Over 100 billion hours were spent watching gaming content on YouTube this year, with Minecraft leading as the most-watched game. YouTube Culture and Trends has released an annual gaming report, and the company revealed that viewers watched over 100 billion hours of gaming content on the site, which is the equivalent of traveling to Neptune and back 475,000 times. This makes 2020 YouTube Gaming's biggest year yet. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/15/2020-game-of-the-year-igns-nominees"] "YouTube Gaming has its biggest year, ever, in 2020 with 100B watch time hours and 40M+ active gaming channels," YouTube Head of Global Gaming, Ryan Watt, said. Of those 100 billion hours, Minecraft was the single most-watched game, with over 201 billion views. That's more than the double the amount of views the second most-watched game of 2020 received, which was Roblox at 75 billion views. Garena Free Fire, Grand Theft Auto V, and Fortnite came in third, fourth, and fifth place at 72, 70, and 67 billion respectively. YouTube also revealed the top ten creators in terms of gaming views for the year: FGTeeV, Jelly, Flamingo, Robin Hood Gamer, ItsFunnneh, LazarBeam, Slogo, Mikecrack, Arab Games Network, and Vegetta777. Over 80,000 content creators hit 100,000 subscribers, more than 1000 creators reached 5 million subscribers, and over 350 creators crossed the 10 million subscriber mark, according to YouTube. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-video-game-story-of-2020&captions=true"] "We've also seen gaming creators give back in incredible ways this year," Watt said. "The gaming community has always been willing to lend a helping hand when needed. This year, many of YouTube's gaming creators and partnership tournaments raised awareness and money for several causes." That includes Jacksepticeye raising over $660,000 in 12 hours for COVID-19 relief efforts, CouRage raising over $500,000 during a 12-hour charity stream for the CDC Foundation, and many tournaments hosted by YouTube Gaming to raise money for organizations like the Call of Duty Endowment, the World Health Organization, and the United Children's Fund. "And just last week, The Game Theorists' MatPat and Stephanie Patrick hosted a 10-hour charity live stream event to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital," Watt said. "They tripled their goal and raised $3 million with the help from other large creators and gamers like Markiplier, The Game Grumps, Mr. Beast, and more." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/15/best-playstation-games-2020-igns-nominees"] You can read more about YouTube Gaming's 2020 in their blog post that breaks down things like most-liked and most-viewed videos. For more about this year in gaming, check out IGN's 2020 Game of the Year nominations for a look back at some of the year's best games and then check out some of the other categories like best PlayStation exclusive, best Xbox exclusive, and best Switch exclusive. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

This week, treasure chests have appeared on Cayo Perico, so claim them while on Scoping Missions, and get tons of login and Prime Gaming bonuses.

This week, treasure chests have appeared on Cayo Perico, so claim them while on Scoping Missions, and get tons of login and Prime Gaming bonuses.

The $2.3 trillion COVID-19 relief and government funding bill signed by United States President Donald Trump includes a 180-day countdown for the Pentagon and spy agencies to reveal what they know about UFOs. As reported by New York Post, this countdown was not part of the original 5,593-page legislation, but was a "committee comment" that was attached to the annual intelligence authorization act and then put into the COVID-19 bill. The Senate Intelligence Committee said in a comment that it “directs the [director of national intelligence], in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the heads of such other agencies … to submit a report within 180 days of the date of enactment of the Act, to the congressional intelligence and armed services committees on unidentified aerial phenomena.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/27/pentagon-officially-declassifies-and-releases-3-navy-videos-purportedly-showing-ufos"] This report must address, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, “observed airborne objects that have not been identified” and should include a “detailed analysis of unidentified phenomena data collected by: a. geospatial intelligence; b. signals intelligence; c. human intelligence; and d. measurement and signals intelligence." The requested report must also give a "detailed analysis of data of the FBI, which was derived from investigations of intrusions of unidentified aerial phenomena data over restricted United States airspace … and an assessment of whether this unidentified aerial phenomena activity may be attributed to one or more foreign adversaries.” This countdown follows the The Pentagon declassifying three U.S. Navy videos earlier this year that purportedly show Navy encounters with UFOs in November 2004 and January 2015. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"] Furthermore, this will hopefully help those scientists who have called for this potential classified information, emphasizing the need to study "unidentified aerial phenomena" to assemble "reliable evidence" of their existence. Who knows, these discoveries may in some way also shed more light on the alleged "Galactic Federation" of aliens that former Israel space security chief Haim Eshed claims is in contact with both the United States and Israeli governments. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/13/scientists-call-for-more-evidence-of-possible-ufouap-sightings"] [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.

