachineGames and publisher Bethesda.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-star-wars-game-review&captions=true"]

Lucasfilm Games’ mission statement and announcements, at least for now, indicate that the company isn’t opening its own internal game development studio. Gaming has long been something Disney has endeavored to have more of an impact on, even if just a couple years ago then-CEO Bob Iger admitted Disney “just never managed to demonstrate much skill on the publishing side of games.” Despite holding the keys to an increasing number of the biggest properties in entertainment. This was perhaps most obvious when Disney Interactive Studios shuttered in 2016 alongside the end of support for Disney Infinity, which threw Star Wars, Marvel, and all things Disney into one toys-to-life toybox that never quite took off. But while Disney’s gaming brand nursed its wounds, and Star Wars remained locked (outside of VR, mobile, and LEGO games) in the hands of EA, Marvel quietly rebuilt itself into a formidable force in gaming.

A Disney (Business) Crossover

So far, this roadmap has worked for fellow-Disney owned Marvel Games. In 2016, Marvel Games publicly became the stewards of the brand, having previously been hamstrung by an exclusive deal similar to EA and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars arrangement. Marvel and Activision had an agreement stemming back into the early 2000’s for exclusive rights to X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man games. The partnership appeared to do so well in its earliest days, with hits like the Spider-Man 2 movie adaptation and the X-Men Legends line, that the two companies renewed the deal for Spidey and the mutants through 2017. But that partnership, as it continued on, resulted in underwhelming returns as the Spider-Man franchise lost its acclaim, and Marvel felt the pull of movie licensing for the MCU elsewhere. The relationship was eventually seemingly dissolved in 2014, but through the early 2010’s Marvel’s movie tie-ins led to a string of disappointing Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America games based on market needs rather than game ideas. With its rebranding, Marvel Games made partnerships with different developers and publishers to produce a range of different games, unbeholden to any one exclusivity contract with a certain company or to satisfy tie-in needs for movies or TV. It’s partially why we can see an Insomniac-developed, PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man series alongside a multi-platform Avengers series (that will also see Spider-Man… be PlayStation exclusive, but that’s another story entirely) released near to a Nintendo-exclusive Marvel Ultimate Alliance sequel. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/06/marvels-spider-man-miles-morales-review"] Sure, each one of them hasn’t been the runaway success that Marvel’s Spider-Man has been, but it’s clear that Marvel isn’t precluding developers from getting to play around with the heroes they want to develop games for, or the types of games those heroes can play around in. Camouflaj can develop an Iron Man VR game and Crystal Dynamics can still use Tony Stark as a playable character in Marvel’s Avengers. Entirely different games with entirely different visions can be produced under the Marvel Games name, without console or publisher agreements prohibiting a specific company from working with Marvel. Marvel has already worked with Telltale Games, Capcom, Crystal Dynamics, Insomniac, Camouflaj, and more. Keeping things centrally tied to a Marvel company has allowed for more experimentation and general variety than we might have seen had Marvel agreed to only let a single publisher or developer tackle certain Marvel characters. And that’s led to a dual benefit - when a partnership works, Marvel can continue working alongside a developer, and when a project doesn’t quite work out, Marvel isn’t locked in to only one deal with its vast wealth of memorable and beloved characters. That’s of course the most exciting part about Lucasfilm Games being able to stretch beyond the EA-Disney deal. EA’s time with the Star Wars license has been, to put it politely, turbulent, remembered for publicly canceled, high-profile games like Amy Henig and Visceral’s Ragtag; years entirely absent of Star Wars games, and microtransaction debacles around the launch of Star Wars Battlefront II. Of course, not everything has been bad news, and EA turned the ship around in recent years - Battlefront II’s team continually added DLC, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order delivered the Jedi action-adventure game fans have wanted since, well, the partnership began, and Star Wars Squadrons proved smaller-scale projects could fit into the EA pipeline and offer entirely different wish-fulfillment out of the galaxy. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ea-star-wars-project&captions=true"] But even though things have improved in the last couple of years, there’s no denying that Lucasfilm’s new direction gives us hope. A more free Lucasfilm Games could indeed mirror Marvel Games, and deals with Ubisoft and more could signal the start of a much more plentiful era of Star Wars gaming. It’s also worth noting that with Marvel Games-published titles, there’s no single canon developers have to adhere to, comics, MCU, or otherwise. On the other hand, every piece of Disney-owned Star Wars property, including games, has to seemingly stay true to and fit within the canon of the Star Wars universe. It’s unclear whether that will continue to be the case with Lucasfilm Games, but it might mean we see fewer studios doubling up on characters or specific eras, and instead start branching out, making something like the newly launched The High Republic a perfect place to carve out new stories that wouldn’t contradict existing narratives.

