Thursday, October 3rd 2024
Single-Player Games Lose to PVP in Younger Audiences Despite Recent Hits
It looks like Epic Games's Tim Sweeney was onto something earlier this week when he claimed that the gaming landscape is changing. According to new research by MIDiA Research, online PVP and couch co-op games are more popular than single-player games in audiences aged 16-24, with older audiences overwhelmingly preferring single-player games.
The researchers surveyed 9,000 gamers in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, South Korea, and Brazil, giving the study a pretty diverse sample, in terms of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Regardless of age group, single-player and PVP games were always the most popular genres, although a solid 53% of the participants in the study said that single-player games were their preference.
Single-player gaming seems to be experiencing something of a renaissance in recent years, after the mid 2010 PVP and MMO boom, with games like Black Myth: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077, and Elden Ring—three AAA, narrative-driven, primarily single-player titles—garnering second, seventh, and eighth place in SteamDB's all-time peak player count charts. It's also worth observing that players seem to be growing increasingly frustrated with live-service and online games, most of which rely on PVP or PVE elements for success.
The low popularity of couch co-op games in audiences 35-years old and older is also peculiar, since those are exactly the types of gamers who likely grew up playing couch co-op games with friends and family on consoles.
Sources:
MIDiA Research, SteamDB
The researchers surveyed 9,000 gamers in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, South Korea, and Brazil, giving the study a pretty diverse sample, in terms of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Regardless of age group, single-player and PVP games were always the most popular genres, although a solid 53% of the participants in the study said that single-player games were their preference.
The low popularity of couch co-op games in audiences 35-years old and older is also peculiar, since those are exactly the types of gamers who likely grew up playing couch co-op games with friends and family on consoles.
60 Comments on Single-Player Games Lose to PVP in Younger Audiences Despite Recent Hits
I thought that would be covered under Co-Op (both kinds) and SP.
It’s not good or bad, it’s just the reality of more players (that some derisively call “casuals”) being brought into the hobby over the years and they often have limited time to play and want action/fun NOW and PVP games are often good at that. Not everyone is a grognard willing to put 150+ hours into, say, a BG3. Oh, they might still play it, mess around in co-op even, but most won’t ever leave Act I. While they still come back for more to their MP grind or sweat-fest of choice. They are fast food of gaming, essentially.
Poorly made game of any type is just that, poor and I won't play.
I've put a lot of time into single player games and still do so to this day. I also play a lot of games co-op and I've even found enjoyment in multiplayer type games recently such as Helldivers 2.
I just dumped 800 hrs into Baldur's Gate 3, but I also have 4000 hrs in PUBG and 2500 hrs in Apex Legends, so I'm one of the few who can enjoy both sides of the gaming spectrum.
My gaming is hardly in any statistics for over 30 years gaming experience.
The data is locked behind a paywall or choosen account or something else -> www.midiaresearch.com/reports/single-player-is-safer-and-has-more-opportunities-amid-live-service-challenges
The other thing is that I spend 8 hours among random people every day 5 days a week, which is more than enough.
The amount of attention grabbing single player stuff has really dwindled over the years its rare for a game like FF7 or RE2 comes out these days and everyone is talking about it Witcher 3/Skyrim were probably the last 2 with CP2077 coming close but fumbling it's launch there just isn't any buzz for SP stuff consistently anymore BMW is probably the only one from 2024 that comes close and probably BG3 last year.
Even Sony games that use to be almost mini events with God of war and Uncharted have rally diminished.
And does Microsoft even make games anymore lol....
Movies have honestly kinda suffered the same fate with only 1-2 attention grabbing ones per year if we are lucky.
Kill everything that moves. If you can't shoot it, blow it up, knife it or beat it to death then what's the point.
For a while, I returned to Diablo III (with the wife), and for years (something like 550 days played) there was WoW - heavily into PvP, and FFXIV - but I've watched what's been happening with the likes of Concord, Suicide Squad, Star Wars Outlaws, Assassins Creed Shadows, along with the language used and alleged abuse being flung around by gaming studios and media at a certain demographic of players- and whether any of it is true or not, it's soured my hobby of gaming and rebuilding my computer every couple of years.
It's a shame, as being older - I have a lot of money to spend on this "hobby".
I've got a PS5 + VR2 with no games, and waiting to fully rebuild my PC - but there seems little point right now.
These days I'm much more into single-player games. It's typical for teens to play with others. Either in real life or in virtual environments. We were like that as well. LAN parties and Internet cafes during the early 2000s. I used to watch movies with other people after renting a DVD or two. These days I watch everything alone.
The character of this article on TPU seems to directly contradict what Midia's own blog says of the research:
www.midiaresearch.com/blog/most-gamers-prefer-single-player-games
For those wondering why there's no source for the article, it's because the source is behind a wall. The most information you are going to find on this is from their blog.
Mind you from what I can see the point of this research wasn't to determine whether single player or multi-player is more popular. If that was the inquiry, it would make far more sense to only have 2 potential answers, multi-player or singleplayer. I believe having 3 multi-player options and 1 singleplayer option can potentially color the results if what you are looking for is having a strict comparison of the two. Providing more specific options and having more of them increases the probability people will pick or find one of those options more suitable.
I think PVP games are probably more popular among younger people but the way it's presented here is poor.
Mobile gaming does not exist.
Console gaming does not exist.
Japan does not exist.
My guess is they carefully selected their data sources and methodology to end up with results that helps make them make a conclusion that is blatantly myopic.
Japan games so differently from the West that it screws up a lot of tidy “theories”. So a lot of these studies simply don’t include Japan. That’s lame as hell.
Also, almost every single sp game is capable of a death match mode or a basic capture the flag. Asking $60 and having budgets of $200m+ is kinda inexcusable not having a basic mode.
Ascent was ok, but Quake was pure garbage thanks to cheaters.
So i stopped for a while.
Tried again with the Dreamcast and some pc games and all i heard were affirmations of my sexual preferences and “nice” things about my mom.
Last time i played anything online was Starcraft and only because it was with a family member and in co-op mode against the computer.
so personally, i dont care for any game that forces me to play with others.
It's also pretty easy to pick up has a large player base making it easy to find games and isn't hard to be half decent at.
Also Treyarch cod games tend to be quite different than IW developed ones. Sledgehammer developed cods are usually the down years lol but are more similar to IW.