More than 60% of US game players only buy two games or fewer per year, survey finds | VGC
More than 60% of US game players only buy two games or fewer per year, survey finds | VGC
Sign of the times.
I used to buy a ton of games. Its now hard to justify with the price of everything going up so dramatically. I still buy more than average, but probably more along the lines of one every few months and never full price releases.
Yeah I'm right there with you. we are the 22% of US game players that are not directly discussed in this article, the ones that are price sensitive but still buying games on a semi-regular basis. Mat Piscatella suggests that it's that most frequent 14% at the top that are propping up the legacy industry these days, and he's probably right. I'm inclined to believe that those of us in the next 22% still account for a decent chunk, but more and more of us are shifting towards spending money on live service games only. Idk how some people can afford to spend money on every new game as they come out, that cohort must be almost entirely wealthy folks at this point.
I don't think this is about enthusiasts buying less games, though. We're not talking about the average number of purchases the consumer makes. This is more evidence that there are a lot more casual players out there, who will make their 0-2 large game purchases a year and play their games over a long time. The college guy who literally only buys a couple sports games that they play online with a friend. The burnt out parent that can only make time for their 2 open world adventure games all year. I know a few people in my life who own a Switch, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing, and that will be literally the only two games they load all year. And this is to say nothing of people who strictly play F2P tirles, which apparently are 33% of players.
"US game players purchase 1-2 games a year on average" is not the same thing as "the bottom 60% of purchasers only purchase 1-2 games a year." This is evidence that, one, the medium is reaching a much more widespread market and, two, the casual market is often more engaged with F2P titles.
I think if we looked at enthusiasts and hobbiests, there would still be a decline in purchases. I don't think this is evidence that games have become too expensive for most.
You’re right! The guy that published the info had a funny disclaimer:
Pro-tip, before replying, know that even seeing this post likely puts you into that hyper enthusiast bucket, so the actions of you and your immediate cohort likely do not match those of the general gaming audience.
At this point I'm lucky if there are two games worth paying for in a year. Just bland boring empty soulless games every time.
Yeah. The indie game scene really is where the value is
empty soulless games
I agree, more soulslikes! MOOOORREEE!!!
I buy maybe over a dozen games a year, but sometimes spend less than the price of two fill priced titles. Benefit of patient gaming, and leads to not needing the latest and greatest hardware as a result saving me more money.
So when people complain about optimization of recent triple a titles I have not yet encountered those issues due to being behind.
Yes, I'm also surprised it's so low, if only because during sales you can get like 3-5 older indie games for $15. Those games are often shorter and have more controlled scope as well, meaning more folks would actually have time to play them.
On the other hand, it means folks are only buying games they'll actually play, which is good.
I'm subscribed to Humble Choice so I "buy" 96 games per year. But I buy less than one full-price, "AAA" game per year.
I definitely buy more than 2 games per year, but the types of games I buy and the maximum price I’m willing to pay has changed. Almost everything I buy now is from indie devs, and I’m very selective of the larger studio games I’ll buy (right now, for example, I’m cranking through Alan Wake 2 after replaying the first one).
I haven't gotten all the way down to 2 yet, but at the rate I'm going, I could see it. I've settled into mostly grinding the same few forever games while the mainstream industry moves further and further away from my tastes.
It's rare that I find a game that I want to buy anymore, so I'm probably often in that percentage. I'm still regularly playing games I've owned for over ten years now, and usually don't see a lot of reason to keep buying more. I did buy two this year, one on launch and one on a sale. I also picked up a few DLCs for two of my long-time favorites.
If you don't really have time to play and you buy as you play, that's quite understandable. I also noticed this from my Steam friendlist: The people who play less and have fewer games, don't care if there is a sale or not. They buy games if they want and start playing right away.
As an adult with a job and a family, that’s about all I have time to play to the finish per year
Skate 4 and Apex Legends are great "Dad Games".
Log in, shut off your brain for 20 min. Log out
Makes sense. Every games nowadays want you to play them forever, so players obliged and buy fewer games. Karma.
This isn’t surprising to me, with so many free to play games and the fact that this survey included mobile gamers. Still an interesting stat!
Not even necessarily F2P. Depending on what you have access to, Epic, GOG, Prime/Amazon Games, Steam, Itch, and a few others all release freebies nearly every week. Some of them are even AAA titles.
If you're not supremely picky about what you play, you can get hundreds of free games over time.
Since I started !freegames@feddit.uk I've not bought a single game but my backlog is growing way faster than I can play through it. Not a bad first-world problem to have, really!