Despite a fulfilling start to the year for the games industry, none of the top played games during 2022’s Q1 were released this year.

Today, NPD’s Executive Director and Video Game Industry Advisor Mat Piscatella shared stats from The NPD Group's PlayerPulse. The list, which chronologically ranks the top 10 most played games during 2022’s Q1, sees games as old as 2009’s Minecraft and 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V still standing as player favorites.

Here are the top 10 most played games of Q1 2022 in the U.S. ranked by year of initial release. (Source: The NPD Group's PlayerPulse)

Half of the top 10 weren't launched this decade. Elden Ring ranked 20th. Ahead of it were games like Rocket League, World of Warcraft and Skyrim. pic.twitter.com/eWXKVMFHZj

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) May 24, 2022

Piscatella pointed out that half of the games that made the list were launched before the 2020s. Most notably, Elden Ring, which we gave a 10 and quickly became the best-selling game of the past year, ranked 20th and fell short to older games like Rocket League and World of Warcraft.

Piscatella accredited the game’s surprisingly low placement to the success of evergreen and live service games, calling them “gravity wells for player attention, time and spending.” Q1 is typically defined as the period from January to the end of March, so Elden Ring would also have only been released for one month.

Piscatella expanded on this thread by stating that more AAA games should seek the help of services like Game Pass and the new PlayStation Plus, saying he believes these plans can help “get games funded, released, and to help them break through the barriers of the big evergreen titles.”

While this list doesn’t feature any 2022 games, the year is still looking to be a great year for gaming, with plenty of releases already receiving excellent ratings from IGN and many more titles on their way.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Despite a fulfilling start to the year for the games industry, none of the top played games during 2022’s Q1 were released this year.

Today, NPD’s Executive Director and Video Game Industry Advisor Mat Piscatella shared stats from The NPD Group's PlayerPulse. The list, which chronologically ranks the top 10 most played games during 2022’s Q1, sees games as old as 2009’s Minecraft and 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V still standing as player favorites.

Here are the top 10 most played games of Q1 2022 in the U.S. ranked by year of initial release. (Source: The NPD Group's PlayerPulse)

Half of the top 10 weren't launched this decade. Elden Ring ranked 20th. Ahead of it were games like Rocket League, World of Warcraft and Skyrim. pic.twitter.com/eWXKVMFHZj

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) May 24, 2022

Piscatella pointed out that half of the games that made the list were launched before the 2020s. Most notably, Elden Ring, which we gave a 10 and quickly became the best-selling game of the past year, ranked 20th and fell short to older games like Rocket League and World of Warcraft.

Piscatella accredited the game’s surprisingly low placement to the success of evergreen and live service games, calling them “gravity wells for player attention, time and spending.” Q1 is typically defined as the period from January to the end of March, so Elden Ring would also have only been released for one month.

Piscatella expanded on this thread by stating that more AAA games should seek the help of services like Game Pass and the new PlayStation Plus, saying he believes these plans can help “get games funded, released, and to help them break through the barriers of the big evergreen titles.”

While this list doesn’t feature any 2022 games, the year is still looking to be a great year for gaming, with plenty of releases already receiving excellent ratings from IGN and many more titles on their way.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Another A-list actor has joined the cast of the upcoming animated Garfield movie as Samuel L. Jackson is on board to play Garfield's father, Vic.

Jackson will lend his voice to Vic, a brand new character in the Garfield universe, as we've never seen Garfield's father appear in the comic strip or in previous movies.

Jackson will join Chris Pratt, as Garfield takes another shot at the big screen after two poorly received movies starring Bill Murray. The iconic orange cat is originally from Jim Davis' comic strip that began in 1978. The comics follow Garfield's mission to be as lazy as possible, while living alongside his owner, Jon, and Jon's dog, Odie.

Pratt will voice the iconic Monday-hating, lasagna-loving cat, which was announced late last year. We learned of Pratt's casting just weeks after learning the actor would also play Mario in Illumination and Nintendo's upcoming Super Mario movie.

The Garfield movie's script was written by David Reynolds, who previously worked on Finding Nemo. Mark Dindal, who has worked on Chicken Little and Emperor's New Groove, is set to direct. Sony Pictures will distribute the movie.

For more, check out the internet's reactions to when Pratt's casting as Garfield was announced.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Another A-list actor has joined the cast of the upcoming animated Garfield movie as Samuel L. Jackson is on board to play Garfield's father, Vic.

Jackson will lend his voice to Vic, a brand new character in the Garfield universe, as we've never seen Garfield's father appear in the comic strip or in previous movies.

