Only 15% of all Steam users' time was spent playing games released in 2024

[679ea3235769aJDoran]

"Steam users spent just 15% of their total playing time in games that launched in 2024. 47% of the total playing time on Steam was spent on games released in the last one to seven years, while a sizeable 37% of time was spent in games that have been out for eight years or more.

So what do we make of all this? Are people just not buying new games any more? No, that's probably not the case. In fact, that 15% is a significant increase over the 9% of playtime spent in 2023 on new games released that year (though it's down on the 17% of time folks spent in new games in 2022)."



Big surprise, eh? It's been a few years since I was really excited about a new game. Yesterday I was playing the original Thief (well, the Thief Gold slightly updated version, from 1999), and now I am posting about it on a forum dedicated to two games, the youngest of which is a quarter of a century old and still to my mind better than any other games of it's type, even Prey (2017).

Not that today's games are in any way bad, of course. In fact modern gaming is better than ever. We know this because the games developers themselves tell us this. The reason we don't play modern games is of course that we're all bigoted haters who, when we see a new game, all think "Wow! That looks like the best game ever - I could have unimaginable fun with that, probably the greatest gaming experience of my life, but you know what, I choose to deprive myself of the many hours of gaming ecstasy because I'm a bigot who hates [something], and that [something] is very slightly represented in the game. So I won't play that game, even though I really, really, *really* want to, what with it being so obviously a real step forward in gaming, and in enjoyment generally".

Yep, seems likely.

Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/only-15-percent-of-all-steam-users-time-was-spent-playing-games-released-in-2024/

[679ea323579cdfox]

I think a lot of it has to do with the hardware side of things also. Ever since the pandemic, the situation for people with older systems was problematic for various reasons. For as long as I can remember, it was never so difficult and expensive to build current gen systems for a reasonable price, all while the savings melt away due to inflation and greedy price hikes on top. And than there's also that huge backlog of games to go through.

I also believe that more and more people realize that buying a freshly released game is not advisable. Both, financially and bug-wise. Trust is probably at an all-time low.

It's fairly obvious that the entire supply chain / ecosystem (hardware, software, distribution) necessary for current gen gaming is borked these days, many of the underlying issues being homegrown and systemic. It seems to mirror the state of the world. Merry Christmas! 

[679ea32357bfdJoin2]

Even a sizable bunch of the mainstream is disillusioned with new games now. The economies of the world are in shit shape generally. Many games are early access. AAA games are very demanding. I'm not surprised.

It was always better to simply be patient and buy games once they're at least a few years old, fully complete, on deep discount, critical consensus more easy to analyze (shilling campaign died down) and multiple mods available. I have always been a wait and see guy.

[679ea32358041sarge945]

Yes. Why buy a buggy unfinished mess on day 1 for full price when you can get the GOTY edition with all the dlcs and a bunch of bugfix patches a year or two later.

I wouldn't say people aren't playing modern games in general. Unfortunately as much as we hear about AAA failures, the usual AAA tentpole games keep everything afloat year on year (call of duty, fifa, etc).

Ubisoft might be in a bit of trouble, but they have been putting a lot of effort into completely undermining their own credibility, even to their casual and mainstream audience, in ways that EA and others never have.

I can only go by personal experience, but generally I'm finding that a lot of people are either on consoles and are getting games on release day, are sitting on Xbox Game Pass and are waiting for AAA games to become available, or if they are on PC, are often not interested in AAA games anyway.

There seems to be a more pervasive attitude of individuality in the PC space. The Steam Charts won't measure the brainless zombies who power-on their PS5 to game, swallow uncritically to whatever corporate line Sony feeds them, and always buy AAA on release day, drop it a week later, and move onto the next fad.

[679ea323582eaicemann]

The last "modern" game I was excited for and have played was Cyberpunk 2077.

By this point in time there is an absolute ocean of fantastic games across all platforms from the beginning of gaming to present day. Enough already to keep you busy until old age. That's where my issue is. Add to that, that many modern games require massive time investments. I just don't have that kinda time available most years.
Thirdly, I like to replay games I've enjoyed in the past. Fourth - Many of the more recently released games are just not what I'm interested in at all.

That all combined = Very little interest in modern games. I'm finding myself playing more and more retro games as time goes on.

[679ea32358428sarge945]

I definitely don't appreciate how much modern games want to waste your time on stupid collectibles or 50 hours of "content" doing stupid side quests and such

[679ea323586f9notaavatar]

I am really hoping AI assistants help game designers get around the expensive crap we don't  care too much about like graphics and focus on gameplay with a smaller team that actually likes games...

