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[pasterpl]

Ben Porter, director of consulting at videogame market intelligence company Newzoo, is giving a GDC talk this week that picks out some highlights from the firm's annual look at the state of the games industry. PC Gamer was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek at his slides, and one of the takeaways is that PC gaming is bigger than ever: And we love to play old games.


The results are extrapolated from a yearly in-depth survey of 73,000 players, alongside data from over 10,000 games. From this Newzoo says that the PC market is growing at a steady rate, with an estimated 873.5 million players in 2023 rising to 907.5 million in 2024.


I know you'll all like this one: that handily beats out the console audience, of whom there were an estimated 653.1 million in 2024.

The data shows that from January 2024 to December 2024, 67% of player hours on PC were spent on a game that was six or more years old. A further 25% of player hours were spent on games that were two to five years old, and the remaining 8% of time was spent on games that are less than two years old.

Newzoo's data further breaks down that 67% chunk. Within this:

• 7.1% of the total hours spent were on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive / Counter-Strike 2
• 6.4% were in League of Legends
• 6.2% were in Roblox
• 5.8% were in Dota 2
• 5.4% were in Fortnite

PC gamers spend 92% of their time on older games, oh and there are apparently 908 million of us now

Feels like Destiny.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[bender]

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Newer games are not better. Many are worse.

Games that are worth playing had been made for decades and they didn't go away. And now there are entire libraries of games that can keep you occupied as long as you didn't demand big multiplayer numbers.

As much as they want to kill old games, the major companies failed. They are out there and those who are sick of bad games are able to visit the good old days.

Attempts now to make sure good games eventually die, like always-online, came too late to delete the old games that were rescued.

 

[Grizzled Ghost]

Surprised Minecraft didn't crack the top 5

I''m sure WoW's still up there too

 

[bad guy]

Just like with other media. Who doesn't often consume books, music, movies that are older than 2 or 5 years.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Surprised Minecraft didn't crack the top 5

I''m sure WoW's still up there too

That's the first thing I thought can't believe Minecraft isn't up there with Roblox.

 

[DenchDeckard]

RetroGamingUK drop us the graph bro.

 

[DryvBy]

907m PC gamers and I'm expected to believe this?

 

[DenchDeckard]

907m PC gamers and I'm expected to believe this?

All the cd keys codes are for the ubisoft launcher. That's where I'm playing it.

I bet loads have played it there.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Single player games don't age.

 

[MrJangles]

Hence the reason for the plethora of remakes on pc and console.

Shiny new PS5 Pro gets hacked, What's the first thing people do? Put emulators on it and play Sonic 2

 

[No BBC=Anger]

Imagine being a youth today with an interest and who just stumbled upon the history of older games? Many of us had a version of that back then with music and films.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

People still read Plato and Mill. This should be the expected outcome with this medium over time.

 

[StereoVsn]

People still read Plato and Mill. This should be the expected outcome with this medium over time.

Yes, it’s silly to assume that people would only go for newest stuff with a rich history of games already produced.

It’s also more nuanced if you think of PC library vs say PS5 or Switch. On PC side you can get one of thousands of games produced during last 30 years and run it on a modern system (with some work for older games).

GoG and Steam offer humongous libraries with catalogues stretching back a long time. And then we have emulation on top of official libraries.

From a console perspective, you aren’t going to be able to load say a SEGA CD or even a PSX game to a PS5 and somehow play it. Classics are only a small part of current console libraries. This is why we see larger percentages of gamers playing older games as there is simply much more availability of these on PC side of things.

 

[San Dan Glokta]

I'd like to know more about how they got the 907 mil number and whether is their aggregation if from sound data. I'm not giving PCGamer a click though.

 

[Trilobit]

I'd like to know more about how they got the 907 mil number and whether is their aggregation if from sound data. I'm not giving PCGamer a click though.

You can read about it on this link:
https://internetarchive.com/archived/pc-gamers-spend-92-percent-of-their-time-on-older-games-oh-and-there-are-apparently-908-million-of-us-now/

 

[San Dan Glokta]

You can read about it on this link:
https://internetarchive.com/archived/pc-gamers-spend-92-percent-of-their-time-on-older-games-oh-and-there-are-apparently-908-million-of-us-now/

Thank you here is what I learned:

• A guy named Ben Porter shared some presentation slides with news outlets at the GDC that revealed this data
• He works at newzoo a leading global gaming data analysis company
• Although I couldn't find the data on their website; there is a free report that is due to release on April 8. It might contain more data regarding this number

 

[Nankatsu]

Yap, playing throw all Tomb Raiders on my PC and I'm having a blast.

Just finished TR1, which I never did. Those last levels are kind of a pain in the ass. No wonder 4 year old me couldn't get throw that shit.

 

[RafterXL]

Statistica had the number of PC gamers at 1.75 billion in 2024.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/420621/number-of-pc-gamers/

I think these numbers are excluding some countries, like possibly China.

 

[struggler_guts]

Just like with other media. Who doesn't often consume books, music, movies that are older than 2 or 5 years.

