2025 was bursting with actually cool new sport releases: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hole Knight: Silksong, Dying Stranding 2, Ghost of Yōtei, Blue Prince, Donkey Kong Bananza, I might go on. And but, it looks like the overwhelming majority of gamers (at the least in the US) spent most of their time taking part in the outdated hits on repeat, as a result of the 5 hottest video games on PlayStation final yr have been precisely the identical as the yr earlier than.
This comes from Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, who shared on Bluesky today the high 5 most-played video games in the US on PlayStation for 2025:
- Fortnite
- Name of Responsibility
- GTA V
- Roblox
- Minecraft
And for 2024:
- Fortnite
- Name of Responsibility
- GTA V
- Roblox
- Minecraft
The format is totally different (I suppose) on Xbox, with Minecraft and Roblox flipped for 2025, and a barely extra sophisticated order for 2024: Name of Responsibility at No. 1, then Fortnite, Minecraft, GTA V, Roblox. However uh, identical 5 video games.
It is a fairly damning indictment of the present state of the trade. As Piscatella stated himself nearly a yr in the past on the Kinda Funny Gamescast, this can be a pretty latest development. As he explains, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a surge in the online game viewers, with enormous numbers of individuals taking part in video games who by no means had earlier than. Because of this, a lot of the main gaming markets successfully reached a cap on what number of new gamers they’ll receive in future years, as a result of everybody was already there.
On high of that, that capped viewers is now taking part in a smaller variety of video games general. A few of that’s simply because video games are getting costlier. Extra persons are gravitating towards dwell service video games they’re already acquainted with the place they’ll spend smaller quantities of cash for a enjoyable expertise on a platform they already personal, reasonably than spend bigger quantities of cash to strive new issues on new platforms.
However a few of that’s merely a pure consequence of the rise of dwell service. As Piscatella continues to clarify, the means the market used to work is that gamers would purchase one massive new sport, spend all their time on that, then transfer onto the subsequent one. However individuals simply aren’t shopping for new video games anymore.
“When you take the high ten service video games each month…on PlayStation and Xbox, seven out of each ten those that flip on their console will play at the least a kind of video games each month, and in phrases of whole time they’re taking, these ten video games alone each month take up 40% of whole playtime on the consoles.”
Piscatella additionally shares that at the time, Circana anticipated 30% of those that play video video games wouldn’t purchase a online game in 2025 (the precise numbers for the full yr have not been launched simply but). An additional 18% would buy a brand new sport each six months or much less ceaselessly. Solely 12% purchase a sport as soon as a month, and 4% purchase new video games extra typically than that.
“So once we’re speaking about the builders and publishers who’re being harm the most, are the video games which can be actually concentrating on this 16% of whole gamers which can be buying very ceaselessly, whereas the overwhelming majority of gamers are shopping for a sport or two a yr, and they’re taking part in Fornite, Minecraft, and Roblox.”
The result’s that it is more durable than ever for model new video games to interrupt by, which has been a significant a part of the latest wave of layoffs, studio closures, venture cancelations, and simply normal trade devasation that we have been reporting on primarily in the US trade for the final couple of years.
Piscatella concluded that Kinda Humorous presentation with a sentence he is stated to me many occasions, and continues to say: “The most important competitor to any new online game is Fortnite.”
Circana is anticipated to launch its full report on US online game gross sales in 2025 later this month.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Bought a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.