From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


Most people don't, actually. A recent report that most US gamers only
buy two games per year; fewer than 4% buy more than one game per
month.* How do these poor souls ever expect to get a big Number with
such paltry spending habits? Don't they know that a big Number =
Eternal Salvation and Happiness? ;-)

[Praise The Number]

Of course, this statistic doesn't really tell the whole story. For one
thing: it's US buyers only. For another, it lumps anyone who's ever
played an electronic video game into the same pile. That means your
mum, who once a week might poke at video-Suduko on her phone, counts
the same as BR4D_XX69XX, frat-boy and Call of Duty player
extraordinaire. The two represent vastly different segments of the
video-gaming market and just looking at the totals doesn't really tell
you much. One of these two groups is going to put much more emphasis
on increasing the number of video games in their library than the
other.

[Praise The Number]

Still, it's undeniable that for some, their gaming world consists of
only a handful of games. Maybe it's the most recent "Madden" game, or
"FIFA", or "Call of Duty", or Fortnite, but it's the game they play
almost exclusively. That's always been the case. But similarly, there
have always been a lot of gamers who buy and play multiple games per
year. And then there are the nutcases who get games just to get games
because they want the biggest video-game library ever.

[Praise The Number]

Also, the study focuses on game PURCHASES... but as everyone here is
well aware, there's been increasingly less need to BUY games anymore,
what with so many games either going free-to-play, or just being
tossed out for free in their entirety. More, subscription services
skew the results even further; users of subscriptions don't buy ANY
games, but still play a lot of titles. How do you account for those
numbers that in your statistics?

[Praise The Number]

Still, even if the report only tells part of the story, it is
noteworthy. Game _purchases_ are becoming less relevant... especially
in the US, where game spending (like many luxury spending trends) has
dropped over the past year. Unfortunately, this will only lead to
publishers focusing more on free-to-play and post-sale monetizations
to bolster their revenue in other ways (not to mention, making it
harder to actually own games). And --as somebody who is a happy member
of that 4% who likes buying lots of games-- that's not something that
makes me happy.

[Praise The Number]








* that's what it says here https://www.gamespot.com/articles/majority-of-us-gamers-buy-a-max-of-two-games-annually-analysts-say/1100-6535300/

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

At Wed, 08 Oct 2025 10:25:09 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Most people don't, actually. A recent report that most US gamers only
buy two games per year; fewer than 4% buy more than one game per
month.* How do these poor souls ever expect to get a big Number with
such paltry spending habits? Don't they know that a big Number =
Eternal Salvation and Happiness? ;-)

[Praise The Number]

Of course, this statistic doesn't really tell the whole story. For one
thing: it's US buyers only. For another, it lumps anyone who's ever
played an electronic video game into the same pile. That means your
mum, who once a week might poke at video-Suduko on her phone, counts
the same as BR4D_XX69XX, frat-boy and Call of Duty player
extraordinaire. The two represent vastly different segments of the video-gaming market and just looking at the totals doesn't really tell
you much. One of these two groups is going to put much more emphasis
on increasing the number of video games in their library than the
other.

[Praise The Number]

Still, it's undeniable that for some, their gaming world consists of
only a handful of games. Maybe it's the most recent "Madden" game, or
"FIFA", or "Call of Duty", or Fortnite, but it's the game they play
almost exclusively. That's always been the case.

I like an open world game that includes an entire galaxy -- one
reason I play Elite Dangerous almost exclusively.

Recently I played a bit of KSP. I think the last game I played
other than those two was the last Borderlands (not the current
one). Or maybe it was Tiny Tina's Wonderland. Either way, I
finally got bored and went back to ED, whose current draw is
colonization. I like flying my spaceships! And considerable
in-game currency can be earned with xenobiology, which involves
flying short distances, landing, getting out, and scanning
"plants" up close and personal. (Sometimes they aren't plants,
but fungii, or colonies, or bacterial mats.) This is an engaging
game loop.

But that doesn't mean I'm not making game purchases. When new
ships come out, they are available for a period of time for ARX
(dollars), then they are integrated into the game. So if you want
to fly the new ships immediately, there's an expenditure -- and
when it comes to those, I guess I'm a bit of a "whale".

But similarly, there
have always been a lot of gamers who buy and play multiple games per
year. And then there are the nutcases who get games just to get games
because they want the biggest video-game library ever.

[Praise The Number]

Also, the study focuses on game PURCHASES... but as everyone here is
well aware, there's been increasingly less need to BUY games anymore,
what with so many games either going free-to-play, or just being
tossed out for free in their entirety. More, subscription services
skew the results even further; users of subscriptions don't buy ANY
games, but still play a lot of titles. How do you account for those
numbers that in your statistics?

[Praise The Number]

Still, even if the report only tells part of the story, it is
noteworthy. Game _purchases_ are becoming less relevant... especially
in the US, where game spending (like many luxury spending trends) has
dropped over the past year. Unfortunately, this will only lead to
publishers focusing more on free-to-play and post-sale monetizations
to bolster their revenue in other ways (not to mention, making it
harder to actually own games). And --as somebody who is a happy member
of that 4% who likes buying lots of games-- that's not something that
makes me happy.

[Praise The Number]

* that's what it says here https://www.gamespot.com/articles/majority-of-us-gamers-buy-a-max-of-two-games-annually-analysts-say/1100-6535300/

--
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"I'd love to, but there's a disturbance in the Force."
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