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
As a personal note, I don't mind extra missions in co-op, but having more people "add to" (more like take away from) the story experience is like having your neighbours play every side character in a movie. Cringe.
Those who play for immersion find it cringe. Those who play it as a social activity find it great.
Different strokes for different folks. I would say, though, not every game needs that. Sim games (excluding driving sims), for example, generally don't. What PvP or co-op would add to CMS21 or power wash simulator would be difficult to understand. I get the MP mods for Beam.NG or American Truck Simulator, but I doubt the popularity of the MP mods for Rimworld or CK2, and city builders I cannot imagine have multiplayer in any meaningful fashion.
Coop games with no friends = single player games. A coop game can be a single player game with no issue or compromise. A game that’s only single player can only ever be that.
Hence they’re “the best of both worlds”. They cater to both single player immersion and the social aspect - sometimes you can play through a single player game for the immersion, then replay it with friends for the social -- the flexibility is what makes them superior to pure single player only.
For the developers that means substantially more sales and more concurrent players overall vs JUST single player.
What I mean is, playing with other people adds to the social value, but takes away from the immersion value of a game. Every. Single. Time. If you're a social player, do PvP or PvE all day long and you'll be happy. But if you want immersion into the story, playing alone is the way to go. You can't focus on the story when there's 2-3 other players next to you with vastly different attitudes towards the game or gaming in general. For example, when one of your teammates shows up in all-modded gear and goes everywhere by jumping, you just can't take the game seriously anymore (this actually has happened to me).If a game lets you choose, that's cool. But it should always be a choice.
VGI_Rise_of_the_Co-Op_Games.pdf (vginsights.com)
^some interesting data.
If you add this mode to immersive, single player titles, even when not fully implemented, it massively improves popularity, while also preserving a single player experience.
If nothing gets lost in the translation, ok, bring on the co-op. But if the SP side of things has to suffer or be diminished, no thank you. Leave it out and preserve the SP aspect feature set.
www.thegamer.com/gamers-prefer-single-player-games-study/
Also, pretty much agree with the rest of your analysis. In fact, it seems so obvious it shouldn't really need to be stated for anyone paying any attention at all.
And that's coming from a grognard--actually a 73 yr old boomer who's been gaming since the mid-80s, lol--who puts hundreds of hours into BG3, solo ER, et al.