User blog:Bunnylove14/What Google Search Trends Tell Us About the Rise, Fall, and Future of the Just Dance Series

Hello everyone! So recently, I made a blog about my unpopular opinions about the Just Dance series. One of mine is that I felt, as of recent years, the just dance franchise has been falling. It turned out, that this was actually a semi-popular opinion. I wanted to dig deeper, so I went to the god of data on the internet- Google. As you probably know, Google is the largest search engine used worldwide. Google search data can tell us many things about the popularity of everything, based on how searched it was at any given time. The results were very interesting, and I think they can tell us what went wrong, and how this can be fixed. So without further ado, here is the data!

These are line graphs that show the popularity of each search term over the years. At the top are the search terms being compared, and what color line they correspond to.



Here is thew first graph, which compares JD4, JD2014, JD2015, JD2016, and JD2017.

There are two things that immediately stood out as interesting on this graph

First, every single game since JD4 has had a very similar popularity pattern from October-January each year. Although they have had different levels of popularity each year, there is always a small spike at launch, then two larger spikes in November and December. This is probably due to three things. First, initial buzz at launch, because people are excited, people are writing reviews, etc. Then in November, at least for 4 and 2014, Just Dance was a launch title for the Wii U, and PS4/Xbox One respectively. Parents are also buying gifts for their kids/teens in November, which could add to the number of searches. Then during the holidays in December, people are getting their gifts. So this all makes sense to me.

Second, in the jump from Just Dance 4, to Just Dance 2014, there was a massive drop in popularity in buzz around launch window (October-December). There is a slight drop in every game after 2014 too, but nothing compared to the 4-2014 drop. This leads me to a conclusion that is in line with my theory on my unpopular opinions blog. The switch from numbers (JD1, JD2, JD3, JD4) to years (JD2014, JD2015, JD2016, JD2017) has made casual fans confused, and is the main cause of loss of popularity/sales since JD4. As hardcore fans, it's hard to see that something simple like a slight name change could confuse people, but casual fans probably just bought the new number game each year for the holidays, and got confused when instead of Just Dance 5, there was Just Dance 2014. This could make some people think for some reason that it's not a direct sequel, which could lead them not to buy.



Here is the second graph, which measures the popularity of the term "Just Dance" as a whole, not each specific game title, from when JD4 came out (2012) to 2017.

Here is what is VERY interesting about this. Although there still is a bit of a drop from 2012 to 2013 (the years they changed from numbers to years), it's not NEARLY as big as specific game titles. This means PEOPLE ARE STILL INTERESTED IN JUST DANCE, they just don't know what title to look up. In fact, the number of searches for "Just Dance" IS HIGHER in 2014 and 2015 then it is in 2013, but is dropping in those years when it comes to specific games (see first graph). This is just further proof that people were indeed thrown off by the change.



Here is a graph comparing JD2, JD3, JD4, JD2014, and JD2015.

This graph compares the popularity of game title searches from both the numbers era and the years era. It's very clear- up until JD2014, buzz for each JD was rapidly rising each year. Since JD2014, it has been falling. This is ironclad evidence that the game title switch DID have an impact on popularity, and that before 2014, JD was not failing, it was succeeding.

So now that we know what caused the downfall of the series, what is the future? Well, lots of people are saying that Just Dance Now, and Just Dance Unlimited are the future of Just Dance. So lets see what Google has to say about those games!



This compares the JD games released around when JDNOW came out (JD2015 and JD2016) as well as JDNOW and JDU.

As we can see, JDNOW isn't any different. It released one month before JD2015, and did worse. One thing to note is that around the time JD2016 was released, it was doing minimally better than how JD2015 was doing at the same time, but that's it. JDU, sadly, is even worse off. It has a very tiny bump, but that's about it.

So if JDU and JDNOW aren't doing any better then the mainline games, what is the future of Just Dance?

Better songs? Better choreos? New modes? Better advertising?

If we go on our data, it's none of those things. The best way to bring back buzz/sales to the Just Dance franchise is simple- go back to numbering the games instead of going by years. According to graph to, buzz around Just Dance is still fairly decent, even though specific game buzz/sales are dropping. Going by this the best plan of action is- '''instead of calling the next game "Just Dance 2018", Ubisoft should name it "Just Dance 9" (or even Just Dance 10 which is even and appealing, you could just call JDNOW an entry). '''

Thanks for reading this blog! I put a lot of work into it so I hope you enjoyed it! Do you agree with me? What do you thing could bring JD back to the glory days?