The $2.3 trillion COVID-19 relief and government funding bill signed by United States President Donald Trump includes a 180-day countdown for the Pentagon and spy agencies to reveal what they know about UFOs. As reported by New York Post, this countdown was not part of the original 5,593-page legislation, but was a "committee comment" that was attached to the annual intelligence authorization act and then put into the COVID-19 bill. The Senate Intelligence Committee said in a comment that it “directs the [director of national intelligence], in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the heads of such other agencies … to submit a report within 180 days of the date of enactment of the Act, to the congressional intelligence and armed services committees on unidentified aerial phenomena.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/27/pentagon-officially-declassifies-and-releases-3-navy-videos-purportedly-showing-ufos"] This report must address, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, “observed airborne objects that have not been identified” and should include a “detailed analysis of unidentified phenomena data collected by: a. geospatial intelligence; b. signals intelligence; c. human intelligence; and d. measurement and signals intelligence." The requested report must also give a "detailed analysis of data of the FBI, which was derived from investigations of intrusions of unidentified aerial phenomena data over restricted United States airspace … and an assessment of whether this unidentified aerial phenomena activity may be attributed to one or more foreign adversaries.” This countdown follows the The Pentagon declassifying three U.S. Navy videos earlier this year that purportedly show Navy encounters with UFOs in November 2004 and January 2015. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"] Furthermore, this will hopefully help those scientists who have called for this potential classified information, emphasizing the need to study "unidentified aerial phenomena" to assemble "reliable evidence" of their existence. Who knows, these discoveries may in some way also shed more light on the alleged "Galactic Federation" of aliens that former Israel space security chief Haim Eshed claims is in contact with both the United States and Israeli governments. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/13/scientists-call-for-more-evidence-of-possible-ufouap-sightings"] [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.

BEYOND! On this week's episode of Podcast Beyond!... well, the cast took the holiday off, but as an end-of-year treat, we'd like to present the first (and currently only filmed) episode of our long-awaited Bloodborne let's play series. Watch the episode above or check it out on YouTube. Host Jonathon Dornbush had never attempted to really beat a Soulsborne before recording this, and his cohosts Brian Altano, Lucy O'Brien, and Max Scoville wouldn't stop talking about Bloodborne. So, the trio helps Jonathon begin his adventure into Yharnam in the first episode of our Bloodborne let's play. This was recorded way back in March before shelter-in-place protocols had been established and before we began working remotely. While we're working to continue the show in 2021, we wanted to put out the initial episode to thank all the Beyond! fans for your patience, and so you can enjoy watching as Jonathon either plays terribly or maybe does OK in his first journey into the beloved Soulsborne. Podcast Beyond! will be back next week with our regular episodes, but we hope you enjoy this in the meantime! [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps4-games-summer-2020-update&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush or follow his streams on Twitch.

BEYOND! On this week's episode of Podcast Beyond!... well, the cast took the holiday off, but as an end-of-year treat, we'd like to present the first (and currently only filmed) episode of our long-awaited Bloodborne let's play series. Watch the episode above or check it out on YouTube. Host Jonathon Dornbush had never attempted to really beat a Soulsborne before recording this, and his cohosts Brian Altano, Lucy O'Brien, and Max Scoville wouldn't stop talking about Bloodborne. So, the trio helps Jonathon begin his adventure into Yharnam in the first episode of our Bloodborne let's play. This was recorded way back in March before shelter-in-place protocols had been established and before we began working remotely. While we're working to continue the show in 2021, we wanted to put out the initial episode to thank all the Beyond! fans for your patience, and so you can enjoy watching as Jonathon either plays terribly or maybe does OK in his first journey into the beloved Soulsborne. Podcast Beyond! will be back next week with our regular episodes, but we hope you enjoy this in the meantime! [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps4-games-summer-2020-update&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush or follow his streams on Twitch.

