Misc

Visualizing the Average Flag of the World

Published

6 years ago

March 23, 2018

Nick Routley

Visualizing the Average Flag of the World

The intersection of data visualization and art is the perfect place to experiment.

In today’s graphic from Reddit user Udzu, flags serve as the visual raw material for experimentation. The visualization uses flags to show the “weight” of a country’s population or land area within its respective region – a unique thought exercise worth digging into.

Vexillology, Visualized

When all the world’s flags are averaged, the result is a hazy rectangle with outlines of popular flag layouts (e.g. tricolor, triband). That said, one feature that does stand out is the Union Jack in the top left corner, showing that Great Britain’s historical influence lives on even through flag design.

Russia, even with its landmass divided in two, is prominent on both Europe and Asia’s area-weighted graphics.

Interestingly, Udzu also repeated the process using U.S. state flags. As one would expect, California and Texas dominate the population-weighted image. In the area-weighted version, Alaska’s big dipper flag and the word “Montana” become more prominent.

us state flags mean

Examining the Building Blocks of Flags

Flags are fascinating for a number of reasons.

They’re loaded with history, charged with patriotic pride, and commonalities between flags often signal connections between the people who live in those respective countries.

These serious considerations aside, flags are fun to look at from a design perspective. There are nearly two hundred official countries in the world, and many of them embrace similarly minimalist flag layouts. As a result, it’s no surprise that some of them are strikingly similar.

Source: Flag Stories

With many similar colors and layouts in the roster of national flags, it seems like every combination is taken.

However, as the visualization below identifies, a few specific combinations are still up for grabs.

Source: Flag Stories

In case anyone out there is thinking of forming a new country, combining elements from different flags is a valid approach. Joking aside, the Union Jack really was created by combining aspects of the three older national flags of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Source: Flag Stories

Related Topics:countries data viz flags average flag

Up Next

Visualizing the Average Commute Time in U.S. States and Cities

Don't Miss

The Iceberg That Sinks Organizational Culture Change

Click for Comments

Technology

Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues

Dive into the GTA budget through the years, with GTA VI set to be the most expensive video game of all time.

Published

1 day ago

December 5, 2023

Marcus Lu

A cropped chart comparing the GTA budget and revenue across three game titles.

Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues

Over 10 years since the launch of Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), the second most-sold video game in history, Rockstar Games has announced its sequel GTA VI will be “coming 2025.”

As the anticipation only grows for this next big entry in the franchise, we take a look at the GTA budget through the years. How much have the last two games cost to make, how much have they earned, and how do they compare with the latest entry?

Data for this visualization comes from Statista, TweakTown, and Twitch Metrics.

How Much Has GTA VI Cost to Make?

The GTA franchise has grown enormously in scale from humble beginnings as a top-down, 2D video game in 1997. Fifteen installments later, the upcoming release, GTA VI, is estimated to be the most expensive video game to be made yet.

Here’s a look at how much GTA VI and the last two major releases cost, and how much revenue they’ve earned as of August 2023.

Year	Title	Production Costs ($)	Revenue ($)	Copies Sold
2025 (est.)	GTA VI	$2B (rumored)	N/A	N/A
2013	GTA V	$265M	$7.7B	185M
2008	GTA IV	$100M	$2B	25M

In 2008, GTA IV cost around $100 million—already a budget that rivalled big Hollywood releases. However with 25 million copies sold, the game earned nearly $2 billion—a five-fold return on its production cost.

Five years later, GTA V (2013) cost more than $200 million to make—twice GTA IV’s budget. A decade after its release, GTA V has generated close to $8 billion, with hundreds of millions in annual revenue from subscriptions and in-game purchases—a model that its successor is sure to follow.

In fact, subscription fees and in-game purchases represented 78% of Take-Two Interactive’s (parent of GTA developer Rockstar Games) revenues in 2023.

Analysts estimate the to-be-released GTA VI’s costs at $2 billion, including marketing and other expenses. A massive open-world (set in the Miami-inspired “Vice City”), cutting edge graphics, and a reportedly brand-new game engine are all reasons for the game’s outsized budget.

For comparison, the current most expensive games to have been made include Red Dead Redemption 2 (also by Rockstar) and Star Citizen, both reportedly with a $500 million budget.

Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive shares are up more than 50% for the year.