Live service gaming is on the decline as players crave more traditional gaming

Two Fortnite characters jump apart in the air while aiming their weapons at each other — How much money do you spend on free games like Fortnite? (epic game)

The most popular Games for PC are typically free-to-play multiplayer titles, but players in all formats are moving away from them more and more.

It is already known that the most popular video games nowadays they are old old titles, with such as FortniteRoblox, and Minecraft holding a monopoly on keeping players.

Just last year, it was reported that most gamers are spending almost half of their time playing the exact same games. By the end of 2025, the five most played games in the US were the exact same ones people were playing in 2024.

This is unlikely to change in 2026, but a new report has revealed some interesting statistics; meaning that on PC, the top 20 games generated less than half of the platform’s revenue for all of 2025. That’s a good thing.

According to and the Newzoo reportThe 20 most played PC games are almost entirely made up of exclusive multiplayer games. There are some exceptions, but they still offer multiplayer functionality and/or receive stable updates, such as GTA 5 (which continues through GTA Online multiplayer) and Genshin Impact.

However, the amount of money those games generated has declined since 2022, where they accounted for 52% of all PC revenue made that year. This percentage rose to 57% in 2023, only to drop to 51% in 2024, and then to 44% in 2025.

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However, the same cannot be said for consoles. Most of the revenue made on PlayStation and Xbox consoles have come up with their top 20 games, which aren’t identical to the PC list, but are very similar.

Chart showing the distribution of PC PlayStation and Xbox video game revenue — Revenue from popular games fell overall, but more so on PC (Newzoo)

Furthermore, PC gaming time overall has only increased since 2022, with games outside the top 20 seeing a 44% increase. Basically, most of the platform’s growth isn’t coming from any of the usual suspects.

Instead, it’s being driven by role-playing games and adventure games. Newer examples include Monster Hunter Wilds AND Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2but Newzoo also lists ‘stable catalog games’ such as Cyberpunk 2077, The Elden ringAND Red Dead Redemption 2.

On PC, the sub-top 20 space is becoming more economically important. This doesn’t make the market unconcentrated, but it does make games below the top tier more commercially important than before. says analyst Tianyi Gu.

She adds that outside the top 20, player engagement comes mainly from premium and back catalog games, while the top 20 is dominated by free-to-play ecosystems: ‘That’s not to say that new releases don’t matter. But it does suggest that when a title is out of the top tier, longevity and depth often matter more than novelty alone.’

The 20 best games played on PC — These top five games have been the same since 2023, with only the order changing (Newzoo)

Given how many of those top 20 games are free-to-play, this seems to suggest that even people spending money on those games aren’t spending more than those looking for premium experiences.

On the one hand, this would not be so surprising. Just last month, Epic Games agreed Fortnitedespite its popularity, it was not making a profit and it’s losing the players’ attention, which resulted in over 1,000 layoffs.

In fact, of the top 20 franchises across all platforms, most have seen declines in playtime. Fortnite in particular saw its playtime drop by 29% by the end of 2025, losing the top spot to Roblox, which saw its playtime increase by 52%.

The continued success of Roblox is no doubt why there has been a particular interest in player-generated content. Fortnite has pushed this for a while, allowing players to monetize their content and GTA 6 has been rumored to follow suit.