The release of Crimson Desert from Pearl Abyss studio recently took place. The project received "mixed" reviews from journalists and gamers on Steam.
Jason Schreier from Bloomberg drew attention to how everything changed in the betting market — after the release of Crimson Desert, its chances of winning in the "Game of the Year" category decreased by 6 times:
Earlier this month, the betting site estimated Crimson Desert's chances of becoming "Game of the Year" at 30%. In this, it was second only to Grand Theft Auto VI, which had 45%. Now the figure has fallen to 5%.
Then Schreier added:
In the last few months, Crimson Desert has been heavily hyped on sites like YouTube and TikTok, where video authors called it the "Second Coming", hyping up a game that could never live up to such expectations. This has happened with games before, but now it's 2026 and you can bet money on it.