Single-Player Games Lose to PVP in Younger Audiences Despite Recent Hits

[Cpt.Jank]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

What is PVE?

I thought that would be covered under Co-Op (both kinds) and SP.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

What is PVE?

I thought that would be covered under Co-Op (both kinds) and SP.

Player vs enviroment

 

[Onasi]

Is this a surprise? To anyone? Match-based PVP games, be they MOBAs, FPSs, BRs or anything else have been the dominant force in gaming in terms of player retention and its obvious to anyone with a brain why - they are often cheap or free, they have essentially endless potential for play-time because the content is other players and they simply have longevity as a main game for many. Single-player games often see a single playthrough by most people and, hell, seeing the completion achievements percentage for longer games, like big RPGs, you’ll notice that most people don’t really finish those.
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.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I can easily have fun playing both types of games - single player/co-op or multiplayer type games - if the game is well made and enjoyable.

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.

 

[rtwjunkie]

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.

Only up to a certain age. I’m 57. We grew up with crude single player games on PC’s and that’s where many of us GenX still are.

 

[Cheeseball]

This is expected. I grew up playing single-player games and eventually got into multiplayer with Doom (through direct dial-up and DWANGO) and eventually found a knack for competitive play. The younger generation generally wants quick-to-join gameplay and being able to interact with each other, mostly in a competitive sense. Nothing really wrong with any of this, its just the current trend of the times.

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.

 

[_roman_]

Not everyone plays only in W11PRO. Not everyone uses steam. Not everyone plays with a personal computer.
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 -> https://www.midiaresearch.com/repor...re-opportunities-amid-live-service-challenges

 

[Chane]

I find competitive online multiplayer games to just bring out the worst in me now, so I stopped playing them. I'm enjoying my single player story driven action games still. I'm nearing 40 so don't a gaming session leaving me pissed off.

 

[AusWolf]

I've always been a 99% single player gamer. I don't have patience for angry teenagers, and I don't care about games where the only goal is running around with a gun and shooting things for bragging rights. I find those kind of games overly primitive, to be fair.

The other thing is that I spend 8 hours among random people every day 5 days a week, which is more than enough.

 

[Fokker]

It's not a surprise given current media consumption sources not being steeped in telling stories. Most of these kids don't read even a fraction of the books preceding generations did, so they weren't raised on stories. Couple that with the platforms they spend their time on reducing their attention spans more and more, it's not a surprise they're only interested in PVP games that are short rounds with constantly changing landscapes in terms of challenges (different mixes of players).

 

[oxrufiioxo]

9/10 pc I build are for Call of duty/warzone, Fortnite, or Roblox/Minecraft other than for school/work related needs. I can't remember the last time Someone wanted a pc built for a SP game, might have been Witcher 3 back in 2015..... Out of my group of 10 buddies who game only two of us consistently play single player stuff. So it's not surprising.

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 really 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.

 

[Why_Me]

First Person Shooter online multiplayer games > those other games

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.

 

[beedoo]

I'm over 50 and struggling to find any interest in things to play.

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.

 

[Warigator]

I was also heavily into PvP during my 10s. Peer pressure is not to be disregarded. But it was with different types of games. I played Warcraft 3 online or WoW Vanilla/BC/WotLK battlegrounds, duels and arenas. Also a lot of Wolfenstein ET, Counter-Strike CZ, CS Source, Day of Defeat Source, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, UT 2004, Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty 2 and later 4.

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.

 

[evernessince]

The title of this article twists the results of the research. Anyone looking at those charts can see they specifically distilled a graphic on the top right demonstrating that single player is overall still the preferred game type.

The character of this article on TPU seems to directly contradict what Midia's own blog says of the research:

Most gamers prefer single-player games

It’s no secret that the bulk of AAA games market revenues come from in-game purchases , mostlyfrom live-service games. It’s also impossible to ignore that the live-service market is fiercely competitive....

www.midiaresearch.com

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.

 

[sLowEnd]

I've always been a single player kind of person, but I played quite a lot of multiplayer games (MMOs, FPS) when I was younger too. Older me is not so much into that sort of thing though. I don't have the time to play MMOs in the way I used to. Fast-paced competitive action type games are also out for a number of reasons. Stuff that I can play at my own pace is preferable.

 

[duckface]

I'm 32 years old, I'm switching from multiplayer to singleplayer, I just need to delete my Instagram.

 

[cvaldes]

I’m not convinced this study is worth anything. The methodology is crushingly poor. It is one storefront on PC only. No console, no other storefronts like Epic (thus Fortnite makes no appearance).

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.

 

[Why_Me]

I'm over 50 and struggling to find any interest in things to play.

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.

Delta Force should be released soon. I have high hopes for that game.

 

[Upgrayedd]

The problem I have with SP games now is there's almost always room for co-op and it just isn't there. If there's no co-op I don't even look at it unless it's 90% off.
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.

 

[kapone32]

Tell me a Single player Game that has been marketed with a $500,000 Grand Prize. I know there have been some Total War but that never gained any traction.

 

[Neo_Morpheus]

My first foray into online gaming was with Quake and Ascent.

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.

 

[kapone32]

My first foray into online gaming was with Quake and Ascent.

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.

The first Online Game that I consumed was SOCOM. I stopped when our group started facing actual Marines and Seals. The next ones were Marvel Heroes and Defiance on PC but no thanks. I do have Star Conflict but Everspace 2 is way more fun.

 

[AusWolf]

9/10 pc I build are for Call of duty/warzone, ...

Can someone explain the appeal of CoD to me? I don't mean the first one or second one, I mean the 7435784th one. It seems to me like the same game over and over again.