New Report Finds Most People Barely Buy Two Games A Year (Kotaku)

New Report Finds Most People Barely Buy Two Games A Year

More games are coming out than ever before. Over 18,000 separate store listings were added to Steam in 2024 alone. Our list of notable October releases hit 55, and there were dozens more games we could have included. It’s a good thing that with the market so flooded, the average gamer is also buying tons of games. Oh wait, they aren’t! A new survey by Circana finds the majority of players in the U.S. buy just two games a year or fewer.

That data point was shared last week (via GameDiscoverCo) by the firm’s head of gaming research, Mat Piscatella. The group’s upcoming Future of Games report for the last quarter asked respondents how often they purchased new games. A whopping third said they don’t even buy one a year. Only 4 percent purchase more than one game a month. Did you buy Hollow Knight: Silksong and Borderlands 4 in September? Congratulations: you are a statistical outlier.

This resonated with me, because I definitely don't buy or even look into new games with the same enthusiasm that I once did. As I've mentioned in articles and on our podcast, I've soured on NBA 2K in recent years, but even other genres hold less appeal. I pick up some retro games when they're on sale, but when it comes to new releases, NBA 2K is the only one I'm guaranteed to buy; and even then, that's for content creation/news coverage purposes, rather than knowing or believing that I'm going to love every new iteration. For all the potential benefits of modern gaming, it doesn't feel like it's in as good of a place as it should be, and I think these purchasing trends reflect that.