What Does This Mean for EA and Star Wars

But does the Ubisoft deal signal that Lucasfilm Games is entirely moving on from EA-produced Star Wars games? No, and, thankfully, it could mean an even stronger partnership between Lucasfilm and EA. Alongside the Ubi news, EA released a statement, saying “We are proud of our long-standing collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, which will continue for years to come. Our talented teams have created some of the most successful games in the history of the Star Wars franchise, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Star Wars: Squadrons. We love Star Wars and look forward to creating more exciting experiences for players to enjoy.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/15/star-wars-jedi-fallen-order-review"] Removing the pressures of being the only Star Wars developers will let EA focus on what has worked for them so far. EA can work on a Battlefront III or a Jedi: Fallen Order 2 and not have to worry about it carrying the weight of an entire gaming universe of expectations. Jedi: Fallen Order was in the top 10 best-selling games of 2019, and Squadrons apparently earned enough goodwill that the development team produced free DLC after launch, even though there were no intentions to keep making content after its debut. Some great games have come from EA’s partnership with Lucas, but it’s a partnership that is mired with the aforementioned cancellations, studio closures, and reshifting of projects. Freeing both companies from the pressure of the previous arrangement will likely lead to a better future for both, and, hopefully, for all Star Wars fans. And we’ve seen success like that come from Lucasfilm’s Star Wars gaming past when it could partner with a variety of companies. In the late ’90s early 2000’s, we saw such varied projects as the acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic series, Star Wars: Episode I - Racer, Republic Commando, and the Jedi Knight series. Sure, with every KOTOR there was also a Masters of Teras Kasi, but the sheer variety and freedom Lucasfilm had in licensing to so many developers just wasn’t possible under the recent EA deal.

More Than Just Laser Swords

Of course, Star Wars is, naturally front and center in the discussion of what Lucasfilm Games’ future will hold, but it’s worth noting that Lucasfilm has long produced non-Star Wars games, and some acclaimed ones at that. Lucasfilm Entertainment has also got a slew of other film and TV projects in the works, from Indiana Jones to Children of Blood and Bone to Willow, and the expectation should be the same on the gaming side. We’re already seeing that play out - the first project announced under the new Lucasfilm Games is an Indiana Jones outing from Bethesda’s MachineGames. This partnership is important for a couple of reasons - as an opening statement, it makes clear Lucasfilm Games won’t just be about Star Wars games, and given the brand’s history, that’s a great thing. And second, MachineGames is a partner completely outside of recent Star Wars projects but is still a developer known for making acclaimed, mature games. It’s clearly an indicator that Lucasfilm has an eye on picking the right teams for the right projects. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/indiana-jones-bethesda-game-official-teaser"] While new franchises are always welcome (and needed), it isn’t surprising to see Lucasfilm jump into another of its beloved properties as one of its first game projects. Nostalgia, after all, is at the heart of much of Disney and its many subsidiaries’ success. Does that mean we’ll see the revival of other classic Lucasfilm or LucasArts franchises, like Monkey Island? Quite possibly. Might they always play second fiddle to Star Wars commercially? Sure, but Lucasfilm Games is a name that carries plenty of meaning for plenty of reasons, and it would be shocking if the compay didn’t attempt to revitalize all aspects of what made it, and subsequently LucasArts, such a beloved name in gaming for so long. However it chooses to carry itself from here, we’ve already learned quite a lot about Lucasfilm Games’ intentions as a revived brand in gaming. It’s a company that’s more than just Star Wars - though also very, very much about Star Wars - and is aiming to take big swings with its biggest franchises. Will everything be a knockout success? Like with Marvel Games, possibly not, but also like its sister company, seeing Lucasfilm make these big bets for the future and learn from both its and Marvel’s past is enough to offer fans a renewed sense of something Star Wars is fundamentally built on - hope. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. He is currently reading and loving Light of the Jedi. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Indiana Jones is back, in video game form! I know, I know, we can’t believe it either. Helmed by MachineGames (Wolfenstein: The New Order) and the newly reformed Lucasfilm Games, an untitled Indiana Jones project is officially in the works. The game was announced on January 12 via a short teaser from Bethesda, where it was also revealed that Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard would serve as an executive producer on this exciting new adventure. In an interview with Wired, Lucasfilm’s VP of franchise content and strategy James Waugh said that the game was a “passion project” for Howard. “He came in with a point of view and a story that he really believes in”. That is the extent of our official knowledge about this game, but, like any good Indiana Jones mystery, there is always more to the story. As part of the game’s announcement blog, the copy notes that while few details have been revealed so far, the cryptic teaser “may hold some clues.” We’ve been poring over the short trailer with a fine-tooth comb, and sure enough, there are a lot of small details that you might have missed. Let’s talk about the most interesting finds.

