I stumbled upon an old yearbook thread from a few years back that still makes me chuckle. A high school had polled its seniors about their favorite video game, and the results were splashed across a page like a hastily assembled potluck dish: 75% Fortnite, 10% Roblox, 10% Minecraft, and 5% \u201cBaldon\u2019s Gate 3.\u201d Yes, you read that right.
That tiny typo \u2014 Baldon instead of Baldur \u2014 was the spark that set off a Reddit wildfire. People were more tickled by the misspelling than the actual breakdown, as if the game itself had wandered into the yearbook with a fake moustache. But beyond the spelling mishap, the numbers felt like a lopsided smoothie recipe where one ingredient completely dominates, leaving only a whisper of the others.
Now, I\u2019ve learned over the years that statistical snapshots like this are a bit like trying to identify a symphony by listening to a single note played on a kazoo. The sample size was almost certainly tiny. Internet sleuths quickly deduced that if exactly 20 seniors responded, we\u2019d have 15 for Fortnite, 2 for Roblox, 2 for Minecraft, and precisely one valiant soul holding the Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 banner (and misspelling it, bless them). Double it if 40 kids filled out the survey. That\u2019s like peering at a handful of sand grains through a microscope and declaring the entire beach is made of Fortnite silica. The real picture is far more textured.
Even in 2026, Fortnite still wears the crown as the eternal youth magnet. It\u2019s a shapeshifting metropolis of pop culture, constantly reinventing itself with concerts, collabs, and new seasons like the recent \u201cNeon Horizon\u201d chapter that turned the map into a cyberpunk playground. Roblox remains a vast creative sandbox that swallowed entire afternoons of my younger cousins, and Minecraft\u2019s blocky charm never ages, especially with the \u201cRealms Reimagined\u201d update that dropped last year. These games are the digital equivalent of comfort food for teens \u2014 familiar, endlessly shareable, and requiring no explanation to peers.
But that lone Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 vote? It fascinates me. By 2026, Larian\u2019s CRPG has sold over 20 million copies and spawned a small cinematic universe of tie-in animations. Yet its thick Dungeons & Dragons rulebook, occasional gory moments, and unapologetically adult storytelling still place it in a different orbit. It\u2019s like bringing a truffle-infused gourmet dish to a pizza party \u2014 remarkable, but not everyone\u2019s go-to comfort food. The Yearbook typo almost symbolizes how that student\u2019s passion got swallowed by the Fortnite monolith; the name barely registered on the page.
What\u2019s more, the Gen Z modding scene for Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 has exploded since 2024, with mods that add modern slang, meme hairstyles, and even reimagined companion interactions that lean heavily into TikTok humor. I\u2019ve seen firsthand how those mods lower the barrier for younger players, like turning a dense novel into an audiobook with catchy chapter titles. Still, the game\u2019s rating and the average 130-hour playthrough are a steep climb for someone who can binge three Fortnite matches in that time.
The pie chart of this yearbook \u2014 if you squint at the percentages \u2014 is far from a balanced meal. It\u2019s more like a recipe where salt took over because someone misread the spoon size. I imagine the survey question was probably tossed out informally: \u201cHey, what\u2019s your favorite game?\u201d Many teens likely blurted out the first thing their thumb tapped on their phone screen. (I checked my own phone just now: Fortnite icon is still there, staring at me, after seven years.) The one Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 voter probably had to spell it out twice, hence the \u201cBaldon\u201d slip.
If I were to run this poll again in 2026 at that same high school, I suspect the Fortnite-Roblox-Minecraft trio would still dominate, but I\u2019d hope to see a few more Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 votes \u2014 if only because the Definitive Edition released in late 2025 added a \u201cNarrated for Newbies\u201d mode that explains every mechanic with the gentle voice of Amelia Tyler. Maybe that would convert a few more seniors who borrowed it from a friend after hearing about Astarion\u2019s thirst trap status on social media.
The original post, now several years old, remains a beautiful artifact of how we collect game preferences among young people: messy, prone to misspellings, and wildly skewed by who decided to answer. It\u2019s a reminder that when you ask teenagers about their loves, the loudest voice often sounds like a Fortnite battle bus, while the quietest is a single d20 clattering in a corner. And I kind of love that imbalance.
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