60 Percent Of Playtime In 2023 Went To 6-Year-Old Or Older Games, New Data Shows

Videogame prices combined with hardware prices combined with the terrible state of games at launch makes playing older, actually finished games the better choice. It‘s not like Fallen Order‘s a bad game now, but I can play it at 4k handily without selling a kidney nowadays.

…I wish people realizing this was the reason for the numbers but it‘s mainly big, old live service games lol

Read this as “6-year-old or older gamers” and was pretty shocked 40% of gamers were 5 or younger lol

Man, I'm glad I wasn't the only one.
Agreed! Should have read “games from over 6 years ago” would have been more clear.

I guess a lot of older games that show up on the list are free multiplayer games that still get new content like Fortnite, Roblox, League, and Apex, so they're accessible, probably already a part of people's routines at this point, and at least have new things every once in a while to keep it interesting.

Also I wonder why they lumped CoD Modern Warfare II, III, and Warzone together as one game

Because they are just the one game. Since mw1 cod is just a live service game with yearly $60 payments to make you think it isn't just the same game. Also includes cold war.
You are correct that people aren't playing "old games" though. Fortnite and league could easily make up 30%, add GTAV and bob's your uncle.
- From the actual article, that last statement isn't even taht far off, if you chuck in a few more games
  In fact, in 2023, five old games—Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Minecraft, and GTA V—accounted for 27% of all playtime in the year.
- ooh ok lmao I don't really pay attention to CoD so idk much about it.

I have to wonder if live service games count as patient games. They are definitely older games, but they're often kept "fresh" frequently, and occasionally are very different from how they were 6 years prior... almost to.the point that it could've passed for a sequel in earlier times.

Of course, the article isn't just about these kinds of games, but the thought still came to me.

I guess while updates like League's recent big one that completely overhauls and changes core mechanics of the game, it's still League from back in 2008 and not a new game entirely. Many people have been playing the game for almost two decades now (wtf?!) and could have been spending all that time playing new releases but didn't. So in a sense, it could be seen as a patient game since it's separate from all the new AAA releases of the recent years. Same goes for other live-service games, I guess
- Yeach but also if league didnt put up with the times it likely would have been abandoned by most players so you could say its basicaly just a series of sequels . I mean its basicaly a fifa but instead of yearly realse you get constant updates. As far as im concerned a superior development model.

Because old games are the goat

the trend of releasing incomplete garbage that needs fixing may kinda play in to it too
- And yet the only single player game on this list is starfield somehow

Beyond my own game, most of my pc playtime so far this year is on games like Rimworld, 7 Days to Die, Oxygen not included, Ark, and Men of War assault squad. I spent a couple weeks in Palworld. I also am playing Pokemon Black on an emulator on my phone.

What's your game?
- Wartop, we just released it a couple weeks ago. Its' a virtual tabletop made specifically for tabletop skirmish and war games. We're not a sandbox though, we've got official partnerships with quite a few companies to make official versions of their tabletop games.
Just out of curiosity, what emulator are you using, where'd you get the game, and cN I do it on android?
I'm kinda dumb and want to play pokemon.
- I use Drastic to emulate those games.
- If you want to play on Android check out Retroarch

That won't result in certain doom for the video game industry, no sir!

I was too young to fully appreciate the scope of the first death of the video game industry, but if it happens again, I'll be paying very close attention. People will want a post mortem, and I may as well be the one to document it. (Maybe Microsoft will have to bury the Xbox brand in the same landfill where they uncovered all those E.T. cartridges.)

Had a brief FOMO moment about Dragons Dogma 2, which luckily passed and i once more managed to put off upgrading my 1070.

Funnily enough started to play the first "Kings Field" that runs at 20fps. Probably the same i would have gotten on DD2.

I have a PS4 and there are very good games I have never played.

I bought RDR2 + Assassin's creed Origins + Odyssee for $30 alltogether...

I will continue playing those games until I have completed them and a few more. After that, it's maybe time to buy a PS5 and games with crazily fallen prices...

Yeah that's me, I have been playing Peggle a lot on Steam

I only exclusively play small or old games like doom.