2023 was widely celebrated for a string of high-quality game releases in between a depressing series of layoffs. Over the year, games like Baldur’s Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder won the hearts of millions of players.
And yet, new data shows that the majority of games that people were playing last year were actually not new releases. In its second annual gaming industry report, market researcher Newzoo outlined the games that garnered the most playtime and spending in 2023.
Per the report, a mere 66 titles accounted for 80 percent of all playtime in 2023, and 60 percent of that playtime was spent in games that were at least six years old. Breaking it down further, nearly 30 percent of total playtime came from just five older games: Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, League of Legends and Grand Theft Auto V. Fortnite, in particular, remained the most-played game across PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
On PC, the only new games to crack the top 10 were Counter-Strike 2 (which is already a retooling of an older game, CS:Go) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (although Newzoo also lumps this in with the previous year’s Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare II). Overall, Newzoo says the average years on the market for this top 10 was 9.6.
Meanwhile, the only new games to crack the top 10 on PlayStation were Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and EA Sports FC 24, with an overall average of 7.4 years on the market. On Xbox, the two new games were Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Starfield (the only new IP here), with an overall average of 7.2 years on the market.
The Switch fared a bit better, with Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Wonder and Hogwarts Legacy all being 2023 games that cracked the top 10. This helped the overall average years on the market come in at 3.9.
Elsewhere, Newzoo reports that only eight percent of video game playtime was spent on new, non-annualized titles like Baldur’s Gate III (the most critically-acclaimed game of the year alongside Tears of the Kingdom) and Diablo IV.
The biggest takeaway from this data, then, is how difficult it is to penetrate the gaming market, especially with multiplayer games. Over the past few years, the likes of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Anthem and Marvel’s Avengers have all struggled to find audiences. Unless you’re an established name like Fortnite, Roblox or GTA, you’ll likely have difficulties in this space.
We’ve already seen two of the biggest gaming companies, PlayStation and Xbox, stumble in this regard. Last year, the former cancelled its long-gestating The Last of Us Online, which doesn’t bode well for its ambitious live service game push, while the latter’s Redfall failed to make an impact despite coming from beloved developer Arkane. Even PlayStation’s Destiny 2 and Xbox’s Halo Infinite have suffered from dwindling player bases after initially strong starts.
On the flip side, we’ve already seen two new breakout hit multiplayer games in 2024: the Pokémon-esque Palworld and PlayStation’s Helldivers 2. It remains to be seen if any other new multiplayer titles make a similar big splash this year.
Image credit: Epic Games
Via: Kotaku
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