60% of Gaming Time Was Spent on Games 6 Years or Older In 2023

Expert Verified By

Starfield Among Few New Games On The List!

Story Highlight
  • According to a report, the gaming market grew by 2% last year.
  • However, games five years or older took up around 60% of the total playtime.
  • Starfield was among the few new IPs on the list.

While 2023 was nothing short of a top-notch year for games of every genre, including the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2, it seems gamers could not be persuaded to leave their old collection behind.

A report describes that players are still spending most of their time with older games, contributing to around 60 percent of all time spent on the industry last year.

Why it matters: Such trends highlight why publishers have previously commented that developers should play it safe and continue working with existing IPs.

Image of The Most Played Games
Image of The Most Played Games via Newzoo

Newzoo published its second annual report of the PC and consoles market of 2023, showing that there has been an incremental improvement of 2% in the PC and console market, reaching $93.5 billion in revenue.

However, most players appear to have spent time with older IPs. 60% of all time on gaming last year was taken up by the likes of Cal of Duty, Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, and more.

Fortnite ranked as the most popular game across all platforms. Meanwhile, Rockstar’s GTA 5, nearing nearly 200 million sales, was also found quite high on the list across all platforms.

Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Minecraft, and GTA V alone accounted for around 27% of playtime. Quite surprisingly, only 8% of playtime came from new games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Diablo 4.

Even more surprising is the fact that Starfield made it to the list, highlighting its commercial success against all odds.

GTA 5 Rockstar Games
GTA 5 Continues To Thrive Due To GTA Online

Starfield was also one of the few non-multiplayer games on the list.

It is evident here that players are comfortable playing classic multiplayer games rather than trying something new. This trend underscores various challenges the industry faces moving forward.

Convincing players to leave their tried and true games behind will be difficult. However, recent IPs like Palworld and Helldivers 2 show it can be done. Both found millions of players across various platforms, showing that a fun concept is all that is often needed.

Was our article helpful? 👨‍💻

Thank you! Please share your positive feedback. 🔋

How could we improve this post? Please Help us. 😔

Gear Up For Latest News

Get exclusive gaming & tech news before it drops. Sign up today!

Join Our Community

Still having issues? Join the Tech4Gamers Forum for expert help and community support!

Latest News

Join Our Community

104,000FansLike
32,122FollowersFollow

Trending

Demon’s Souls Remake Now Achieves Up To 50FPS via PS5 Emulation

Demon's Souls Remake has taken another big step on PC, with new footage showing the PS5 exclusive running at around 40–50FPS through KyTy.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Now Runs At Over 30FPS on iPhone 18 Pro

A developer has shown Red Dead Redemption 2 running natively on iPhone 18 Pro, with other games also in the works.

Cyberpunk 2077 Dev Admits Game Accomplishments Won’t Erase Launch Disaster

Cyberpunk 2077 has made one of gaming’s biggest comeback stories, but CDPR is still aware that the game's launch cannot be forgotten.

The Elder Scrolls Won’t Receive Spin-offs As Bethesda Is Overprotective, Says Ex-Dev

A former Elder Scrolls developer believes that Bethesda is too protective of the series to lend it to other teams for spin-offs.

Japanese Dev Says PlayStation Listening To Feedback On Physical Discs

PlayStation’s move away from physical discs may be subject to change, with the gaming giant taking feedback quite seriously.