Why gamers played less in 2023

Revenue of computer and console games in 2023 was accompanied by 2.6 percent growth, while the amount of time spent playing had declined relative to past years. The video game industry in 2023 passed through days of many ups and downs. Last year, many highly anticipated games were released to the market with delay. Also, workforce layoffs at game-making studios cast a heavy shadow of fear over this industry. The reduction in the duration of games by players had made focusing on the market more difficult for large companies. Although the computer and console games market, after a mild drop in 2022, was accompanied by improvement, it did not have significant growth.

Nevertheless, the 2.6 percent growth of this market's revenue in 2023 should not be overlooked. This not-very-large figure, given the decline in the amount of time played, has kept gamers and game designers hopeful about this industry's future. In the continuation of this note, we will examine further the topic of the "reduction in time played" of computer and console games in 2023.

 

A 26 percent decrease in average play time

With the end of quarantines caused by the coronavirus pandemic across the world, staying at home ended and many players distanced themselves from the screens of their games. This matter has caused a 26 percent decrease in average play time on a quarterly basis from the first quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2023.

As in 2022 and thanks to the release of new games and the increase of more leisure hours in school and university holiday periods, we expected growth in play time in the final quarter of the year. However, this did not occur in the fourth quarter of 2023. In addition, players spent more time on games that six years or more had passed since their release and that were, so to speak, old. Time spent on these games in 2023 constituted more than 60 percent of total play time.

Competition of older and new games

In recent years we have witnessed that older games are obtaining a greater share of play time among gamers. Support of new Sony and Microsoft consoles for previous-generation games and the remaking of successful works from those games are among the reasons for the increased popularity of old games.

However, last year was not a particularly bad year for the release of new games (titles that have been released after January 1, 2022); such that the share of play time for new games had increased relative to the previous year.

In 2023, something around 23 percent of total play time was spent on newly released titles. However, most of this time has been allocated to annual franchises such as FIFA or NBA2K. Only 8 percent was allocated to new non-annual games such as Baldur's Gate III or Tears of the Kingdom, which even they are part of well-known franchises and bestsellers of the video-game market.

Both groups of new games and older games more than six years after whose release has passed placed the play time of titles of one generation of video games within the time range of three- to five-year-old games. For example, games released in the seventh generation of video games are played by players for at least 3 and at most 5 years. This matter shows how difficult creating and establishing "live operations (live-ops)" strategies that lead to maintaining player engagement over time has become.

Stability of sales relative to the decrease in play time

Let us not forget that 2023 witnessed the release of highly anticipated and bestselling titles such as God of War Ragnarok, Starfield and Forspoken. Works that gamers were counting the moments for their release. These works helped a great deal in attracting audiences and increasing the profitability of the video-game market last year. But with a closer look at some of these titles, one can discover the secret of the decrease in play time of them.

The shortness of games' gameplay time is one of the matters that players have protested about in recent years. The average time to finish a game has decreased from 8 to 5 hours. Game-making companies' excessive focus on building the multiplayer section of games has caused audiences interested in the story section, in exchange for buying a game, to allocate less time to experiencing it.

On the other hand, the cost of making AAA games for today's computer operating systems and ninth-generation consoles has increased sharply. The audience, in exchange for paying 60 dollars, expects rich and engaging content from the game. The shallow and repetitive gameplay of some 2023 titles made gamers regret buying expensive games and reduced their average play time. Perhaps this same point is one of the reasons for the popularity of older games.

 

 

 

Why does the play time of independent games not increase?

Despite platforms such as Itch and the making of personal games, sharing independent games with other parts of the world has become easier than ever. The competition of these games with franchises such as Fortnite or Roblox that emphasize user-generated content has been accompanied by various challenges. Challenges such as the lack of financial support for little-known developers, not being released at the right time and losing the chance of presence at international exhibitions in the video-game field, which has caused these games to remain out of users' reach and their play time to decrease.

Record-setting of the third-person shooter and action role-playing genres

Just as the rate of the amount of hours of playing from 2021 to 2023 has been declining, it is expected that the amount of engagement based on play time for most genres will also follow a downward trend; however, games of the third-person shooter and action role-playing genres are an exception to this rule.

Among the top 10 subcategories based on play time, shooter games, by way of the release of the third-person title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, have the first word. Action role-playing games too, with titles such as Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy and Starfield that helped significantly in increasing the rate of player engagement, have had a large effect in increasing play time.

The games League of Legends and DotA2, in terms of the amount of time played, are the leaders of online multiplayer titles (MOBA). While sandbox adventure games have still been kept on their feet with the help of titles such as Minecraft, Roblox and Grand Theft Auto V, one must hope for a better future of this genre of games next year. The release of the latest version of GTA and the increased popularity of open-world games increase the probability of this genre being placed among the top 10 subcategories based on time played.

Final word

Given that the status of the amount of hours played in past years has been spent similarly to 2023, the year 2024 will be very decisive for the computer and console games market. The average rate of play time has decreased. Also, the participation share of game franchises and large publishers of players' revenue has decreased, and on the other hand the market is establishing a balance of power among large companies. Effort to make engaging titles and the time of making games has increased, and we expect a greater amount of time played in 2024 games.

But 93.5 billion dollars of revenue and a 12 percent revenue increase relative to 2022 showed that the amount of time played does not necessarily have a direct relation with the increase in sales. The growth of game cloud services, the advance of artificial-intelligence technology, and the progress of the world of virtual reality and augmented reality have increased the market's capacity, and one can more than in the past hope for an increase in the rate of hours of playing on various platforms. Still one should not overlook the coronavirus pandemic and its periodic effect in the increase and decrease of the amount of hours of play time of games.