The year 2023 saw highly anticipated new releases and impressive remakes of video games, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Resident Evil 4. But despite these newer titles, the market remains dominated by older games.

Market research firm Newzoo recently released “The PC & Console Gaming Report” revealed that the average age of the most popular games (based on average monthly active users across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms) was seven years. Notably, only Starfield made it to the top ten as the sole new franchise, based on this metric. It was also the only single-player title in the 2023 top ten ranking.

The rest of the top ten were populated by well-established multiplayer games, such as Fortnite and Roblox. The Newzoo report cited the diversity of experiences, the power of content creation, and brand collaboration as to why these titles remained strong after all these years. Other games in the top ten, like Rocket League, Counter-Strike 2, and Call of Duty, continued to be juggernauts in the industry thanks to their competitive nature and active esports scenes, fan loyalty and strong community, among other reasons.

That 66 titles were behind 80 percent of all playtimes in 2023, with 60 percent of such playtime spent on titles that are six years old and over, further cemented the fact that gamers were focused mainly on older games.

Amid strong showing from older games, the year also marked a rise in playtime for new releases, which claimed 23% of total gaming time. On the other hand, playtime in general decreased since reaching its highest point in 2021. It is now showing a declining trend, with gamers clocking in fewer playtime hours. The Newzoo report noted a 26-percent decline in the average quarterly playtime since the first quarter of 2021.

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