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.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.
117 Comments on Single-Player Games Lose to PVP in Younger Audiences Despite Recent Hits
You also can just keep your mouth shut or just say “that’s not for me but I’m glad some people have fun with it.” Not that difficult.
That said, most of these gamers have fun playing with their pals. When someone asks “which online multiplayer game should I play?” the best answer is usually “just play whatever your friends are playing.”
It's mostly becuase people want to play games with their friends that have large player base is my guess.
Also I know a lot of problems who are only interested in playing with/against real people.
For me it's my buddies buy it so I might as well also if they didn't play it I'd have 0 interest and I never load up solo ever.
The relative value is one reason why videogames are popular in the 16-24 age group.
How much is a round of golf? A movie ticket? A concert ticket?
Remember that many of these online multiplayer players have pivoted in recent years to a free-to-play model making the bar to entry very, very low.
It’s not so much as laying waste to a mob of bratty, foul-mouthed teens but more about goofing off with your buddies while doing so.
We also try almost every MP game not just cod there is a ton of Apex, Destiny, Fortnight, and CS along with the random indie stuff that pops up when you really think about it all MP shooters are basically the same you load in with a group and try to take out the other team or in the case of BRs everyone. We actually spend the majority of time Bsing about our days or what's going on in the world not actually caring much about what happens in the game only taking it mildly serious occasionally.
I get the appeal of both and some might do both. Others lean one way or another.
For me gaming is to switch off from the world, its me time, I am not interacting with other humans, I am not playing to someone else's schedule or pace.
My impression is still that one only buys CoD or CS because of FOMO and peer pressure, although I don't know what one's missing out on. Dust2 is the same now as it was in CS: Source or 1.6.
PVP is fun even when I suck at it but Fortnite is fun every time I play, I just don't choose to very often.
I may have logged in more total time in Single Player games than any other genre and as some have said: Pause is a golden feature.
But I keep coming back to PVE, where I have the most time in individual games. Minecraft, Arks, others. The mix of challenge and chill in early to mid game for these is unmatched.
That goes away in a big way as you start a family so alot of younger dads doing single player games here and there.
Now if they are good or bad games is completely subjective.
Fortnight an Apex technically cost nothing I haven't spent money on either in years.
I still understand your point of view I feel most indie games are a waste of money and time and most SP stuff these days regardless of how much alike or different they are pretty crappy.
But if someone can’t articulate why they like a particular activity, that doesn’t make the activity dismissible. It just means that person isn’t particularly eloquent.
But it's important to note that videogames are games. Most people play them to have fun. Just like youth football, pickup games at the neighborhood basketball court, mixed doubles tennis, a round of golf, skateboarding, whatever.
I still maintain that videogames are relatively inexpensive entertainment when you look at the cost over time. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was $60 at launch (1998). That's like $130 in today's dollars adjusted for inflation. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is $70 full retail (goes on sale from time to time). How long is a Legend of Zelda playthrough?
What's the price of a movie ticket? Even if the movie is very long, very few go beyond 160 minutes.
What are the costs to send a kid to a youth football league? Swim team?
In the end, I'm not sure if most young people care that CoD costs money up front where another game is free-to-play. If they want to play with their friends, they'll pony up the money. Criticize the sports videogame franchises all you want but I'm pretty sure buying one of those sports videogames is cheaper than buying a couple of tickets to a Premier League match.