I think the problem is that the development cost is too high. I don't think they will be able to shake the 'leadership cost' that everyone wants to go after.

I think because the teams are so big now, because they need to handle all the issues, the leader that made great games (like Warren Spector) needs too many co-leaders and assistants and the vision he had is being diluted and there is conflicts of interests and some how people that work on some hard to implement (but ultimately trivial) details are getting "into" projects. It feels like we are getting camels. The engineering statement, that holds true for even the design of a single part, is "a horse designed by committee becomes a camel". I think its one of the rare cases where the simpsons got it wrong, where they show homer "fucked up" a car design when he took over the design board. I think its the opposite. I am hoping AI tools empower programmers enough that they can accomplish enhanced projects with teams that are substantially smaller and more coordinated with a unitary vision. Even if they have very strict control in corporate managment terms, the energy of this 'brain' that is actually responsible for the success o the operation is used to perform management crap like communicating to large groups under them, and they are effectively isolated from the product (lack of fast feedback needed to govern design). AI seems like it could be used to get rid of this problem.

[679ea32358ad0sarge945]

I am really hoping AI assistants help game designers get around the expensive crap we don't  care too much about like graphics and focus on gameplay with a smaller team that actually likes games...

I think the problem is that the development cost is too high. I don't think they will be able to shake the 'leadership cost' that everyone wants to go after

This is a false economy.

Games are expensive to make because there's a high degree of managerial staff that really shouldn't be there. This is an issue in many industries.

[679ea32358cd5voodoo47]

so they will fail. and who gives a damn? there is always someone in the garage working on the next good thing, and even if not, there is still tons of great old stuff that already exist out there.

did the math, and I literally don't have enough sand in the hourglass left to go through all of it, so I couldn't care less if the big industries are to implode tomorrow.

[679ea32358e84JDoran]

Some very good points are raised in this thread, and I'd like to add that the availability of mods also effects how older games are more often played than newer games, because as time goes on, less and less new games are mod-able, so fewer and fewer new games will benefit from years and years of extended playability due to fan-made mods.

[679ea323591a3Join2]

This is a false economy.

Games are expensive to make because there's a high degree of managerial staff that really shouldn't be there. This is an issue in many industries.

That's a problem for sure, but the obscene cost to make high profile games these days all stems from modern graphics first and foremost. 90% of me wishes we never moved past 1990s engine capabilities, despite that being limiting to the full potential of game design. Because really, what truly limits game design is the obscene costs to make them, twentyfold the average budget of the 90s.

[679ea32359316fox]

Many of the same underlying issues as with the movie industry, really. Including the fact that the big budgets and teams also attracted the same type of investors and management with similar business practices, decreased individual sense of responsibility and self-efficacy, drastically increased financial fall height leading to increased creative/thematic risk aversion, etc..

[679ea323595b2Nameless Voice]

Those issues are all not with modern gaming, but only with modern AAA gaming.
The best games have been in the smaller spaces, from indie to AA, for a long time.  That's where the innovation is.

Though, for me, the reason I barely play any games in the year they're released is more that I have such a big backlog to get through already that it seems foolish to buy anything new.  I still do it occasionally if something really catches my eye, but I'll often wait for a year or two before buying interesting games simply because I have other things queued up first.

[679ea3235975afox]

Unfortunately "voting with your wallet" is still our best shot at influencing the course of this industry so I think it's still necessary to throw some money at the games that we feel should prevail. Pre-ordering will always be naive, same with crowd-funding but it is probably smarter buying such a game at a price near retail, when/if the release bugs have been mostly ironed out and the game seems worth it by then, instead of putting it on hold for months/years and getting it at a huge discount. Thinking about games like Stalker 2, to state a current example.

[679ea32359a74JhonnyG]

Maybe I have just descended into an old grumpy drunk. But whenever I look at a new games, they simply lack innovation. Like yeah, the graphic might be a tad better, but the core gameplay mechanics are inferior to the 20 year old titles that I already own and love. So why even invest in a knock-off of something with less replayability than what I already have.. This tend to make me replay classic games instead of investing in new ones. Especially as I can't be bothered with online stores, third party launchers and multiplayer games anymore.

Not to mention the bane of poorly optimized dx12 and unreal5 titles flooding the market. If it's not a blurry mess, then it'll try to melt your hardware into a slab of scrap while requiring ai upscaling to perform at anything higher than 1080p. It's honestly ridiculous how something like SS2 with a few community mods ace most modern games in graphic fidelity.