Some of the game takes place in October 1937

I downloaded the trailer in HD and have been looking for clues.

It looks like the @machinegames Indiana Jones project is set in Vatican City in October 1937, at least for some part of it. You can see the Sistine Chapel on the map. pic.twitter.com/yCYnsXWRNj — Jordan Oloman (@JordanOloman) January 12, 2021

The main thing we can spot in the trailer is Indy’s passport and his travel ticket. The ticket mentions that he is embarking on an “Overnight Service to Rome” on October 21, 1937. The passport’s entry fields suggest that he is heading there under the guise of a “Research/Education” trip, connected to his day job teaching Archaeology at Marshall College (we can see a coffee mug with the 'MC' symbol on his desk). However, we can also assume from the fact that he’s taking his whip and his gun that this vacation won’t be strictly academic.

Indiana Jones is going to Vatican City

Another concrete detail from the trailer is a gigantic map of Vatican City, the independent city-state of the Holy See. Indy appears to be studying this area thoroughly, marking areas of interest like the Belvedere Courtyard, which also happens to be the site of the Vatican Apostolic Library. The Vat is positively littered with historic texts and artefacts, which would be of prime interest to our myth-hunting protagonist. Indy has also put a question mark on the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of then-pope Pius XI, and the location of the famous window where he delivers blessings. Not quite sure what his intentions are there, but an audience with the head of the Catholic Church may be out of the question. We can also see some arrows pointing west from St. Peter’s Square, which suggests that this may be Indy’s intended entry point. Not exactly subtle!

The Typewritten Note

Looks like Indy is leaving a message for someone - "i will be arriving in Rome" pic.twitter.com/jaoQebK6ZI

— Jordan Oloman (@JordanOloman) January 12, 2021

Blink and you’ll miss it, but some of the writing on the ‘MachineGames’ branded typewriter is legible. It looks like Indy has a contact within the Vatican. Here’s what we’ve got so far: "Father X" "Let me start...thank you for taking your time to help me ... with this written request… I will be arriving in Rome... I have been informed that your contact will be waiting" We’d need a higher-quality trailer than the compressed Twitter video that we’re working with to snag the whole thing. We enquired with Bethesda about this but they weren’t able to supply a direct-feed due to an agreement with Lucasfilm. Until then, if you have any ideas, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Get ready to punch some fascists

To quote the inimitable Indiana Jones... “Nazis. I hate these guys.” A 1930s setting for the game puts us in the thick of The Third Reich and Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. Benito Mussolini is also in Rome at this point overseeing Fascist Italy, just prior to the World War 2 Axis powers formally consolidating under the Pact of Steel in 1939. Due to the focus on Vatican City, the game could also touch on the Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church during this period. Given Indy’s proclivity for anti-fascism, it would make sense that we’d be fighting Nazis and fascists while decoding myths and retrieving artefacts. It’s also a very familiar subject for MachineGames, who has spent the last decade working on Wolfenstein games.