Jackson will join Chris Pratt, as Garfield takes another shot at the big screen after two poorly received movies starring Bill Murray. The iconic orange cat is originally from Jim Davis' comic strip that began in 1978. The comics follow Garfield's mission to be as lazy as possible, while living alongside his owner, Jon, and Jon's dog, Odie.

Pratt will voice the iconic Monday-hating, lasagna-loving cat, which was announced late last year. We learned of Pratt's casting just weeks after learning the actor would also play Mario in Illumination and Nintendo's upcoming Super Mario movie.

The Garfield movie's script was written by David Reynolds, who previously worked on Finding Nemo. Mark Dindal, who has worked on Chicken Little and Emperor's New Groove, is set to direct. Sony Pictures will distribute the movie.

For more, check out the internet's reactions to when Pratt's casting as Garfield was announced.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

As the creator of The Mandalorian and the voice of two different Mandalorian characters, Jon Favreau has certainly left an important mark on the Star Wars franchise. But as we all know, you haven't truly hit the big time until your face appears on a Star Wars figure. Luckily, Favreau is finally crossing that item off his bucket list at Star Wars Celebration 2022.

Hasbro will be offering a Jon Favreau figure as a Celebration-exclusive release during the convention. And yes, the figure is officially labeled "Jon Favreau" despite wearing the costume of Favreau's character, Paz Vizsla.

IGN can exclusively reveal the first images and details for the Favreau figure. Get a closer look in the slideshow gallery below:

Jon Favreau is part of Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series line of six-inch figures. The figure includes Vizsla's helmet, jetpack and blaster cannon, along with deluxe packaging that matches Hasbro's previous Black Series convention exclusives.

The Jon Favreau figure looks to be a companion of sorts to last year's Trapper Wolf figure. Though that toy wasn't specifically marketed as a Dave Filoni figure, it does feature the likeness of Favreau's The Mandalorian collaborator, who occasionally plays the New Republic pilot in the series. Previously, Hasbro released Star Wars figures depicting George Lucas as a Stromtrooper and concept artist Ralph McQuarrie as "General McQuarrie."

The Jon Favreau figure is priced at $39.99 and is slated for release in Fall 2022. Initially, he'll only be available to preorder for Celebration attendees. Hasbro will be giving out one-time codes at their booth (#2404) that can be scanned and used to order the figure on Hasbro Pulse. Afterward, limited quantities of the figure will be made available for general preorder.

Will you be adding a miniature Jon Favreau to your Star Wars collection? What other Star Wars filmmakers deserve their own action figures? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

In other Star Wars news, Marvel Comics is adapting the first season of The Mandalorian, and Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy revealed the franchise is now focused on "persistent storytelling, not trilogies."

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

As the creator of The Mandalorian and the voice of two different Mandalorian characters, Jon Favreau has certainly left an important mark on the Star Wars franchise. But as we all know, you haven't truly hit the big time until your face appears on a Star Wars figure. Luckily, Favreau is finally crossing that item off his bucket list at Star Wars Celebration 2022.

Hasbro will be offering a Jon Favreau figure as a Celebration-exclusive release during the convention. And yes, the figure is officially labeled "Jon Favreau" despite wearing the costume of Favreau's character, Paz Vizsla.

IGN can exclusively reveal the first images and details for the Favreau figure. Get a closer look in the slideshow gallery below:

Jon Favreau is part of Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series line of six-inch figures. The figure includes Vizsla's helmet, jetpack and blaster cannon, along with deluxe packaging that matches Hasbro's previous Black Series convention exclusives.

The Jon Favreau figure looks to be a companion of sorts to last year's Trapper Wolf figure. Though that toy wasn't specifically marketed as a Dave Filoni figure, it does feature the likeness of Favreau's The Mandalorian collaborator, who occasionally plays the New Republic pilot in the series. Previously, Hasbro released Star Wars figures depicting George Lucas as a Stromtrooper and concept artist Ralph McQuarrie as "General McQuarrie."

The Jon Favreau figure is priced at $39.99 and is slated for release in Fall 2022. Initially, he'll only be available to preorder for Celebration attendees. Hasbro will be giving out one-time codes at their booth (#2404) that can be scanned and used to order the figure on Hasbro Pulse. Afterward, limited quantities of the figure will be made available for general preorder.

Will you be adding a miniature Jon Favreau to your Star Wars collection? What other Star Wars filmmakers deserve their own action figures? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

In other Star Wars news, Marvel Comics is adapting the first season of The Mandalorian, and Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy revealed the franchise is now focused on "persistent storytelling, not trilogies."

