New data from market researcher Newzoo vividly highlights a troubling trend in the gaming industry. Despite a 2.6% growth in the PC and console market in 2023, overall gaming time has decreased. The reason is that gamers spend more and more time on a limited number of old, well-known projects like Fortnite and League of Legends. This consolidation of gaming attention creates serious obstacles for new games attempting to capture an audience. The Newzoo report sheds merciless light on the problems publishers and developers face in their quest for success.
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Old Games Hold Their Ground
Newzoo data shows that the top 10 most popular games on each platform are occupied by long-standing projects. Fortnite leads everywhere, including Switch and PC. The other spots are taken by Grand Theft Auto V, Counter-Strike 2, Roblox, Minecraft, Rocket League, Apex Legends, Fall Guys, Valorant, and Call of Duty. On Xbox and PlayStation consoles, only one single-player game, Starfield, made it into the top ten.
The numbers confirm gamers’ focus on old games: 60% of all gaming time in 2023 was spent on projects six years and older. The top five hits – Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Minecraft, and GTA V – accounted for 27% of the total gaming time for the year. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that even of the 23% of time spent on new games, more than half went to annual sequels like the new Madden or NBA.
Only 8% of gaming time was allocated to fundamentally new projects, not annual releases, such as Diablo IV or Baldur’s Gate III.
Challenges Of Audience Acquisition
According to the Newzoo report, while success in the industry is still possible, the reality is that gamers are spending less time on new games and more on existing franchises and game services. This complicates the task of publishers and developers in attracting an audience. Unlike in past years, when newcomers only had to compete with other fresh releases, they are now forced to compete with giants like Fortnite and Roblox – free games with an endless stream of user-generated content.
“Building a player base is becoming increasingly difficult,” the report says, “especially when perennial games and reliable content pipelines dominate.” In other words, unless you’re making a big sequel, remake, or annual entry in a popular series, success can be hard to come by.
The situation raises serious questions about the future of the industry. Will new games be able to break through the dominance of old heavyweights? Will the current trend lead to stagnation and lack of innovation? Publishers are forced to find ways to compete with free game services by offering increasingly aggressive monetization strategies. But there’s a risk that overly focusing on revenue extraction will alienate part of the audience.
In Search Of Solutions
Faced with these challenges, the industry must find a reasonable balance between maintaining existing hits and promoting new ideas. One possible solution could be to create new games as expansions or spin-offs of successful franchises. This would allow for the use of an already established audience while presenting a fresh gaming experience.
For example, Blizzard could release Overwatch as a standalone game service with its universe and storyline but maintaining a connection to the original shooter. Such an approach would attract Overwatch fans while also opening the door to new players interested in a different gaming experience.
Another option is to create entirely original games based on successful gameplay mechanics and concepts. For example, developers could take the building and customization idea from Minecraft but implement it in a completely new universe with different gameplay cycles.
Finally, the industry needs to pay more attention to marketing and promoting new projects. Too often, even quality games go unnoticed due to poor advertising campaigns. Publishers must aggressively use various channels, including streaming platforms, social networks, and traditional media, to draw attention to their new releases.
In the long run, much will depend on the industry’s ability to strike a balance between exploiting successful franchises and offering something fundamentally new. Stagnation and lack of innovation could deter part of the audience hungry for fresh ideas and concepts. Therefore, it’s crucial to invest resources not only in expanding existing hits but also in creating games capable of becoming new growth points for the entire industry.