The story takes place between Raiders and The Last Crusade, “at the height” of Jones’ career

In regards to the movies, this timeframe means we’re in between Raiders of the Lost Ark (1936) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1938). Jones has retrieved the golden idol from Peru and has been to Egypt to thwart the Nazis. As a result, The Ark of the Covenant is now in storage, and the US government is aware of Jones’ activities, having just paid him for retrieving it. We can see a dossier with redacted strings on his desk in the trailer, so this operation may also be a collaboration with the government. The site mentions that the game takes place “at the height of the career of the famed adventurer”, so this all makes sense.

We may also visit Egypt, Peru and Mesopotamia

Stepping away from Italy for a moment, there are a number of references to other locations that Indy could be headed to in this new adventure. The first thing we see in the trailer is a stack of books. None of the author names leads to anything on Google (except for Todd Howard, of course) but the subject matter is interesting. The ‘Myths That Made Us’ book at the front there has a tagline on the spine, which says “Vol. 1 Mesopotamia”. Mesopotamia was quite a large region in Western Asia, encompassing Babylon, Palmyra as well as parts of modern Syria, Turkey and Iraq. One of the most famous Mesopotamian myths is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which happens to be one of the oldest surviving examples of ancient literature. Indy could very well be hunting for artefacts or tablets relating to this myth, or perhaps the mystery has something to do with The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the ancient wonders of the world. The books note that Indy is also studying Ancient Circles and Forbidden Stones. The tagline on the Forbidden Stones book reads “A treatise on corrupted jewels and the essence of ancient curses,” which provides some further detail on what Indy might be looking for in Mesopotamia. Then in the bottom left corner, we can see a tiny note written by Indy, which says “Pyramids Giza Necropolis,” referring to the Giza complex of pyramids in Cairo, the last remaining ancient wonder of the world. The yellow pages north of this note offer a sketch of the Peruvian “Forbidden Idol” retrieved in Raiders and a drawing of a Ziggurat, a common structure found in ancient Mesopotamia. Indy has written “Ziggurat Clue?” nearby, so he’s definitely studying it. Whether he will visit any of these places in the game is still up in the air, but it’s good food for thought regardless.

Untitled Indiana Jones Project Platforms and Release Date

Beyond all of the easter eggs we’ve found in the trailer, those excited for the game may be wondering about what platforms it will land on in the future. Given that Microsoft has acquired Bethesda (and by proxy, MachineGames) we can assume that it will land on PC and Xbox consoles. Whether it will be exclusive to those platforms is another question entirely. As for a potential release date, the teaser suggests the game is early in development. MachineGames tweeted shortly after the announcement, noting that the studio is hiring, so the team is growing and gearing up to deliver on this ambitious project, a “completely original story” within the Indiana Jones IP. The only other thing we have to go off is the upcoming Indiana Jones 5 movie, which is set for a July 2022 release and will start shooting in Spring of 2021. Again, we have no idea, but the game may want to complement the film’s release. Beyond that, there's really nothing more that we can glean from the 30-second trailer Bethesda stealth-dropped on us. We'll be sure to keep you posted as more information arrives. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

According to the Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings service, The Office was the most streamed show in the United States in 2020 with over 57 billion minutes watched. As reported by Variety, The Office was far-and-away the most watched show, with Grey's Anatomy taking second place with 39.4 billion minutes watched and Criminal Minds placing third with 34.4 billion minutes watched. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/01/the-top-10-office-episodes-of-all-time"] The Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings service measure Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney Plus, and Netflix accounted for the top 10 acquired series streamed. Disney+'s The Mandalorian was the only non-Netflix show to make it to the top 10 original series streamed. Speaking of original series, Netflix's Ozark took the number one spot with 30.4 billion minutes streamed, followed by Lucifer and The Crown. Disney+ claimed seven of the top 10 spots in the streaming movies category, with Frozen 2 taking first place with 14.9 billion minutes watched, Moana taking second with 10.5 billion minutes watched, and The Secret Life of Pets taking third with 9.1 billion minutes watched. It's important to note that the Nielsen estimates are estimated solely on viewing on connected TVs, and does not take into account mobile devices and computers. The full list of top streaming series and movies is as follows; [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/21/best-tv-series-of-the-year-2020-winner"]