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

If you're a regular IGN reader, when I write the words "Cyberpunk yellow", you can almost certainly picture the neon shade I'm referring to. From its earliest days, CD Projekt Red used a particular yellow in everything from artwork to announcements. Eventually, it even became a warning sign for fans, after multiple delay announcements used the colour as a backdrop.

Speaking at Polish games conference Digital Dragons, Cyberpunk lead environment artist Michał Janiszewski brought that fact up in a lecture, using a section of his talk to answer the question, "Why Is Everything So Yellow?" In essence, the fact that so many people can recall that shade proves that the team did their job right.

Early in the talk Janiszewski brought up the glass Coca-Cola bottle as a key piece of industrial design history – you can recognise it by its shape, design, the font, and the colour. CD Projekt was aiming for something similar: "We were speaking about the Coca-Cola," said Janiszewski. "The yellow colour is pretty much the same thing. It is conveying the information, it is simple to remember."

However, it wasn't simply a case of making a colour (and an accompanying design) that you'd remember – it was also an attempt to make Cyberpunk feel different from existing icons in its genre. Janiszewski made clear that the likes of Blade Runner and Judge Dredd were inspirations for Cyberpunk 2077, but the team worked from the beginning to feel distinct from them, as opposed to an impression of them.

'Cyberpunk yellow' became a part of that effort on the branding side: "Most people, when they are thinking about cyberpunk, it is like a red colour, a bit of blue," said Janiszewski, "but we wanted to have something new, something fresh; that’s why we picked the yellow colour. It is new, it is like 'California style'."

Speaking to me later, fellow lead environment artist Kacper Niepokólczycki said there had been a "very long conversation" about creating that iconic brand identity for the game. While it was less prevalent inside the game itself, the team did seek to represent that yellow in Night City too:

"You can see [it in] clothes lining. It is there. And even districts – like for example, the City Center has this yellow colour everywhere, it's the main colour from this district. Yeah, we definitely took it over wherever we could. But it was mostly first of all to figure out I think our identity as a colour – and then we took it over and injected it wherever we could."

For the art team, perhaps the best marker of how successful the Cyberpunk yellow experiment had been was when other companies started using it themselves:

"In Poland, there were companies trying to use the colour," Niepokólczycki says. "I remember there were food adverts here on bus stations and mobile phones that used the colour to grab your attention. They literally used the colour because they noticed how powerful it can be. Here in Poland, Cyberpunk at one point was crazy, posters everywhere – and people just [stole] the colour and used it for their own sake."

It's likely not the last we've seen of that particular shade. We're expecting the game's first expansion in 2023, and we know the developer has plans for the Cyberpunk franchise beyond this first game – Cyberpunk yellow is almost certain to return to help make you aware of those projects.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

If you're a regular IGN reader, when I write the words "Cyberpunk yellow", you can almost certainly picture the neon shade I'm referring to. From its earliest days, CD Projekt Red used a particular yellow in everything from artwork to announcements. Eventually, it even became a warning sign for fans, after multiple delay announcements used the colour as a backdrop.

Speaking at Polish games conference Digital Dragons, Cyberpunk lead environment artist Michał Janiszewski brought that fact up in a lecture, using a section of his talk to answer the question, "Why Is Everything So Yellow?" In essence, the fact that so many people can recall that shade proves that the team did their job right.

Early in the talk Janiszewski brought up the glass Coca-Cola bottle as a key piece of industrial design history – you can recognise it by its shape, design, the font, and the colour. CD Projekt was aiming for something similar: "We were speaking about the Coca-Cola," said Janiszewski. "The yellow colour is pretty much the same thing. It is conveying the information, it is simple to remember."

However, it wasn't simply a case of making a colour (and an accompanying design) that you'd remember – it was also an attempt to make Cyberpunk feel different from existing icons in its genre. Janiszewski made clear that the likes of Blade Runner and Judge Dredd were inspirations for Cyberpunk 2077, but the team worked from the beginning to feel distinct from them, as opposed to an impression of them.

'Cyberpunk yellow' became a part of that effort on the branding side: "Most people, when they are thinking about cyberpunk, it is like a red colour, a bit of blue," said Janiszewski, "but we wanted to have something new, something fresh; that’s why we picked the yellow colour. It is new, it is like 'California style'."

Speaking to me later, fellow lead environment artist Kacper Niepokólczycki said there had been a "very long conversation" about creating that iconic brand identity for the game. While it was less prevalent inside the game itself, the team did seek to represent that yellow in Night City too:

"You can see [it in] clothes lining. It is there. And even districts – like for example, the City Center has this yellow colour everywhere, it's the main colour from this district. Yeah, we definitely took it over wherever we could. But it was mostly first of all to figure out I think our identity as a colour – and then we took it over and injected it wherever we could."

