If you played a brand new game last year, you're in the minority. Players prefer well-known titles that have been on the market for many years. It runs on PC and all consoles Fortnite.
This is revealed by Newzoo's annual report on the video game industry, based on the average number of monthly active users in the United States and Great Britain. In addition to the battle royale hit from Epic Games, among the most popular games in 2023 were Grand Theft Auto V, Counter-Strike 2, Roblox, Minecraft, Rocket League, Apex Legends, Fall Guys, Valorant or individual parts of Call of Duty.
It made it to the top ten from the single-player novelties Starfield. The space adventure from Bethesda Game Studios is ranked eighth on Xbox. That Switch is a category unto itself. Although Fortnite is in first place, it is in second place The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomon the third Super Mario Bros. Wonder and on the ninth Hogwarts Legacy. Thanks to this, the Switch has the best average age of the ten most played games: 3.9 years. On the contrary, the PC is 9.6 years old, the PlayStation is 7.4 years old, and the Xbox is 7.2 years old.
The popularity of older games is supported by other data. Only 66 titles accounted for 80% of all game time in 2023. Of this, 60% was spent on games older than six years. This is because Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Minecraft, and GTA V account for 27% of all game time in 2023. Only 23% of that game time is new games, which are games that are two years old or less. If you think that's still good, then only 8% of the time was on brand new games like Diablo IV or Baldur's Gate 3.
According to Newzoo, last year the PC and console gaming market grew by 2.6% and achieved revenues of $93.5 billion. If you thought gamers were spending on crap, 56% on PC and 57% on consoles went to premium games. PC takes 30% for microtransactions and 12% for additional content, while consoles have 33% and 8% respectively. The rest are subscriptions.
By 2026, the video game market is expected to reach $107.6 billion in revenue, Newzoo estimates.
The report notes that this environment is becoming increasingly difficult to succeed as players focus on established brands and live service titles. But that doesn't mean the door is completely closed. It is still possible to succeed. Just be the situation has changed diametrically. Today, big games are not only competing against new releases, but also against established giants such as Fortnite and Roblox.
Among the new brands that did well in 2023 were The Finals, BattleBit Remastered, Ready or Nor, Starfield and Party Animals. This also corresponds to the information that the top 50 is a continuation of 80% of games. So gamers prefer established brands, which means safer investments for publishers and developers in sequels, remakes and remasters.
What games do you play? Write to us in the comments. I personally belong to the minority and devote my time mainly to new games.