The Reason Ghost Of Tsushima Was Trending On Twitter
On Dec. 28, a hashtag for Sucker Punch Productions' open-world samurai stealth adventure Ghost of Tsushima was trending on Twitter. Though Sucker Punch was generous with updates in the time following Ghost of Tsushima's launch, its joining the day's trending topics had nothing to do with any sort of new game content. Rather, #GhostOfTsushima began trending because Tweeting it would tack on a small, emoji-like image of protagonist Jin's face to the hashtag, and that feature was announced to be nearing removal.
This was initially shared in a Tweet by Andrew Goldfarb, who works as a communications manager for Sucker Punch and thus acts as a sort of public social media face for Ghost of Tsushima. In his Tweet, Goldfarb expressed wanting to spam the hashtag as a kind of last hurrah, in which he got to take advantage of the emoji feature on one of the last days of being able to do so.
However, it wasn't just Goldfarb who decided that the small, cartoony likeness of Jin deserved a spot on their timeline one final time. His initial post spurred fans of the game to Tweet the hashtag en masse and, in doing so, either express why they enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima or simply share pictures taken with the game's robust photo mode. About nine hours later, Goldfarb shared a screenshot of the hashtag from amid Twitter's trending topics, with 5,158 Tweets total at the time of his post.
One Tweet, from Mashable reporter Alexis Nedd, expressed that she would miss the hashtag emoji due to its part in a larger whole the game became for her, as a subject about which to read and write, beyond just being a playable narrative experience. Another Tweet that ultimately received more than 1,700 Likes during the topic's trending period simply praised Ghost of Tsushima as an exemplary final AAA exclusive release for the PS4. Among those who joined in and shared the hashtag were Leonard Wu, who performed the English voice of Jin's rival Ryuzo, and Earl T. Kim, the English voice of the warrior monk Norio.
Following Ghost of Tsushima's July 2020 release, Sucker Punch added a free multiplayer mode, subtitled Legends, in August. That mode was eventually updated to include outfits paying homage to fellow PlayStation-exclusive franchises, which is just one example of the support Sucker Punch has continued to show Ghost of Tsushima since its release day. In fact, Sony attributes its console exclusivity as key to the game's significant financial success. The game is a favorite among fans, too, winning the Player's Voice category at The Game Awards 2020. It's no surprise, then, that a simple Tweet could spur such a widespread outpouring of appreciation.