For the art team, perhaps the best marker of how successful the Cyberpunk yellow experiment had been was when other companies started using it themselves:

"In Poland, there were companies trying to use the colour," Niepokólczycki says. "I remember there were food adverts here on bus stations and mobile phones that used the colour to grab your attention. They literally used the colour because they noticed how powerful it can be. Here in Poland, Cyberpunk at one point was crazy, posters everywhere – and people just [stole] the colour and used it for their own sake."

It's likely not the last we've seen of that particular shade. We're expecting the game's first expansion in 2023, and we know the developer has plans for the Cyberpunk franchise beyond this first game – Cyberpunk yellow is almost certain to return to help make you aware of those projects.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Hogwarts Legacy's PlayStation 5 version includes a ton of exclusive features as developer Avalanche Software looks to make full use of the DualSense controller.

Announced in a PlayStation Blog post to go alongside a new trailer (below), Avalanche explained that the DualSense's adaptive triggers "allow for more flexibility in combat", as the player has "so many spells" at their disposal, implying that pushing in the trigger at different rates could cast different attacks.

Haptic feedback will also make each spell feel individualistic and Avalanche has isolated all of these effects to the right side of the controller to represent the in-game character holding a wand (sorry lefties). Deflecting spells can also be felt as the player's Shield Charm sizzles with magic as it reflects and absorbs blows.

Various other activities throughout the world, such as crushing ingredients in Potions class, pulling Mandrake seedlings from pots, and flying on a broom will also have matching haptic feedback.

The lights on the DualSense will also flash with each spell being cast or damage being taken, but in more relaxed moments the controller will glow in your Hogwarts house colours: blue and bronze for Ravenclaw, scarlet and gold for Gryffindor, green and silver for Slytherin, and yellow and black for Hufflepuff.

Ambient sounds come through the controller too, such as the flapping of a Hippogriff's wings or the crackle of spells.

Finally, for the trophy hunters, Hogwarts Legacy supports the PlayStation 5's Activity Cards and Game Help features, letting players get quick tips when tracking down collectibles, performing certain actions, and so on.

Hogwarts Legacy is expected to be released in late 2022 for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Set long before the events of the Harry Potter films, players will spend time in classes, exploring Hogwarts, and fighting a nasty goblin called Ranrok.

Ryan Dinsdale is a freelance writer for IGN.

It’s no exaggeration to say Final Fantasy 14 is a beast. How Long to Beat pegs Final Fantasy 14’s co-op content at over 1,484 hours long, while the "single-player" story content is anywhere from 106 hours to 1,565 hours long.

While Final Fantasy 14 is and remains a rewarding and worthwhile MMORPG experience, there's hope now for RPG fans looking to experience the game as a story-driven, single-player game.

Beginning Final Fantasy 14 is daunting, let alone as a solo player. Even before stepping into multiplayer content like Raids and Dungeons, there’s a vast slate of game mechanics and classes to learn, which can be incredibly daunting when put to the test in a live environment surrounded by other players.

That’s all on top of queue times for PvE content, which can eat up well over half an hour depending on the time of day and your job role.

One of the biggest hurdles for Final Fantasy fans jumping into Final Fantasy 14 is the multiplayer aspect, which prevents fans of Square Enix’s single-player odysseys from immediately jumping into arguably one of the company’s best Final Fantasy games.

Thanks to patch 6.1 last month, those going it alone can now take in an entire retinue of NPC characters to a Dungeon, soloing content that previously would’ve required three other players to complete. The system currently lets players complete dungeons in the Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions, and now A Realm Reborn after Patch 6.1.

Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida has spoken at length about how important the ability to solo Final Fantasy 14 is, and now the support system is finally in place to allow that.

The Duty Support system — now renamed the Trust system — is how solo Final Fantasy 14 players select which NPCs will accompany them into a Dungeon. But how effective has Square Enix’s support for solo players in Final Fantasy 14 actually been?

YouTuber Jessica St. John better-known as Zepla, one of the most popular Final Fantasy 14 content creators with over 300,000 subscribers, reckons its effectiveness depends on your goal as a player. If it's to experience the full story of Final Fantasy 14, that will eventually be possible even if it isn't right now. Plans are currently in place to expand the system to include the rest of A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, and Stormblood.

