Director of Ben Porter, Consultancy Firm NeewsThis week, the GDC is delivering some highlights from the firm’s annual view in the state of the sports industry. The PC gamer was fortunate enough to peek on its slides, and one way is that PC gaming is bigger than ever: and we like to play old games.
The results are excluded from the annual depth survey of 73,000 players, along with more than 10,000 sports data. The PC market is rising at a steady rate, with an estimated 873.5 million players rising to 907.5 million in 2023, ”said New NewsO.
I know you all like it: this easily defeat the console audience, of which 2024 had an estimated 653.1 million.
And the data further shows that in New New’s words, these 908 million “PC players are heavy on large, direct service games.”
Statistics show that from January 2024 to December 2024, 67 % of the players spent on a game that was six or more years old. Another 25 % of the players spent time on sports, two to five years old, and the remaining 8 % time was spent on sports that are under two years.
Newso’s data breaks further. Inside it:
- 7.1 % of the total hours spent were on counter -strikes: World offensive / counter -strike 2
- 6.4 % were in the league of legends
- 6.2 % were in Roblox
- 5.8 % were in Dota 2
- 5.4 % were in Fortnite
Obviously we can distribute hair here: Anti -strike 2 was just released last year, so what is it doing in this category? I can see this argument, as it is primarily a 2012 CS: GO ground -up remake, which can be considered a remake of the 2000 anti -strike.
But whether we accept the presence of CS2 or otherwise, the normal image does not change. PC players are spending their most timely time on older sports: 92 % of our time goes to sports that are more than two years old.
As a brief, if you ever wonder why the publishers are so obsessed with making direct service games, and why many of them fail, it gives you both answers. Get it properly and a direct service game is a golden laughter, forever mini machine. Why do new people fall flat? Because the audience already likes it.
This is not surprising in some ways, and PC reflects the size and scale of the gaming market. Not everyone is playing on the latest hardware, or has the money to buy the latest titles, but the PC as a platform is ‘free’ (the five titles that the New Zeaoes are the dominant playtime are all F2P), as well as to select the old titles for a layered titles.
Interestingly, someone who has done this to live, is disconnected between consumers’ interests and most of the industry coverage, which is inclined towards the latest hot game or major destruction. But this is not being reflected in the general sports habits of PC gamers where, like comfort food, we have favorite old titles and stick to them.
