63% of US players buy at most two games a year. Industry’s foundation lies in the hands of a small elite

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Mat Piscatella, a senior director at Circana’s analytics group, recently released findings from the *Future of Video Games* study, which was conducted in the US during the third quarter of 2025. The study highlighted that most players don’t make in-game purchases very often.

  1. The data shows that the majority of people (63%) buy only one or two new games per year – 33% of players buy a new game less than once a year, 12% about once a year, and 18% once every six months.
  2. The second largest group consists of those who buy a new game roughly once every 3 months – in this case, it’s 22%.
  3. The smallest groups are those who buy new games once a month (10%) and more frequently (4%).

When we say a game is “new,” we don’t mean it’s recently released. It simply means the game hasn’t been used before.

Piscatella explained that the market seems to be powered by a small, dedicated group of players – just 14% of the total – who consistently buy games each month. This consistent demand helps keep game prices high.

We’re seeing more expensive gaming accessories, special editions, and consoles, along with generally higher prices, because wealthier players who aren’t as worried about cost are driving most of the spending. Meanwhile, more and more players are switching to free-to-play games.

The analyst explained that if these statistics appear strange, it’s likely because the people viewing his profile – those interested in this kind of data – are probably also part of the 14% the numbers represent. This means they might not realize how unusual these stats are compared to the player base as a whole.

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2025-10-08 17:02