Circana: 63% gamers buy 1-2 games per year, 4% – buy more than one per month

A new report from Circana has shown that today’s gamers are increasingly buying new games. According to the study, a third of users have not purchased a single game in a year, and 63% are limited to two purchases at most.

Key findings of the study

Circana Senior Director Matt Piscatella published the statistics on his blog on Bluesky, referring to the quarterly report “The Future of Gaming” for Q3 2025.

• Only 4% of gamers in the US buy more than one game per month.
• 10% receive one game every month.
• 22% update their library every three months.

The rest play older titles, use free-to-play projects or cloud services and subscriptions like Game Pass.

Thus, if you buy at least a few new games annually, you are already in the minority.

Why is this happening

Analysts emphasize that the market is increasingly concentrated around a few large franchises – Call of Duty, Madden, FIFA. And with the advent of PUBG, Fortnite or Warzone, which do not require a purchase, even more gamers have stopped spending money on new releases. Free models and subscriptions have changed consumer habits – paying has become optional.

Current market situation

Despite the reduction in costs, the gaming industry in 2025 remains stable. The launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 has significantly fueled interest in consoles, and Xbox Game Pass subscribers traditionally test more new games than PlayStation or PC users.

However, after a recent 50% increase in the price of Game Pass Ultimate, Microsoft faced a wave of mass unsubscribes, which could affect the overall sales dynamics next year.