The Case for More Digestible Games

Gaming
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The case for more digestable games: Over a third of console and PC gamers play LESS than 5 hours a week.

Midia Research’s quarterly gamer survey for Q4, 2024 highlights that gamers are having their leisure time and attention drawn away from extended gaming sessions and epically long game times.

The attention economy is oversaturated. Games are not just competing with other games but with TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, and well … life. But the games industry – especially premium games on console and PC – has a unique twofold challenge:

  • Supply: New AAA games can take five years or more to make (and often have budgets in the hundreds of millions)
  • Demand: Player attention and play time are already maxed out

MIDiA’s consumer research for Q4 2024 underlines just how little time consumers have to play. Console gamers spend – on average – 10 hours gaming per week, while PC players spend a little less (9.7 hours).

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Naturally, averages only tell part of the story. Diving deeper into our data, we found that:

  • Two-thirds of PC and consol* e gamers spend less than 10 hours a week gaming
  • 36% of console gamers spend less than 5 hours a week gaming
  • And 40% of PC gamers spend less than 5 hours a week gaming

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I can relate to that statistic, I’ve definitely noticed that I am getting less time to game these days. There are so many great games I want to get to, both on Game Pass and in my backlog - that’s in addition to joining in with friends online. The precious few hours have to be well spent. Even a 20 hour game can take a month to get through.

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Yup. So me too. Took two off and had planes to work through at least one game but I am lucky if I find an hour a day to jam.

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I can’t find a source now, but I recall a YT video where a guy said that everyone claims to want short games, but the sales figures show otherwise.

Midia’s report shows a decline in the industry though, so there is that.
I also have to ask, are we going to be paying $80 for these shorter games? :laughing:

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For me this is where Game Pass, or any subscription service, shines. You’re not worried about the hours per $ ratio.

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