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Acquired Series

1. The Office (Netflix) - 57.1 billion minutes watched
2. Grey's Anatomy (Netflix) - 39.4 billion minutes watched
3. Criminal Minds (Netflix) - 35.4 billion minutes watched
4. NCIS (Netflix) - 28.1 billion minutes watched
5. Schitt's Creek (Netflix) - 23.7 billion minutes watched
6. Supernatural (Netflix) - 20.3 billion minutes watched
7. Shameless (Netflix) - 18.2 billion minutes watched
8. New Girl (Netflix) - 14.5 billion minutes watched
9. The Blacklist (Netflix) - 14.4 billion minutes watched
10. Vampire Diaries (Netflix) - 14.0 billion minutes watched

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Original Series

1. Ozark (Netflix) - 30.4 billion minutes watched
2. Lucifer (Netflix) - 18.9 billion minutes watched
3. The Crown (Netflix) - 16.2 billion minutes watched
4. Tiger King (Netflix) - 15.6 billion minutes watched
5. The Mandalorian (Disney+) - 14.5 billion minutes watched
6. The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) - 13.4 billion minutes watched
7. The Great British Baking Show (Netflix) - 13.2 billion minutes watched
8. Boss Baby: Back in Business (Netflix) - 12.6 billion minutes watched
9. Longmire (Netflix) - 11.3 billion minutes watched
10. You (Netflix) - 10.9 billion minutes watched

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Movies

1. Frozen 2 (Disney+) - 14.9 billion minutes watched
2. Moana (Disney+) - 10.5 billion minutes watched
3. The Secret Life of Pets 2 (Netflix) - 9.1 billion minutes watched
4. Onward (Disney+) - 8.3 billion minutes watched
5. Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (Netflix) - 6.1 billion minutes watched
6. Hamilton (Disney+) - 6.1 billion minutes watched
7. Spenser Confidential (Netflix) - 5.3 billion minutes watched
8. Aladdin (2019) (Disney+) - 5.1 billion minutes watched
9. Toy Story 4 (Disney+) - 4.4 billion minutes watched
10. Zootopia (Disney+) - 4.4 billion minutes watched

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/21/best-movie-of-the-year-2020-winner"] For more on The Office, which has officially left Netflix for Peacock, check out our ranking of the top 25 Office episodes of all time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

According to the Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings service, The Office was the most streamed show in the United States in 2020 with over 57 billion minutes watched. As reported by Variety, The Office was far-and-away the most watched show, with Grey's Anatomy taking second place with 39.4 billion minutes watched and Criminal Minds placing third with 34.4 billion minutes watched. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/01/01/the-top-10-office-episodes-of-all-time"] The Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings service measure Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney Plus, and Netflix accounted for the top 10 acquired series streamed. Disney+'s The Mandalorian was the only non-Netflix show to make it to the top 10 original series streamed. Speaking of original series, Netflix's Ozark took the number one spot with 30.4 billion minutes streamed, followed by Lucifer and The Crown. Disney+ claimed seven of the top 10 spots in the streaming movies category, with Frozen 2 taking first place with 14.9 billion minutes watched, Moana taking second with 10.5 billion minutes watched, and The Secret Life of Pets taking third with 9.1 billion minutes watched. It's important to note that the Nielsen estimates are estimated solely on viewing on connected TVs, and does not take into account mobile devices and computers. The full list of top streaming series and movies is as follows; [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/21/best-tv-series-of-the-year-2020-winner"]

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Acquired Series

1. The Office (Netflix) - 57.1 billion minutes watched
2. Grey's Anatomy (Netflix) - 39.4 billion minutes watched
3. Criminal Minds (Netflix) - 35.4 billion minutes watched
4. NCIS (Netflix) - 28.1 billion minutes watched
5. Schitt's Creek (Netflix) - 23.7 billion minutes watched
6. Supernatural (Netflix) - 20.3 billion minutes watched
7. Shameless (Netflix) - 18.2 billion minutes watched
8. New Girl (Netflix) - 14.5 billion minutes watched
9. The Blacklist (Netflix) - 14.4 billion minutes watched
10. Vampire Diaries (Netflix) - 14.0 billion minutes watched