Ray tracing is one of the biggest advancements in gaming technology and is utilized by high-end PCs, the PlayStation 5, and both the Xbox Series X and S. Oh, and also some Super Nintendo games thanks to one incredible modder. Ray tracing is a rendering technique the simulates the way light bounces off objects, which can create much more realistic shadows, reflections, and lighting effects, and game developer and software engineer Ben Carter of Shironeko Labs took on the challenge on making it work on the SNES with his SuperRT chip. You can see it in action here. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/18/the-100-best-games-of-all-time-in-10-minutes"] Carter wanted to do something similar to Nintendo's Super FX chip that was used in games like Star Fox to add advanced 3D graphics and special effects, and created a new field-programmable gate array (FGPA) chip that would render the ray tracing for the SNES, or more specifically Carter's Super Famicom. The SuperRT chip can produce single-bounce reflections and direction light shadows, and Carter made it possible by removing the top case of the Super Famicom to make room for cabling and sacrificing an "awful Pachinko game" to allow the Super Famicom to connect into a DE10-Nano FPGA development board with a Cyclone V FPGA," which is a similar chip to the one being used for the upcoming Analogue Pocket. For more on Super Nintendo, check out our top 100 SNES games of all time and what game IGN readers think is the best of the '90s. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/09/05/rating-all-20-snes-games-on-switch-in-a-single-minute-ign-now"] [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.

Ray tracing is one of the biggest advancements in gaming technology and is utilized by high-end PCs, the PlayStation 5, and both the Xbox Series X and S. Oh, and also some Super Nintendo games thanks to one incredible modder. Ray tracing is a rendering technique the simulates the way light bounces off objects, which can create much more realistic shadows, reflections, and lighting effects, and game developer and software engineer Ben Carter of Shironeko Labs took on the challenge on making it work on the SNES with his SuperRT chip. You can see it in action here. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/18/the-100-best-games-of-all-time-in-10-minutes"] Carter wanted to do something similar to Nintendo's Super FX chip that was used in games like Star Fox to add advanced 3D graphics and special effects, and created a new field-programmable gate array (FGPA) chip that would render the ray tracing for the SNES, or more specifically Carter's Super Famicom. The SuperRT chip can produce single-bounce reflections and direction light shadows, and Carter made it possible by removing the top case of the Super Famicom to make room for cabling and sacrificing an "awful Pachinko game" to allow the Super Famicom to connect into a DE10-Nano FPGA development board with a Cyclone V FPGA," which is a similar chip to the one being used for the upcoming Analogue Pocket. For more on Super Nintendo, check out our top 100 SNES games of all time and what game IGN readers think is the best of the '90s. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/09/05/rating-all-20-snes-games-on-switch-in-a-single-minute-ign-now"] [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.

