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End of Year Review
Looking back at the start of Blow on the Cartridge
2025 in Review
Before we shut the console off for the rest of the year, I wanted to rewind the tape one last time.
When I started Blow On The Cartridge, the goal wasn't to chase trends or break news. It was to slow things down, revisit the games that shaped us, and give a little love to titles that don't get talked about much anymore.
I'd recently left my job of 12 years at a AAA gaming company and moved to a new country. As I did, I found comfort in the games from my past. Change is scary. Even the smallest things become anchors.
Retro gaming did that for me.
This newsletter became something I genuinely looked forward to writing each week. Knowing it landed in your inbox, and that someone out there clicked it open, made all the difference.
I don't have the budget for a ton of ads. So every new subscriber meant a lot to me. Watching this grow from a small group of family and friends supporting their crazy friend to triple digits… I wasn't prepared for how that would feel.
Before we head into a new year, I wanted to share a few fun stats, some favorite games (both retro and new), and a sincere thank you for being here.
BOTC BY THE NUMBERS
I won’t bore you with spreadsheets, but here are a few fun stats from the year.
The Basics
Total Newsletters Written: 49 (Not including this one)
Average Open Rate: 62.55% (Within the top 10% on Beehiiv!)
Average CTR (Click Through Rate): 26.08% (Within the top 10% on Beehiiv!)
Total Emails Sent: 4,334
Words Written: 58,210
The Games
Total Retro Games Covered: 48
Oldest Game Featured: Rampage (1986, Arcade)
Newest Game Featured: Rule of Rose (2006, PS2)
Highest Open Rate Issue: 83% ( The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)
Most-clicked Article (links, polls, ads): 45.16% (Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime)
The Systems
Most Covered Console:
12 (Sega Genesis)
10 (SNES)
5 (PS1)
Console Games Covered: 45
Handheld Games Covered: 3
Most Popular Generation Covered:
24 (Forth Gen)
7 (Fifth Gen)
7 (Sixth Gen)
The Readers (You!)
100% Openers (The “didn’t miss a single issue club): 43 readers!
Most Popular Poll: Favorite Horror Franchise
Most Readers Are From: 78.30% (US)
Top 3 Readers With The Most Comments: Shen, Daniel, Ben
THE “100%” CLUB
Some of you didn’t miss a single issue this year. Every send. Every subject line. Every time.
That kind of consistency honestly blows my mind.
Email stats can feel abstract, but behind every open is a real person choosing to spend a few minutes reading about an old game, a forgotten cartridge, or a weird little memory from the past.
That means more than you probably realize.
You didn’t just read. You showed up. Week after week.
And that tells me Blow On The Cartridge is doing exactly what I hoped it would do.
So if you’re part of the 100% Club: thank you for being a constant. You’re the reason this thing keeps going.
Top 10 Retro Games I Covered This Year
Out of the 48 games I covered this year, these are the 10 I had the most fun revisiting. This isn’t a list of the “best” games or the most important ones, just the ones that brought me the most joy to sit down and play again.
Shining Force
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Advance Wars
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
Twisted Metal
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
ActRaiser
Rampage
ManHunt
Conker’s Bad Fur Day
My Top 10 Modern Games for 2025
In 25 years, I'll be an old man writing about these "retro games".
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Fantasy Life: The Girl Who Steals Time
Split Fiction
Borderlands 4
Terminator 2: Dark Fate
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
Blue Prince
Hades II
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
END OF YEAR THOUGHTS
This year was about slowing down for me.
About choosing reflection over noise, comfort over urgency, and memories over metrics. Blow On The Cartridge started as something personal, a way to reconnect with games that meant a lot to me during a period of big change, but it quietly became something shared.
That still surprises me.
Looking ahead, I don’t have a grand plan to reinvent this space or chase what’s next. There’s some fun ideas and new things I plan on but the goal stays the same: keep revisiting the games that shaped us, keep spotlighting the ones that deserve another look, and keep making this a place that feels familiar when everything else moves a little too fast.
If this newsletter has ever felt like a pause button for you, then it’s doing exactly what it’s meant to do.
THANK YOU
Truly, thank you.
For opening these emails. For spending a few minutes here. This doesn’t exist without you. Not in theory. In reality.
Every subscriber matters. Every open matters. Every ad clicked matters. Knowing this lands in real inboxes, with real people on the other side, is what keeps me writing and hitting send each week.
I’m grateful you’re here. I’m grateful you stayed.
And I’m excited to keep doing this with you in the year ahead.
I hope you are able to enjoy the holidays and play lots of games! Thank you for being part of Blow On The Cartridge and I’ll see you in 2026!
One last thing, before we power down for the year, I’d love to hear from you.
What draws you to retro games the most?Everyone comes back to old games for different reasons. |
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