PC Gamers Increasingly Devote Playtime to Older Titles, Industry Report Finds
The gaming landscape is seeing a notable shift as players are dedicating more hours to PC games than ever before. However, a significant portion of this time is being spent on established, older titles rather than the latest releases. According to a recent study by market research firm Newzoo, a mere 8 percent of PC gaming hours in 2024 were attributed to games launched in the same year.
Dominance of Back Catalog Games
The data suggests that even highly engaging new games represent a small fraction of overall playtime when compared to the vast library of existing games. Newzoo’s report, presented at GDC 2025 by consulting director Ben Porter, highlights this trend. “Overall playtime hours are expanding, yet concentrated in AAA titles and exhibiting cannibalistic tendencies at times,” the report stated, emphasizing the intense competition for player attention in a saturated market.
Platform-Specific Gaming Habits
The presentation, titled “The State of PC and Console Games in 2025,” examined player behavior across both PC and console platforms. The findings indicate a stronger inclination among PC gamers to engage with older games, specifically titles at least six years old, such as Roblox, League of Legends, and Fortnite. These enduringly popular games accounted for 67 percent of PC playtime. Games released within the preceding two to five years constituted 25 percent, while new releases from 2024, including titles like Helldivers 2, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Black Myth: Wukong, represented only 8 percent of total playtime.
Trend Reinforces Previous Observations
This data aligns with Newzoo’s findings from a similar report in 2024, suggesting a consistent and potentially intensifying trend. While the popularity of older games is understandable, considering the accumulation of high-quality titles over decades, the sheer volume of new releases annually adds another layer to the analysis. In 2024 alone, over 18,000 games were released on Valve’s digital distribution platform, an increase of 5,000 from the previous year.
Console Gaming Shows Different Pattern
The grip of older games is less pronounced on consoles, but still noteworthy. Approximately 44 percent of playtime on PlayStation was dedicated to games released six or more years ago, with Xbox showing a slightly higher figure of 49 percent. However, console gamers demonstrated greater engagement with new releases. Playtime for games launched in 2024 was double that of PC gamers, accounting for 15 percent of total console playtime, including games such as Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
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Industry Implications and Competition
The impact of this trend is becoming increasingly apparent. New games, regardless of their quality, face a greater challenge in capturingplayer attention and achieving widespread popularity. This intensifies the competition for existing players’ time, potentially leading larger studios and publishers to become more conservative in their investment strategies, favoring established genres and franchises over novel concepts and intellectual properties.