Update 3 - January 14 WarnerMedia's chair and CEO Ann Sarnoff has released a statement backing DC Films president Walter Hamada after Ray Fisher's recent allegations against him. According to The Hollywood Reporter, WarnerMedia issued a statement supporting Hamada, a day after Fisher posted a lengthy Twitter statement in which he reiterated his previous allegations against the DC boss. In his statement, posted on Wednesday, Fisher accused Hamada of "interfering" with the studio's investigation into the alleged workplace misconduct on the set of Joss Whedon's Justice League. "I believe in Walter Hamada and that he did not impede or interfere in the investigation," Sarnoff said in her statement. "Furthermore, I have full confidence in the investigation's process and findings. Walter is a well-respected leader, known by his colleagues, peers, and me as a man of great character and integrity. As I said in Walter's recent deal extension announcement, I'm excited about where he's taking DC Films and look forward to working with him and the rest of the team to build out the DC Multiverse." WarnerMedia touched on the Justice League investigation in a statement outside of the one that Sarnoff provided. The company said its "extensive" investigation was "conducted by an outside law firm, led by a former federal judge who has assured WarnerMedia that there were no impediments to the investigation." The company then addressed Cyborg's removal from The Flash movie. "Last summer, Mr. Fisher was offered the opportunity to reprise his role as Cyborg in The Flash," WarnerMedia said in the full statement, obtained by Variety. "Given his statement that he will not participate in any film associated with Mr. Hamada, our production is now moving on. Warner Bros. remains in business with Geoff Johns who continues to produce Stargirl, Batwoman, Doom Patrol, Superman & Lois, and Titans for the studio, among other projects." Fisher previously stated that he would no longer participate in any productions associated with Hamada. "Walter Hamada is the most dangerous kind of enabler," Fisher tweeted. "His lies, and WB PR's failed Sept. 4th hit-piece, sought to undermine the very real issues of the 'Justice League' investigation. I will not participate in any production associated with him." A week later, it was announced that Hamada had renewed his deal with DC, and would be continuing as president of the studio through to 2023. Update 2 - January 13 Ray Fisher tweeted Wednesday that Warner Bros. has officially removed him from the cast of the upcoming Flash movie. "I strongly disagree with their decision, but it is one that is unsurprising," Fisher said, adding that Cyborg's role in The Flash was meant to be larger than a mere cameo. Fisher also reiterated his allegations that DC Films president Walter Hamada protected former co-president Geoff Johns during the studio's investigation of workplace misconduct, and that Hamada allegedly spread "lies and misinformation" about Fisher. "If the end of my time as Cyborg is the cost for helping to bring awareness and accountability to Walter Hamada's actions -- I'll pay it gladly," Fisher concluded. Fisher's full statement can be read below. Warner Bros. has not responded to IGN's request for comment as of time of publishing. Update 1: Variety reports that DC Films president Walter Hamada has renewed his deal with DC, and will continue as president of the studio through 2023. This comes a week after Cyborg actor Ray Fisher stated that he would no longer participate in any productions associated with Hamada. Hamada was thrust into the public spotlight after Fisher accused Hamada of enabling a toxic work environment from Joss Whedon, who took over director duties on Justice League after Zack Snyder's departure. Hamada was not president of DC Films at the time of principal photography. Fisher has not yet made any comment on DC Film's decision to renew Hamada. Original story as follows: Justice League star Ray Fisher has said that he will no longer participate in any productions associated with DC Films president Walter Hamada. As reported by Variety, Fisher's response comes after WarnerMedia's investigation into allegations made by Fisher of a toxic, hostile working environment under Joss Whedon, the director of the reshoots of 2017's Justice League. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/22/justice-league-the-snyder-cut-trailer"] “Walter Hamada is the most dangerous kind of enabler,” Fisher tweeted. “His lies, and WB PR’s failed Sept. 4th hit-piece, sought to undermine the very real issues of the ‘Justice League’ investigation. I will not participate in any production associated with him.” Fisher also included Hamada's New York Times interview in his tweet where he discussed the future of DC films and how the upcoming Snyder Cut of the Justice League is "a storytelling cul-de-sac" with no link to DC's upcoming projects, and that Snyder is "not currently involved in the studio's future." WarnerMedia recently confirmed that the Justice League investigation was concluded and that "remedial action" had been taken over Ray Fisher's claims. WarnerMedia's third-party investigation began in August following Fisher's allegations of Whedon's toxic set and how former DC Films co-chairs Geoff Johns and Jon Berg enabled the behavior. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=justice-league-snyder-cut-all-the-known-differences-from-the-theatrical-version&captions=true"] Fisher had also previously stated that Hamada pressed him to "relent on Geoff Johns." The "failed Sept. 4th hit-piece" Fisher was referring to was WarnerMedia's response to the allegations, denial of Fisher's claims about Hamada, and statement that Fisher had refused to meet with their third-party investigator to discuss the case. Ray Fisher shot additional footage for The Snyder Cut and said that he had reshot almost all of his scenes when Joss Whedon took over, saying only a single scene of his from Snyder's original version made it into the theatrical release. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/21/the-true-story-behind-the-snyder-cut"] [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.