There are extra people spending extra time enjoying PC video games than ever earlier than, however they’re more and more spending their time enjoying older stuff. A brand new report by market analysis agency Newzoo estimates that solely 8 % of PC gaming hours in 2024 have been spent on video games that got here out in that very same 12 months. It seems the lots of of hours every of us spent obsessive about Balatro was only a drop within the bucket in comparison with all the pieces else.
“General playtime hours are rising, however concentrated in AAA and at instances cannibalistic,” learn Newzoo’s newest report, introduced at GDC 2025 by the company’s director of consulting, Ben Porter, VGC studies. “The battle for viewers hours is fierce and close to zero sum.”
The presentation, titled “The State of PC and Console Video games in 2025,” checked out gaming habits on each varieties of platforms and located that PC avid gamers are more likely to be enjoying video games which can be at the very least six years outdated like Roblox, League of Legends, and Fortnite. Video games like that accounted for 67 % of PC play time, whereas video games that have been 2-5 years outdated accounted for 25 %. Issues that got here out in 2024, like Helldivers 2, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Black Fable: Wukong, solely accounted for 8 % whole.
The quantity echoes Newzoo’s related report from 2024, although the pattern seems to be getting worse. On the one hand, it’s not shocking that extra time is spent enjoying older video games. Think about taking the 100 finest video games of the previous 25 years. Most of these didn’t come out within the final six. On the similar time, every new 12 months sees far more recreation releases than the final. Over 18,000 video games launched on Valve’s storefront in 2024, up 5,000 from 2023.
The loss of life grip of outdated video games is much less dramatic on console, however nonetheless vital. About 44 % of time on PlayStation was spent on video games that got here out six or extra years in the past. The quantity was 49 % on Xbox. However console gamers spent twice as a lot time on video games that got here out in 2024 as their counterparts on PC, with 15 % of playtime going to new releases like Warhammer 40,000: House Marine 2.
Anecdotally, the affect of this pattern is evident. New video games, irrespective of how nice they’re, have a a lot smaller shot at breaking via the noise and changing into one of many choose few that garners numerous consideration and gamers. The result’s extra ruthless competitors for current gamers’ consideration and greater studios and publishers being much less keen to take dangers on new genres, concepts, and franchises.
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