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Original Series

1. Ozark (Netflix) - 30.4 billion minutes watched
2. Lucifer (Netflix) - 18.9 billion minutes watched
3. The Crown (Netflix) - 16.2 billion minutes watched
4. Tiger King (Netflix) - 15.6 billion minutes watched
5. The Mandalorian (Disney+) - 14.5 billion minutes watched
6. The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) - 13.4 billion minutes watched
7. The Great British Baking Show (Netflix) - 13.2 billion minutes watched
8. Boss Baby: Back in Business (Netflix) - 12.6 billion minutes watched
9. Longmire (Netflix) - 11.3 billion minutes watched
10. You (Netflix) - 10.9 billion minutes watched

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Movies

1. Frozen 2 (Disney+) - 14.9 billion minutes watched
2. Moana (Disney+) - 10.5 billion minutes watched
3. The Secret Life of Pets 2 (Netflix) - 9.1 billion minutes watched
4. Onward (Disney+) - 8.3 billion minutes watched
5. Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (Netflix) - 6.1 billion minutes watched
6. Hamilton (Disney+) - 6.1 billion minutes watched
7. Spenser Confidential (Netflix) - 5.3 billion minutes watched
8. Aladdin (2019) (Disney+) - 5.1 billion minutes watched
9. Toy Story 4 (Disney+) - 4.4 billion minutes watched
10. Zootopia (Disney+) - 4.4 billion minutes watched

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/21/best-movie-of-the-year-2020-winner"] For more on The Office, which has officially left Netflix for Peacock, check out our ranking of the top 25 Office episodes of all time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Asus is has announced a trio of HDMI 2.1 enabled gaming monitors that'll be perfect for the latest consoles. Starting with the biggest one, the ROG Swift XG43UQ is a 43-inch 4K gaming monitor with a VA panel and a 144Hz refresh rate. This monitor offers up the brightest picture of the bunch with a 1000-nit peak brightness and covers 90% DCI-P3 of the color gamut. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=asus-rog-swift-xg43uq&captions=true"] Best of all, the ROG Swift XG43UQ has two HDMI 2.1 ports so you’ll be able to connect both your Xbox Series X and PS5 to this display. You’ll also find one DisplayPort 1.4 port with Display Stream Compression (DSC), which essentially allows this monitor to push a 144Hz experience at 4K without running into chroma-subsampling or any drop in visual quality. The Asus ROG Swift XG43UQ also incorporates ELMB Sync to eliminate smearing and motion blur, which results in sharper looking animation for more fluid and responsive gameplay. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=asus-rog-swift-pg32uq&captions=true"]

Asus ROG Swift PG32UQ

Asus claims the ROG Swift PG32UQ is the first 32-inch gaming monitor with HDMI 2.1 to take advantage of its 4K IPS panel with a 144Hz refresh rate. Better yet it has two HDMI 2.1 ports plus one DisplayPort 1.4 port with DSC. The Asus ROG Swift PG32UQ  also features a fantastically bright and vibrant panel that displays 98% DCI-P3 color space and hits a 600-nit peak brightness. It also comes with G-Sync and Reflex Latency Analyzer modules, so you get real hardware-based G-Sync and you can measure how long a gaming mouse click takes to translate to on-screen action.

Asus TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A

Last up is the Asus TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A, a 28-inch 4K gaming monitor with an IPS panel, 144Hz refresh rate, and 1ms response time. On this display you also get 125% sRGB and 90% DCI-P3 color coverage, 400-nits of peak brightness, ELMB Sync, and variable refresh rate technology. Asus has yet to set pricing for any of these monitors, but they will roll out in the second quarter of 2021, so expect them to drop sometime between April and July. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com Kevin Lee is IGN's Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

Asus is has announced a trio of HDMI 2.1 enabled gaming monitors that'll be perfect for the latest consoles. Starting with the biggest one, the ROG Swift XG43UQ is a 43-inch 4K gaming monitor with a VA panel and a 144Hz refresh rate. This monitor offers up the brightest picture of the bunch with a 1000-nit peak brightness and covers 90% DCI-P3 of the color gamut. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=asus-rog-swift-xg43uq&captions=true"] Best of all, the ROG Swift XG43UQ has two HDMI 2.1 ports so you’ll be able to connect both your Xbox Series X and PS5 to this display. You’ll also find one DisplayPort 1.4 port with Display Stream Compression (DSC), which essentially allows this monitor to push a 144Hz experience at 4K without running into chroma-subsampling or any drop in visual quality. The Asus ROG Swift XG43UQ also incorporates ELMB Sync to eliminate smearing and motion blur, which results in sharper looking animation for more fluid and responsive gameplay. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=asus-rog-swift-pg32uq&captions=true"]