Gen Z

This report rings true though, especially with steam family share I've been getting into a lot of classics my brother has that I didn't. I even just downloaded an emulator on my phone so I can FINALLY try out the first Parasite Eve. Then that reminded me I never finished Mother so then I got a nes emulator lol

 

[Guilty_AI]

Gen Z

You'd be surprised

 

[struggler_guts]

You'd be surprised

I'm sure, I actually forgot they're adults now lol

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Definitely worth the $6000 GPUs.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Videogames, just like women, are better when they are 20 years old.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I’ve recently gone back to mess with the first Fable and Kingdom of Amalur. The vast majority of games installed on my PC are older games.

There’s no need to play the latest games, when the older shit was better.

 

[MikeM]

Going from console to PC made older games viable again.

Play at 4k and not 720p? Yes!

Play at max settings and not PS3/PS4 settings? Yes!

120+ FPS instead of 30fps? Yes!

My backlog is full of older games like RDR2, Dying Light, MGS Revengence etc. I have no interest in buying day 1 games when I get perfectly good games at next to nothing that are all patched to near perfect condition.

 

[ssringo]

Yeah, when I see the new "hotness" releasing for $70 and it pales in comparison to the older and much cheaper games, I just buy and/or play the older games.

Eventually those $70 games will be old and cheap and I'll get around to it then.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Definitely worth the $6000 GPUs.

Maybe as they don't need to beg for patches for older games play at 4k+/60+fps, etc, etc...

 

[Lorianus]

One just has to look at twitch, outside of new releases it's all old like FF14/WoW, Dota/League, Counter Strike and so on.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

So many games come out that you can easily miss one.
I am currently playing "the Ascent" in 4k and it still looks gorgeous.

 

[LazyParrot]

Console gamers would be doing the same thing if they had infinite backwards compatibility and platform owners and publishers lacked the ability to artificially limit support for older titles and hardware.

 

[SweetTooth]

Videogames, just like women, are better when they are 20 years old.

You mean being used for 20 Years!

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

So does that mean that 8% of 908M = the equivalent of 73 million gamers playing only newer games? That is still a very sizeable amount.

 

[TintoConCasera]

You mean being used for 20 Years!

The other day I used a Sony game on my PC and and the game enjoyed it a lot. "It's better than ever", she said.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Statistica had the number of PC gamers at 1.75 billion in 2024.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/420621/number-of-pc-gamers/

I think these numbers are excluding some countries, like possibly China.

But what do they consider a gaming PC?

 

[xenosys]

This is why you release your games on PC. Release, don't worry too much about the launch numbers unless they are abysmal, periodically patch your games with QoL, asset, and performance improvements, and just watch the money roll-in over the next 10-20 years.

Steam has the largest library of games on any platform. Even if you can't play the latest game D1 with your hardware, there are thousands of games you can go back to and enjoy in the meantime which will run on a potato.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Newer games are not better. Many are worse.

Games that are worth playing had been made for decades and they didn't go away. And now there are entire libraries of games that can keep you occupied as long as you didn't demand big multiplayer numbers.

As much as they want to kill old games, the major companies failed. They are out there and those who are sick of bad games are able to visit the good old days.

Attempts now to make sure good games eventually die, like always-online, came too late to delete the old games that were rescued.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Newer games are not better. Many are worse.

Games that are worth playing had been made for decades and they didn't go away. And now there are entire libraries of games that can keep you occupied as long as you didn't demand big multiplayer numbers.

As much as they want to kill old games, the major companies failed. They are out there and those who are sick of bad games are able to visit the good old days.

Attempts now to make sure good games eventually die, like always-online, came too late to delete the old games that were rescued.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

I think we need to rethink how we define the ages of games, because every game in that list is currently being updated on a regular basis. Calling them over 6 years old really doesn't describe them in an accurate or meaningful way at all.

Edit: consider this - if those 5 games stopped getting any updates after 6 months of original release, would they still be played today?

 

[TGO]

907m PC gamers and I'm expected to believe this?

Unless 720mil are playing old games right now, the number isn't accurate
They probably count people like me that has had a Steam account for over a decade despite not having a PC since the mid 2000's and my account is still active
Whatever the most people online at one time is probably a good 50/60% of actual userbase.

 

[Parazels]

Yes, when I compare classic and modern games from my wish list, I am more loyal to the old ones. And they are cheaper, that is a good bonus as well.

 

[Sooner]

Yeah and there are billions of "gamers" overall. As long as we count everyone who ever clicked the Solitare or Minesweeper icon on their PC or Sudoku, Candy Crush, etc on their phone while waiting in the doctor office lobby.

 

[MarV0]

Unless 720mil are playing old games right now, the number isn't accurate
They probably count people like me that has had a Steam account for over a decade despite not having a PC since the mid 2000's and my account is still active
Whatever the most people online at one time is probably a good 50/60% of actual userbase.

Steam doesn't even include some of the most popular PC games in the world such as League of Legends, Valorant, WoW, Genshin Impact, Fortnite, Escape from Tarkov and many others.

There is a whole world of PC gaming outside of Steam. PC gaming is simply ginormous.