The worst countries in the world to be a gamer

Who has it worst for... console release dates?


You know what’s also really important if you want to be a gamer? Having a machine to play games on. Otherwise you have to resort to making little cardboard cutouts of Mario and jumping them over your furniture like a slightly mad child, or making your friends dress up as Covenant so that you can shoot them with a painball gun, and that’s basically just bullying. So yeah, if you want to be a console gamer at least, you’re going to need a console.

The thing is, while console launches these days tend to be big showboating parties where men in shiny suits spend way too much money on running around being all “Look at me look at me look at me OH PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LOOK AT ME, HAVE I NOT DONE ENOUGH YET MOTHER DO YOU NOT LOVE ME YET HAVE I NOT DONE ENOUGH!?”, there are some countries to whom these events are just the distant rumble of a gnat fart on the horizon.

You see for some countries, console launches come and go, and it’s only years later that the companies in question remember that said countries exist and that they should probably bung them a few units. You know, like when you forget about the hooker in your car boot until you notice the smell weeks later. Or so I’m told.

Anyway, these are the countries that got dicked out of consoles for a long time this generation, illustrated in nice, brightly coloured graphs to counterbalance the sadness:

So yeah, the main conclusion I think we can all take from that is "Don't be from the Far East or South America if you're a Sony or Nintendo fan". Also, "Microsoft will screw roughly one country from each significantly-populated continent that isn't North America, just for a laugh".

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.
Latest in Gaming
GDC The Game Developers logo
When is the Game Developers Conference 2025 and why is it so interesting?
Pokemon Legends: Z-A screenshot
Everything announced at Pokemon Presents 2025
Saros screenshot featuring the main character and am imposing monster in the background with a swirling void in its chest and multiple arms with balls of fire
Everything announced at the PlayStation State of Play February 2025
Close up shot of an anime schoolgirl with a superhero mask over her eyes in a screenshot from Mightreya.
My Steam wishlist is bigger than ever thanks to the indie devs flooding social media with 15-second clips explaining their games
FGS Spring 2025
The Future Games Show Spring Showcase is back and will have a new live segment from the GDC event floor
A close-up of the Doom Slayer in the upcoming PC game, Doom: The Dark Ages.
Xbox Developer Direct 2025: date, time, and where to stream the showcase
Latest in Features
The Punisher holding two machine guns in the rain
Daredevil: Born Again - Learn the bullet-riddled comic book history of the Punisher before he officially joins the MCU
A woman in a underwater machine waving during the cinematic teaser for Subnautica 2.
Subnautica 2: Everything we know about the new underwater survival game
The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G being held above a motherboard by a reviewer
AMD's pro-consumer 9070 strategies are exactly why it's primed to dominate the CPU market in 2025
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Shadows' transmog looks set to combine the best of Odyssey and Vahalla to make changing my drip easier than ever
Split Fiction screenshot of Zoe and Mio in a fantasy world
Split Fiction feels like a Mass Effect-meets-Fable platformer and I'm obsessed with it after just one hour
Monster Hunter Wilds characters share a meal
Oh no, Monster Hunter Wilds is so good that I'm already counting the days until its inevitable Master Rank expansion