Asus ROG Swift PG32UQ

Asus claims the ROG Swift PG32UQ is the first 32-inch gaming monitor with HDMI 2.1 to take advantage of its 4K IPS panel with a 144Hz refresh rate. Better yet it has two HDMI 2.1 ports plus one DisplayPort 1.4 port with DSC. The Asus ROG Swift PG32UQ  also features a fantastically bright and vibrant panel that displays 98% DCI-P3 color space and hits a 600-nit peak brightness. It also comes with G-Sync and Reflex Latency Analyzer modules, so you get real hardware-based G-Sync and you can measure how long a gaming mouse click takes to translate to on-screen action.

Asus TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A

Last up is the Asus TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A, a 28-inch 4K gaming monitor with an IPS panel, 144Hz refresh rate, and 1ms response time. On this display you also get 125% sRGB and 90% DCI-P3 color coverage, 400-nits of peak brightness, ELMB Sync, and variable refresh rate technology. Asus has yet to set pricing for any of these monitors, but they will roll out in the second quarter of 2021, so expect them to drop sometime between April and July. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com Kevin Lee is IGN's Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

Mountain Dew will reportedly release a new soda to tie in with Matt Reeves' The Batman. More specifically, the flavor is themed after one of The Caped Crusader's most notorious villains, The Riddler. Best Products reports (via Batman News) PepsiCo will release "Riddler's Brew," a new limited-edition Mountain Dew flavor, to celebrate the release of The Batman in 2022. The soda is a dark blue color, which is similar to Mountain Dew Dark Berry, a flavor released in 2012 to tie in with The Dark Knight Rises.

The supervillain is getting his own drink. https://t.co/V4zrqyWD23

— Best Products (@BestProducts) January 11, 2021

Last year at DC FanDome, director Matt Reeves pulled the curtain back on the first trailer for the new Batman reboot, which provided looks at the new Batman costume, the Batmobile, and more of the film's cast. The trailer also showed a puzzle The Riddler left behind, and some smart Batman fans on the internet may have already cracked the code. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/23/the-batman-trailer-dc-fandome-official-footage"] The Batman was originally scheduled to launch this year, but the film was delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. One delay in production came after star Robert Pattinson reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. As for other Batman projects in the works, Michael Keaton is expected to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne in the upcoming Flash movie. To see what other projects are on the horizon, you can check out every upcoming DCEU movie and show. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-batman-official-trailer-1-stills&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

Mountain Dew will reportedly release a new soda to tie in with Matt Reeves' The Batman. More specifically, the flavor is themed after one of The Caped Crusader's most notorious villains, The Riddler. Best Products reports (via Batman News) PepsiCo will release "Riddler's Brew," a new limited-edition Mountain Dew flavor, to celebrate the release of The Batman in 2022. The soda is a dark blue color, which is similar to Mountain Dew Dark Berry, a flavor released in 2012 to tie in with The Dark Knight Rises.

The supervillain is getting his own drink. https://t.co/V4zrqyWD23

— Best Products (@BestProducts) January 11, 2021

Last year at DC FanDome, director Matt Reeves pulled the curtain back on the first trailer for the new Batman reboot, which provided looks at the new Batman costume, the Batmobile, and more of the film's cast. The trailer also showed a puzzle The Riddler left behind, and some smart Batman fans on the internet may have already cracked the code. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/23/the-batman-trailer-dc-fandome-official-footage"] The Batman was originally scheduled to launch this year, but the film was delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. One delay in production came after star Robert Pattinson reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. As for other Batman projects in the works, Michael Keaton is expected to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne in the upcoming Flash movie. To see what other projects are on the horizon, you can check out every upcoming DCEU movie and show. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-batman-official-trailer-1-stills&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.