Circana’s Executive Director and Video Game Industry analyst Matt Piscatella has shared some new insights on what PlayStation and Xbox gamers are both playing. And there’s a clear disparity between what those gamers say online, and what they actually do.
Piscatella shared this thread on Bluesky:
“Over 70% of US active PS5/XBS players played at least 1 of the top 10 live service games of the month during January. More than 40% of all time spent playing on PS5/XBS in the US during January went to those same top 10 live service games.
Total US video game market spending peaked in 2021, although the market has stayed close since then. Total players and hours also peaked in that period. The pace of games being released hasn’t slowed. Mobile was the biggest and fastest growing content segment in the US in 2024.
It ain’t easy.
Really could use some positive surprises this year, and for a bunch of things to go right. In 2025. So. A lot is riding on the new products coming to market this year to hopefully combat or reverse some of these trends.
Used to be that players would jump from big game to big game to some other games but they were most often to moving to something new. That they purchased. Now, the live service games suck out a ton of available time, and it’s hard to beat free if it’s good. So. Here we are.”
We can also look at a chart Piscatella shared on Bluesky to figure out some of the ten live service games that PlayStation and Xbox players keep coming back to:
- Call of Duty
- Fortnite
- Grand Theft Auto Online
- Marvel Rivals
- Destiny 2
- Apex Legends
- Rocket League
While he didn’t specify, we assume that Mat also includes sports games Madden NFL 25, Rainbow Six Siege, and EA Sports College Football 25 as live service games as well. They may not be free-to-play as Mat describes some games, but they fit into the rest of his description.
But for gamers who love to talk about how they prefer single player or fully priced games, this should be a wake up call. Because if you really are one of those gamers, you are now the minority in your fanbase. But then, we suspect that many of those gamers who make these claims really do play live service games too.
It isn’t necessarily wrong to like playing live service games as it is. But Mat explains that this trend is coming at the expense of every developer who isn’t working on one of those ten live service games. These are the games that console gamers say they want more of, including the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Avowed.
And we don’t need to explain this to you, the reader, in detail. You know that many of these studios who don’t make live service games have had to lay off staff, or even close. It’s time to take an honest look at your spending and playing habits if you really want more than live service games to survive.
