What's Trending: May 23, 2023 Edition

Gamers have been pushing their creativity to make the most out of Tears of the Kingdom’s building features and Meta joins the fray to “build the next Twitter” with a yet-to-be-named app set to be released this summer in today’s trend roundup from Ayzenberg Senior Data Strategist Rafael Benjamin Sales and Director of Insights and Analytics Melanie Weinreich .

Fighting Games Galore

The brand new Mortal Kombat game, titled Mortal Kombat 1 in classic reboot fashion, was announced last Thursday to high praise. And the Street Fighter 6 open beta closed on May 21, ahead of its scheduled June release. These games plus the upcoming Tekken 8 release have led to an excitement for a legacy fighting game renaissance .

Hank Green Has Cancer

As if TikTok getting banned in the state he lives in wasn't bad enough, one of our favorite VlogBrothers announced he has Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He's taking it as lightly as he can , but it’s safe to say he has the whole internet behind him .

Players Can't Stop Being Creative In Tears Of The Kingdom

Link's newly acquired building powers in the latest Zelda installment are pushing players’ imaginations . Observers can only make so much of the chaos . Koroks , unfortunately, are getting the short end of the stick .

Esports Is Taking A Hit In 2023

FaZe Clan laid off roughly 40 percent of its staff last week in a second round of layoffs this year. FaZe Clan is the largest esports organization that also operates as a media company, and its stock has plummeted since it hit a high of $24.69 in August, down to $0.60 as of Monday afternoon.

Going "Viral" On TikTok Is Increasingly Challenging

The number of videos created on TikTok each week that draw more than 10 million views has been declining , signaling that there are fewer videos made by smaller creators going viral on the app. The number of TikTokers who have amassed more than 1 million followers has also been dropping since usage ballooned during the pandemic.

Instagram Is Creating A Twitter Alternative

Meta’s microblogging contender will launch this summer. It’ll reportedly be a stand-alone text-based app but integrated with Instagram so that users can keep their handles.

Twitter Blue Is Cheaper Than A Movie

Twitter Blue users are reportedly taking advantage of a new two-hour video upload feature to pirate movies. Also on our radar, Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted “lawsuit time” at Microsoft after the social media giant accused Microsoft of inappropriately harvesting its data to build apps.