A new study has been released that shows 53% of gamers prefer single-player games. With how difficult it is for live-service games to break onto the market successfully, it makes sense that more and more single-player games are instead rising to the top and are proving to be more successful than any multiplayer game. A study carried out by Rhys Elliott discusses how most of the AAA games market revenue comes from in-game purchases that are typically from live service games. However, the market is also admittedly oversaturated, with some live-service games failing from the outset.
It’s becoming exceedingly rare that live-service games are able to make a name for themselves in the market, and every time a new one is made successfully, it makes room for new entrants even smaller. While a lot of AAA developers on consoles and PC are attempting to make big revenue from live-service games, most gamers prefer to play single-player games.
In the latest gaming report by Midia Research, it shows that single-player games are the preferred way to play games. There are any developers out there who have created single-player games previously and tried to make their way into the market of making live-service games, but found that it was a catastrophic failure. One of these examples is the huge success of The Last of Us, but The Last of Us Online was nowhere near as successful and was very quickly scrapped by Naughty Dog and PlayStation.
While it is stated that live-service games are predominantly the bread winners in the industry, new single-player games continue to break records and can generate millions. For example, while most think of iconic franchises like The Legend of Zelda or Spider-Man, Elden Ring sold 25 million copies, with Black Myth: Wukong selling 20 million. Both are predominantly single-player games, with Elden Ring offering a multiplayer option for those who want it.
A huge factor into what players want is also dependent on age range. For example, those who are in their younger generations tend to focus more on playing live-service games, with the number starting to veer off once they hit the mid-20s. Those over the age of 25 tend to target single-player games the most, with a small portion of the gamers playing live-service games. Those who play single-player games tend to use portable devices, too, such as a Steam Deck or PlayStation Portal, to make gaming more accessible to them.