Dunno where the hell I'm going with this rant. Maybe it's just that I ain't surprised nobody is really excited about new releases anymore. And would rather spend their time replaying classic or older games. Instead of buying into quadruple A mainstream garbage or early access money grabs...

[679ea32359e0dicemann]

Some very good points are raised in this thread, and I'd like to add that the availability of mods also effects how older games are more often played than newer games, because as time goes on, less and less new games are mod-able, so fewer and fewer new games will benefit from years and years of extended playability due to fan-made mods.

Which in turn increases how long one sticks with each game, before moving onto the next. Some of the western RPGs even allow saved characters from the main game (or from custom player made ones) to be imported into others (eg Neverwinter Nights, Shadowrun Returns etc), which incentives sticking with them.

And some mod scenes refuse to ever die (eg OG Doom community) and keep pumping out fantastic mods. I continue to be amazed of the stuff coming out. Plus their damn fun.

[679ea3235a033sarge945]

Controversial opinion time:

Modern indie games are just as shitty as modern AAA, just in different ways.

People keep telling me that "AA and indie are still good, they are where the innovation is!!" And then I look at the indie scene and all I see is ""artsy"" story games with no gameplay, modern spiritual successors to old games (usually worse versions), the same empty survival sandbox game over and over again, and hugely overproduced ""indie"" platformers made by large companies that basically have "indie style" games down to a business.

Sure, there's some good stuff that comes out. But just look at the resurgence of indie boomer shooters for an example. A few good ones (Dusk, Selaco, etc) and a bunch of really mediocre or bad ones.

Indie games also suck. I hate how people see them as the "savior of the modern industry" when so many of them are unplayable garbage.

[679ea3235a454vurt]

2024 was incredible for games, bought way more games than in 10'ish years i think. 

Stalker 2, Rogue Trader , Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree,ready or not(well, it was Dec 2023), Drova, shadow of doubt.. some cool VR games like Arkham Shadow.. The Indy game seems decent, gonna grab on a sale though.

...and indie games, of course there will be tons and tons of garbage, and who cares`? why would you buy or play them, you don't so there's really no issue as i see it.  I read reviews, sometimes i buy and play for 2h, refund if i didn't agree with the reviews. 
Mobile games is way worse and i could not care less. As for Artsy indies, not common, at least its not something i run into frequently.

[679ea3235a588sarge945]

Way to miss the point entirely...

[679ea3235a740vurt]

..and the point is exactly? all you're saying is that there's quite a few garbage indies coming out, i totally agree, but i also don't care, how does it matter. It would be nice if the ratio was something like 90% good games, but it's never been the case. We have more games than ever, thus more shit than ever, there's an immense selection of good games, so many that i have to be very selective of what to play. My backlog is just growing.

[679ea3235a900vurt]

I also don't think it's strange that 15% is for 2024 games. I mean it's 2024 vs every other year, that's quite something to compete with...  On the whole i mostly play Rimworld. Likely in 2025-2026 i have a few favorites from 2024 and those games are instead the most played.

[679ea3235ab1esarge945]

I'm saying that indie games, on the whole, are as much of a lost cause as AAA games are. Saying "just don't play the bad ones" doesn't actually answer that point at all.

Otherwise I can do this
"Hey, AAA games are kind of shitty, have you noticed??"
"JUST DON'T PLAY THE BAD ONES LOL"

And suddenly this whole thread disappears in a puff of logic.

This entire thread is basically a giant rant about how shitty AAA gaming has become, with multiple people specifically singling out AAA gaming as opposed to indie gaming, which is where the "innovation is"

My point is that they are both equally shit and the distinction is meaningless, so we should stop trying to separate them. Arguing that "indie games are still good" is pure copium.

The ""best"" indie game of 2024 literally plays itself. What a joke.

Your only hope is old games.

[679ea3235ad37vurt]

I agree, the distinction isn't too interesting, instead just care about playing good games, avoid shitty games.
 
Lost cause? I don't see it. There's more releases than ever, thus way more shit. We can go back as far as to the C64 era, it was the same, most of the games were shit, i remember going through tape after tape, just garbage, and then the very occasional gem.

What genres do you people enjoy? Just Thief and SS-like games? Then sure, it must be pretty crappy. I enjoy a ton of various genres, there's a lot to enjoy and to look forward to.

[679ea3235afe1voodoo47]

What genres do you people enjoy?

ShockEd