“Trust works extremely well for what it’s supposed to do: give a solo alternative to group content,” says Zepla. If there’s one area Square Enix could improve upon, Zepla says it’s the damage dealt by AI party members. NPCs do far less damage than the average player in a dungeon, and so activities that could normally take 30 minutes with a team of real players can stretch on far longer with a retinue of NPCs.

However, the trade-off to a longer dungeon is not needing to wait in a queue.

Although every main story activity through patch 2.0 of A Realm Reborn can be completed solo now, Zepla points out that many other activities like Raids, still require a team of players. Content like Trials is one such activity, partnering eight players together to decipher the deadly mechanics of one brutal boss fight for greater rewards.

But Final Fantasy content creator and general MMORPG expert Quazii believes Final Fantasy 14 is “a single-player RPG first, MMORPG second.” Quazii thinks the strongest draw of Final Fantasy 14 lies in its storytelling, and it’s extremely feasible to eventually complete A Realm Reborn’s story entirely solo.

“If you ask FF14 players what is their most enjoyable experience in the game, [the] vast majority would say it’s the single-player questing experience, specifically when working through the main story quest,” Quazii says. “Yoshi-p and team [weave] amazing voice activity, riveting storylines, and just really captivating choreography of cutscenes that will move any human being to tears. I’m not one to cry for video games, but this game got me good."

Similarly, Final Fantasy 14 community commentator and streamer Michael “MrHappy” Poveromo points to the revamped Duty Support system as a gateway for solo players to experience the story of Final Fantasy 14, but like Zepla, says multiplayer story content like Trials might take far longer for the development team to make available for solo players. “So it will be quite some time before you can outright experience the entire game's main scenario solo,” Poveromo adds.

Both think this is unlikely to change, however. For one, Poveromo thinks keeping certain content multiplayer-only is “deliberate to encourage players to still do Dungeons and other content with actual people.” As such, the streamers don't see this changing. They say that while it’s great solo alternatives exist in an MMORPG like Final Fantasy 14, group play should be incentivized. "That Duty Finder matchmaker still needs to be populated after all," adds Zepla.

It’s clear Yoshida’s comments have struck a chord with the Final Fantasy 14 community at large, as both Zepla and Poveromo recall the director’s past commitments to improving the Trust system and retroactively adding it to past expansions.

“Through the usage of the Trust system, I’d like to eventually convey to these types of players how much fun it is to play with others. That’s why we want to remove as many barriers as possible before that point,” Yoshida said in an Endwalker media tour last year.

Nowhere is there disagreement between the three content creators in recommending Final Fantasy 14 to solo RPG players. Quazii struggles to “find another game title that rivals FF14 when it comes to single-player storytelling,” while Zepla thinks everyone should experience the MMORPG’s story. Poveromo reckons Final Fantasy 14’s expansive story has always been geared towards the solo experience, and all three believe Square Enix’s game is worth the journey for solo players.

In fact, Poveromoand Zepla urges traditionally solo players to step out of their comfort zone for Final Fantasy 14. Poveromo says the majority of players are helpful to newcomers, while the Zepla adds that the “community has a reputation for being welcoming to new players.”

All you need do is mention that you’re a newcomer, Zepla says, and most players would be happy to help you out and explain things you don’t understand. “It is absolutely worth stepping out of your comfort zone to do the occasional group content,” Zepla adds, all for the sake of experiencing Final Fantasy 14’s storyline.

But is Final Fantasy 14’s approach to solo players enough to make other MMORPGs take notice and learn from it? The gaming landscape has a slew of heavy hitters like World of Warcraft, and newcomers like New World and Lost Ark have muscled into the MMO space over the last year.

Poveromo believes there are a “lot of lessons” MMOs could take from Final Fantasy 14, but in particular the streamer feels like more MMOs are catering to solo players earlier on, via scaling Dungeons, solo activities, and even just basic quest design.

Zepla points to Lost Ark as a prime example of this shifting attitude as an MMO that launched with tons of support for solo players on day one. “I think providing pathways of solo accessibility is critical to the growth of the MMO genre,” Zepla says, adding that people have associated the genre with “obligation and social pressure” for far too long. It’s time for people to realize MMOs have far more to offer than just that, Zepla says, and so it’s perfectly logical for MMOs to add solo assistance for their content.

Final Fantasy 14’s commitment to solo players has hit a milestone with patch 6.1. In a space typically dominated by group play, frequently demanding hundreds of hours to master from players, Final Fantasy 14 is proving it doesn’t have to be this way. Solo players are finally able to complete Final Fantasy 14’s base storyline for the first time, and it’s clear that Yoshida and Square Enix have no intention of stopping here.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance writer for IGN.