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.
117 Comments on Single-Player Games Lose to PVP in Younger Audiences Despite Recent Hits
I almost get the impression that people are upset others enjoy stuff they do not like which makes no sense to me.
Tech nerds are really, really strange sometimes. I’ve never had this type of conversation with any of my classical music acquaintances but this sort of discussion comes up frequently in tech forums.
Q3A, Halo PC, FEAR, CS:S, CoD4, etc. were 'my jam', back then.
Only with age and experience have I found (clear) preference for Co-Op/'PvE MP' and SP games.
Gone were the days I play DOTA2 all night with friends :cry:.
To be young again lol.
somemany :shadedshu:I dont need to be able to play 4 hours of unreal tournament with you to create a way to relate.
imo and as the graph shows, SP games are better for the majority of the gaming age brackets. generally more thought provoking, and I can escape and put myselves as that character if I so choose.
Things I definitely valued less when I was younger.
I have a friend(same as mentioned above) admin'ing a couple smaller Discord servers. Some of the things he's dealt with are a new-to-me level of disturbing. -mind you, I'm of the LiveLeak, etc. era of Internet Denizenry, so that's saying something.That may not be my genre but, I can relate.
Family, GFs/wives/SOs, children, etc. end up (mostly-understandably) taking priority; people move away, leave school/college/job, and we lose touch.
NtM, the consequences of all-night gaming sessions are a bit heavier, when you're older and have responsibilities and bills :(.yup. Better times...My money's still on a AAA Games Industry crash. Unless something else intervenes, I think we're on the verge of AI/MI prompt-based game creation.
(You think the market's saturated now? :laugh:)
One of the biggest issues with mankind is, of course, the God complex :slap:
All, incentivized over these monstrously huge dev. budgets and subsequent flops.
But I think the distinction is not of age but more around life situation or stage. Once you get a (steady) job, a significant other, maybe home ownership, some kids - each step in there takes away time from hobbies where gaming might not be the only one. And when you do find or allocate time for gaming with friends in similar situations the times may not and often enough will not match up.
There is precious little time to git gud, it is challenging to get together - virtually or IRL - to play coop, or PVP for that matter. And there is a wide selection of single player games to choose from. Plus, if you have distractions, being able to pause a game is a godsend.
But maybe that is just me :D