People Are Tweeting About Videogames Now More Than Ever

According to new data, tweets focusing on videogames, and the videogame industry, are having a bang-up 2019.

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Greetings, and welcome to this Monday’s edition of The Monitor, WIRED’s culture news roundup. What’s happening? Glad you asked. First up, videogames are huge on Twitter. Second, Universal has canceled the release of one of its upcoming films. And finally, folks can finally get a glimpse of the new Apple TV+ show from Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Let’s go!

People Are Tweeting About Videogames Now More Than Ever

Here’s some news that’s pretty surprising—and yet, totally not. According to new data, tweets focusing on videogames, and the videogame industry, are having a bang-up 2019. In the first half of this year, there were more than 500 million gaming-related messages posted on Twitter. That number marks an increase of 20 percent year over year. Another interesting stat: This year has seen a 15 percent increase in accounts that tweet about games. The data signals not only an increase in gaming chatter generally, but also points to recent news events—like Ninja leaving Twitch, and President Trump’s recent comments blaming videogames for gun violence—dominating online conversation. “It’s been crazy to look at the past couple weeks and see a huge influx of trends coming from gaming,” Rishi Chadha, head of gaming content partnerships at Twitter, told the Hollywood Reporter.

Universal Cancelled the Release of The Hunt

Following the mass shootings in Ohio and Texas that left dozens dead and wounded, Universal Pictures has canceled the release of The Hunt, which was set to hit theaters on September 27. The movie, which the studio calls a “satirical social thriller,” focuses on a group of wealthy people who hunt others for sport. Universal’s decision came on the heels of Trump making a presumed dig at the film, tweeting “Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate! They like to call themselves ‘Elite,’ but they are not Elite. In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the Elite. The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos.” Universal, meanwhile, said the reason for canceling the release was that “now is not the right time to release this film.” It’s unclear if the release will ever be rescheduled.

Here’s the First Trailer for That Jennifer Aniston-Reese Witherspoon Apple TV+ Show

You’ve been hearing about it for some time and now it’s almost here. The Morning Show, which stars Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carrell, will be landing on Apple TV+ this fall. The first trailer for the series about an AM news program is below. No word yet on whether or not there will be an Apple News+ tie-in.

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