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Do Mortal Kombat Video View Statistics Hide a Disturbing Truth?

Do Mortal Kombat Video View Statistics Hide a Disturbing Truth?

Before I get on to this article, I want to point you toward Shirrako’s Youtube channel. He does very good video walkthroughs of popular games in high definition, so if you are looking for some footage of a new hot game, he is your man.

Anyway, Shirrako has a series of Mortal Kombat X videos where he showcases all the game’s fatalities on certain characters. That way, you get to see what all their mutilated corpses look like. I can understand the want for such a video, especially if you are looking for footage of a very specific character on character fatality scenario.

But it’s the view counts of these videos, that somewhat disturbed me. Thus far, he has videos up for Kano, Reptile, Ferra/Torr, Erron Black, Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Jacqui, D’Vorah,  Sonya Blade, Kitana, Cassie Cage, and Mileena. Of all these characters, it’s the women who end up having the highest view counts.

Let’s compare for a second. Here are the viewcounts for all the male characters.

  • Kano – 2,566
  • Reptile – 1,949
  • Ferra/Torr – 9.597
  • Erron Black – 4,192
  • Scorpion – 4,101
  • Johnny Cage – 16,338

So it looks like Johnny Cage, the ultimate douchebag, was the male character that fans liked watching get torn apart the most. Now let’s move on to the female characters.

  • Jacqui – 38,735
  • D’Vorah – 75,219
  • Sonya – 21,514
  • Kitana – 123,777
  • Cassie – 160,529
  • Mileena – 68,799
Do Mortal Kombat Video View Statistics Hide a Disturbing Truth?

Do you see the huge difference there? The least watched female victim, Sonya Blade, is still about five thousand views higher than the most watched male victim, Johnny Cage. Not to mention, Johnny Cage’s own daughter, the most watched female victim, has ten times as many views as him, and nearly a hundred times as many views as Reptile, the least watched male victim. And I personally would have thought that Reptile would have been one of the most watched, considering he doesn’t have human physiology or organs.

Not only that, but the female fatality victims are all dressed up in their skimpier costumes. None of the female special forces unit are in their special forces suits. Instead, Cassie and Jacqui are both in their “workout” costumes, and Kitana is in her skimpy “tournament” costume.

So I’m here to ask, are we enjoying this?

Well, I mean obviously we are enjoying this. That is the point of fatalities, to see people get ripped apart in cartoonishly violent ways.

But are we, as the collective gaming community, enjoying seeing women get ripped apart at the seams more than men? Cassie is the most watched fatality victim and she, according to the Mortal Kombat timeline, is most likely still a teenager, or at the very least just turned 20. Are we somehow getting our jollies from watching a teenage girl get mutilated?

If not, then I want to ask “why?” Why is it that Cassie has so many more views than Johnny? Why is it that Reptile only has a drop in the bucket while D’Vorrah has an ocean of blood. What is it that is attracting us to these videos if not the gender of the victim?

Seriously, I want to know, because otherwise I see these view counts as painting a rather disturbing picture of the gaming community, and that’s not exactly a picture I want to be true.

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