Older Live Service Titles Take Up Over 60% of Overall Playtime, Report Says | Push Square
05.04.2024 - 09:17
/ pushsquare.com
/ Rainbow VI (Vi)
/ Derby County
Older live service games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft make up more than 60 per cent of the gaming community's overall playtime, a new report from Newzoo reveals. Based on data collected throughout last year, it is said the amount of time people play games is trending down and those hours are spent playing a smaller range of titles. In 2023, games released within the past three years accounted for 23 per cent of playtime.
Last year, the PS5, PS4 titles with the most playtime were:
When you drill further down into the data, it's revealed that just eight per cent of total playtime was spent on brand-new releases. The five most-played releases were Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, and Starfield, in that order.
Lead analyst at Newzoo, Tom Wijman, said: «Last year saw many highly anticipated and delayed games make landfall while significant layoffs cast a shadow over the industry. The market did recover after a slight dip in 2022, but truly significant growth is still not on the immediate horizon. Playtime is on the decline in 2024, and market consolidation is pushing more eyes and cash into the hands of fewer games and studios.»
With more than half of gamers' playtime being spent on live service titles — the exact stat is 61 per cent — then it's easy to see why Sony has made a push to enter the space in recent years. When even the likes of 2015 game Rainbow Six: Siege is being played more than its biggest blockbusters like Marvel's Spider-Man 2, having something such as Helldivers 2 in its arsenal makes a lot more sense. These are the types of games people are playing the most — and presumably spending the most money on too.
Liam grew up with a PlayStation controller in his hands and a love for Metal Gear Solid. Nowadays, he can be found playing the latest and greatest PS5 games as well as supporting Derby County. That last detail is his downfall.
Well, they are free games for the most part, so somewhat understandable, but clearly terrible for the industry.
In fact, I’d be tempted to call this an entirely different industry that has stolen gamers and potential gamers away, and stranded them in their carefully curated and sanitised social hangout spaces, where they can chat with their friends and “compete”, in very loose terms.
That's because most modern games are soulless and boring. Made for the shareholders not the gamers. I went back to ps1/2 and 3 months ago and I'm loving every second. Ps5 is a dust collector nowadays
Isn't this obvious though? The whole point of live service games is that they hook you for as long as possible, and if you are one of the earlier ones, you've got them already. The amount of time these types of games expect from players means at most you