Spider-Man 2, Starfield, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom all launched in 2023 however these blockbusters did not cease Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Change gamers from spending most of their time with older video games like Grand Theft Auto 5 and Fortnite.
As reported by Kotaku, online game market analyst Newzoo launched a report which revealed 66 titles accounted for 80% of general playtime in 2023. Of that quantity, an enormous 60% of playtime was spent with video games launched six years in the past or extra.
Newzoo ranked video games on every platform based mostly on their month-to-month energetic customers throughout 37 markets, except Change which solely used knowledge from the U.S. and UK. Not one new launch breached the PC record, whereas solely EA Sports activities FC 24 made it onto PlayStation’s. Starfield was the one 2023 sport on Xbox’s record, whereas Change noticed three new additions together with Tears of the Kingdom, Tremendous Mario Bros. Surprise, and Hogwarts Legacy.
Fortnite was essentially the most performed sport on all platforms, whereas Roblox, Minecraft, GTA 5, Name of Responsibility (with Trendy Warfare 2, 3, and Warzone 2.0 counted as one sport), Rocket Leagues all proving mainstays too. All collectively, Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Minecraft, and GTA 5 accounted for 27% of all playtime in 2023, whereas annual releases like FC (previously FIFA), NBA 2K, and Madden NFL accounted for round 15% of all playtime.
“Studios hoping to launch a brand new title will discover it difficult to incorporate these playtime hours in their addressable market, as they almost all the time go to those video games that interact gamers on a dependable annual foundation,” Newzoo mentioned. “In different phrases, it is a tall order to steal playtime hours from a Name of Responsibility or massive sports activities title.”
This left simply 8% of whole playtime for utterly new releases, which incorporates video games launched in 2022 and 2023. “Whereas that will sound dire, the truth is that it’s simply doable to achieve success inside these constraints,” Newzoo added.
Diablo 4 claimed the highest spot of those wholly new video games with 1.4% of 2023’s whole playtime. This was adopted by Hogwarts Legacy at 0.8%, Baldur’s Gate 3 at 0.6%, and Elden Ring and Starfield each at 0.3%. “It is price noting that 4 of those titles are premium video games, whereas solely one in every of them is a stay service,” Newzoo mentioned.
Regardless of these comparatively low playtime numbers, all of those video games had been nonetheless deemed extremely profitable. Diablo 4 noticed 10 million gamers in its launch month of June 2023 which led to file breaking monetary quarters for writer Activision Blizzard, the identical firm which releases Name of Responsibility.
Hogwarts Legacy, the Harry Potter universe sport, was one of the best promoting sport of 2023, and the primary non-Name of Responsibility or Rockstar sport (like GTA 5) to take action since 2008. As for Baldur’s Gate 3, not solely did it seize the creativeness of gamers in unprecedented methods and win myriad sport of the 12 months awards, it additionally made $90 million for writer Hasbro.
Elden Ring launched in February 2022, so its presence in the highest 5 most performed video games of 2023 is testomony sufficient to its reputation, however writer Bandai Namco confirmed it had crossed a whopping 23 million items bought as of March 2024. And eventually, Starfield reached 10 million gamers in simply three weeks and overcame the likes of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Fallout 4 as writer Bethesda’s greatest launch of all time.
One incoming sport that will upset this development of recent releases solely claiming a small proportion of general playtime is GTA 5’s sequel, Grand Theft Auto 6. Launching in 2025, it is already being touted as an important launch in online game historical past.
The GTA 6 trailer — which reintroduces followers to Rockstar’s tackle Miami, Vice Metropolis — featured a ton of intricate particulars (listed here are 99 issues IGN noticed) and loads of references to wild and wacky actual life occasions too.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll discuss The Witcher all day.