New bestseller Battlefield: Bad Company 2 makes a strong impression, but it can’t knock Modern Warfare 2 off the top of the buzz chart.

Modern Warfare 2 retained the buzz chart lead its held almost every week since releasing in November last year, with Brandwatch registering 17,200 mentions, down just slightly from last week’s 17,874.

The game continues to hit the headlines - the first, eagerly anticipated DLC has just been confirmed for a March 30 release, while speculation about the legal dispute between the series’ creators and publisher Activision is rife. Modern Warfare 2's proportion of positive mentions fell three points week-on-week to 47 per cent, while negative mentions rose one point to 16 per cent – the joint highest on this week’s Edge Games Index.



UK Chart March 8

New UK bestseller Battlefield: Bad Company 2 generated the second largest buzz this week with 10,400 mentions, 46 per cent of which were positive. Only 13 per cent were negative, and they may have had something to do with gamers’ gripes about inconsistent server support affecting online play following the title's release.

Somewhat controversially, Bad Company 2 also plays a part in EA’s latest initiative to combat used game sales. New copies include a "VIP" code enabling owners to access downloadable content for the game, including launch day DLC in the form of multiplayer maps. Second hand purchasers are required to pay for VIP access.

Heavy Rain was third again, although total mentions more than halved to 3,296. 55 per cent of the mentions were positive, while only ten per cent were negative, which is unchanged week-on-week.

Placing tenth in terms of overall mentions was Wii Sports Resort. The game received the largest proportion of positive mentions at 56 per cent and the smallest share of negative mentions at just six per cent.
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Every week, the Edge Games Index, produced in association with Brandwatch, rates games according to the volume of positive and negative buzz they're inspiring on the web.

Each chart allows you to rank the list by the overall quantity of buzz about each title, by the quantity of positive or negative buzz, and by the percentage of positive or negative buzz. To explain the numbers you’ll see on the charts, the number alongside the volume of responses represents the absolute number of mentions the game in question has had, while the ‘last week’ column represents a game’s position in relation to the others on the chart seven days ago.

The data is compiled by brand intelligence specialist Brandwatch. To find out how its system works, see our explanation.