Despite how contentious they are with players, live service games are still dominating the gaming industry.
Game industry analyst Mat Piscatella, Executive Director of games at market research firm Circana (formerly NPD), stated in a post onBlueskythat in January, over 40% of all playtime on PlayStation and Xbox in the United States was dedicated to just 10 live service games.
Not only that, but over 70% of active players on those platforms played at least one of those top 10 games in January, even if they just booted it up once and never touched it again.
What Are The Games?
Piscatella’s post did not specify what those top 10 games were, but some inferences can be made fromanother postlisting the top 15 games by total non-concurrent US players on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam from February 9-15.
That list would suggest that those 10 live service games would include titles like theCall of Dutyseries,Fortnite,Grand Theft Auto V,Marvel Rivals,Roblox,Minecraft, and sports games. Others on the list includeApex Legends,Destiny 2, andRocket League.
According to Piscatella, video game market spending, players, and hours peaked in 2021, although the market has “stayed close” since then. However, he says this does mark a shift in player habits over the last few years.
Used to be that players would jump from big game to big game to some other games but they were most often moving to something new. That they purchased.
Now, the live service games suck out a ton of available time, and it’s hard to beat free if it’s good. So. Here we are.
It’s no secret that live service games have been a major point of contention between players and publishers over the last few years, but even as many of the more vocal players speak out against the proliferation of live service games, this data suggests that they’re in the minority.
Shuhei Yoshida Said He’d Resist PlayStation Live Service Push If He Was Still In Charge
Former SIE president Shuhei Yoshida said he would have resisted Hermen Hult’s live service push.
Ubisoft hasexpressed interest in releasing more live service games, while EA hasblamed the lackluster sales of Dragon Age: The Veilguard on it not being a live service game– something that eventhe developers themselves have spoken out against.
On the flip side, Sony recently announceda wave of cancelations of in-development live service gamesfollowing the catastrophic failure of Concord last year.
In any case, if anyone is wondering why publishers seem to keep releasing live service games even after some high-profile failures, this data may be the answer.
A Third of AAA Developers Are Working on Live Service Games According to GDC’s State of the Game Industry Survery
Despite the live service game bubble bursting, AAA developers are working on countless live service titles.
