Most gamers spend almost half their time playing the same 10 games

A new report has shed light on the games industry’s increasingly dire situation, as decades old live service games continue to dominate.

The games industry has been in a state of upheaval over the last few years, between the pandemic, growing development costs, and widespread layoffs.

Another key issue is the enduring popularity of several key live service games, like Fortnite and Minecraft, which are accounting for a larger and larger chunk of people’s playing habits, stealing the attention away from new titles.

This trend has been reinforced in new data from Circana, which highlights how the chances of success for new games is becoming increasingly slim.

According to Circana’s executive director and games industry analyst Mat Piscatella, over 70% of active PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S players in the US played at least one of the top 10 live service games in January. This includes Call Of Duty, Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, Roblox, and Minecraft.

While this isn’t too concerning in itself, Piscatella notes that over 40% of time spent playing on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S went to those same top 10 live service games – so people are playing those games, and only those games, for a significant chunk of time.

Piscatella highlights how total video game spending and total hours played in the US peaked in 2021, but the ‘pace of games being released hasn’t slowed’ since then. As such, without a growing audience of players, these live service titles are pulling a limited pool of players away from playing new games.

Over 70% of US active PS5/XBS players played at least 1 of the top 10 live service games of the month during January.More than 40% of all time spent playing on PS5/XBS in the US during January went to those same top 10 live service games.Source: Circana Player Engagement Tracker

‘Used to be that players would jump from big game to big game to some other games but they were most often moving to something new,’ Piscatella wrote on Bluesky.

‘Now, the live service games suck out a ton of available time, and it’s hard to beat free if it’s good. So. Here we are.’

A big part of the problem is companies like Sony and Ubisoft, who have continued to chase the live service trend at the expense of funding new games which will actually last beyond two weeks (ahem, Concord).

As such, we’re now in a situation where there’s a lack of big name new games (on the near horizon at least) to potentially turn the tide – with Ghost Of Yōtei being the only major title in Sony’s stable confirmed for the PlayStation 5 this year.

There is some hope for 2025 though, with GTA 6 and the Nintendo Switch 2 both slated for this year, at a time when the industry desperately needs a shot in the arm.

If either disappoints though, or are unexpectedly delay, then there’s going to be increasingly little to drag casual gamers away from the same small number of games they’ve always played.

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