Emerging
New games fight for playtime
A new game competes against the back catalogue for attention and against its own discounted history on price. “Record catalog revenue” in an earnings release and a struggling launch are often the same fact seen twice.
Live in
- Global
Where it stands
New releases take 12 to 13% of total player time across PC and console and have for three years, with Xbox highest at 18% on Game Pass availability. Playtime is concentrated, 80% of it in 79 games on PC, 74 on PlayStation and 91 on Xbox, but that concentration loosened in 2025 and PC playtime growth since 2022 has come entirely from titles outside the top 20. Price architecture differs sharply: 76 to 79% of console revenue comes from games above $50, while PC splits near-evenly across sub-$30, $30 to $50 and above. On the money side, Alinea Analytics estimates Steam took more than $15 billion gross in the first eight months of 2026 with the top 100 new 2026 releases about 16 percent of it, Forza Horizon 6 the largest at roughly $210 million.
Further reading
The timeline, consequences and objections for this trend are not written yet. What it is and its reading list are above.