God of War: Ragnarok Tops Summer Game Week. Sony's Call Pays Off?

According to a new engagement index from Level Up, which tracked the entire summer showcase week across trailer views, livestream performance, media coverage, and community sentiment, God of War: Laufey finished as the clear attention leader across all live events. That momentum started with Sony's State of Play, the earliest major presentation of the week, and videos tied to the reveal have already passed 10 million total views on the official PlayStation YouTube channel alone.

At one level, that's simply a marketing win. More notably, it also suggests players are buying into the game's narrative direction. Those clicks were not just for the God of War brand. They were also, at least for now, a vote of confidence that Laufey can carry a full game.

Based on what's been shown so far, Santa Monica Studio is taking a real risk here. Instead of asking Kratos to remain the sole emotional center, the studio is pushing Laufey to the foreground. That means resetting the series' narrative center: away from the aftershocks of the father-son dynamic, and toward an independent arc for a more complex female character. Whether that shift actually works will determine whether God of War: Laufey feels like a real new chapter or just a minor extension.

In Level Up's ranking, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake placed second, followed by Resident Evil: Code Veronica Remake and Marvel's Wolverine. Nintendo's decision to revisit a game many players hold up as untouchable nostalgia looks like a conservative creative strategy: using the safety of a classic to offset the uncertainty of a new lead elsewhere.

The wider ranking is revealing too. Persona 6 and Kingdom Hearts 4 both generated more attention than Final Fantasy 7: Revelation, even though the latter closed Summer Game Fest. If that pattern holds, the JRPG formula once seen as the genre's gold standard may no longer have the same automatic draw.

Across the ranking, each game is offering a different narrative pitch. Marvel's Wolverine leans on psychological depth. Resident Evil: Code Veronica Remake trades on the emotional value of reviving an old favorite. God of War: Laufey hinges on whether audiences are willing to show up for a female protagonist who has not yet been fully proven on her own.

For now, the numbers suggest players are willing to at least take that first look. Whether Laufey can truly carry the role will have to wait until the game is actually released.