A newly released gaming industry report from market researcher Newzoo shows that while the PC and console market grew 2.6 percent in 2023, overall gaming time fell as gamers spent more time on a smaller list of old games such as Fourteen days And League of Legends.
On April 2nd Newzoo has released its second annual gaming industry reportincluding a lot of data and information about what people played and spent money on in 2023. According to Newzoo data, the PC and console gaming market grew, reaching $93.5 billion in revenue in 2023. This may seem like good news, but it’s boring. Looking at the data, it’s clear that it’s only good news for a small number of publishers and developers.
Newzoo’s data shows that the top 10 games on each platform (ranked by their average number of monthly active users, or MAU) are filled with old, established titles. Fourteen days took the crown on all platforms including Switch and PC. The rest of the lists contained titles that won’t surprise you Grand Theft Auto V, Counter-Strike 2, Roblox, Minecraft, Rocket League, Apex Legends, Fall Guys, Valorant, And Call of Duty. Only one single-player game made it into the top ten on the Xbox and Playstation consoles: Starfield.
Further proving that gamers are primarily focused on older games, Newzoo’s data shows that in 2023, just 66 titles accounted for 80 percent of total play time. And 60 percent of that playing time was spent in games six years old or older. In fact, in 2023, five old games –Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Minecraft,
It gets worse. Of the 23 percent of game time spent on new games in 2023 – defined as two years old or younger – more than half was spent on big annual sequels like the latest Driving me crazy or NBA game. Only 8 percent of video game play time was spent on new, non-annual titles Diablo IV
While Newzoo’s report suggests that it is still possible to thrive in this environment, the reality is that gamers are spending less and less time on new games and more and more time on already established franchises and live service titles, which is what it is makes it more difficult for publishers and developers to find an audience. Because unlike previous decades, you’re not just competing with the latest games that are currently available, but you’re fighting against giants like these Fourteen days And Robloxcompletely free games with endless amounts of content created by their users.
“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to grow a game’s player base,” Newzoo said in the report, “particularly in our current landscape, which prioritizes always-on titles and robust content pipelines.” In other words, good luck, if you’re not working on a major sequel, remake, or annual feature for a popular series.
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