Majority Of Gamers Buy 2 Or Less New Games Per Year (And A Third Don’t Buy Any), According To New Data

As a pretty avid gamer (obviously), I buy a lot of games. I’ve always known I’m in the minority, but somehow it never occurred to me just how rare people like me and you might be. Well, according to some new data, the vast majority of people buy 2 or less games a year.

The numbers were posted by Matt Piscatella of Circana, one of the biggest analytics companies in the gaming space. For clarity, the chart refers to people’s purchasing frequency of “new” games, which Piscatella says simply means not pre-owned.

According to the chart, a whopping 63% of people are buying 2 or less games per year. This breaks down to 33% of people reporting that they buy a new game less often than once a year. 12% report buying one about once a year, and 18% say they pick up a new title about once every 6 months.

As for the other 47% of gamers, it breaks down like this: 22% buy a new game about once every 3 months; 10% say about once a month, and a measly 4% report buying more often than once a month.

Now, obviously the numbers have a lot of room for interpretation. Most people probably go through phases, perhaps picking up 2 games one month, then nothing for a while, then maybe 1 again, and another next month, then nothing for ages etc. The chart simply reflects averages.

“Hyper enthusiast, price-insensitive players are really keeping things going, especially in the non f2p gaming space,” said Piscatella in his post, using a hilarious description of people who have enough disposable income to pick up games frequently.

It’s also worth noting that the chart includes ALL gamers, including mobile, which tends to favour free games heavily.

And let’s not forget the rise of free-to-play live-service games across the entire industry as well, which previous data has shown has radically changed how gamers are spending their time. For example, in 2023, Steam reported that free-to-play titles were accounting for 51% of playtime on the platform. That has only risen.

Personally, I read this as the majority of people playing free-to-play stuff, and perhaps picking up the usual staples such as Call of Duty and their favoured sports title.

What do you guys think?