8 Video Games That Caught Lightning In A Bottle

Making a successful game isn't merely as simple as creating something good or even great and letting the universe do the rest - it's typically a confluence of skill and luck.

Many brilliant games have flopped commercially, and countless terrible ones have sold like nobody's business. 

Often a game's sales success is the result of factor's outside the developer's control, such as releasing at just the perfect time, where it manages to capture the public's imagination for a unique and unexpected reason. 

And that's true of these video games, each of which are the definition of capturing lightning in a bottle. 

Each became a stunning success not merely because they were a lot of fun to play, but because they were in the right place at the right time, leaving them able to take advantage of technological advancements, tidal changes in the culture, and everything else in-between.

Had the timing worked out a little differently, it's safe to say that these games wouldn't have been nearly as successful or iconic, no matter their quality. 

But as it stands, they're immortalised because all the right things happened at the same time...

While it's absolutely fair to say that there was considerable thirst for a follow-up to 2016's surprisingly great Doom reboot, id Software could never have conceived how perfectly timed Doom Eternal's release actually was.

Beyond releasing at the onset of the pandemic when folks were sheltered in place and many sought comfort in the escapist world of video games, Doom Eternal also released on March 20th, 2020 - the very same day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Once fans of each franchise realised this, they went wild creating hilarious memes depicting Doomguy and Animal Crossing's Isabelle together as best pals.

In a similar vein to the Barbenheimer cinematic phenomenon of 2023, to see two major AAA franchises with such stark tones and aesthetics releasing on the same day captured the Internet's imagination, and each fanbase basically ended up propping up the other.

And given that Animal Crossing: New Horizons was an eye-watering sales juggernaut, ultimately selling over 47 million copies, the interplay between the two franchises evidently rubbed off on Doom, winning it a legion of new fans.

This was confirmed by the fact that Doom Eternal's first-month digital sales were more than triple that of Doom 2016. 

And sure, it was a great game anyway, but it clearly benefitted from its unexpected association with Nintendo's smash hit life sim.