The analytical company Newzoo, in collaboration with the G2A platform, studied gamers' purchasing habits. It turns out that many players are not in a hurry to buy new releases and increasingly prefer to wait for sales.
Control Resonant
As part of the study, analysts surveyed over 6,000 people from the USA, the UK, Germany, Poland, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. They were interested in gamers who regularly play AAA/AA games on PC or consoles.
Below are some findings:
- The respondents stated that only 42% of the games they bought in the past three years were purchased at release or during the preorder phase. In other cases, they preferred to wait, sometimes for a considerable time—18% of purchases were made more than a year after the games' release.
- PC gamers postponed purchases more often than console gamers—70% compared to 45% of cases.
- The main reason for delayed purchases was waiting for discounts, cited by 45% of those surveyed. Another 37% of gamers said they wait for technical issues to be resolved, and 36% wait for reviews from other players.
- On average, gamers expect to see an "attractive" discount 4.9 months after release.
- When it comes to the attractiveness of discounts, the respondents admitted they usually start to find a game reasonably priced when its cost is reduced by 29%. A 45% discount is viewed as a good deal. However, if the discount reaches 70% or more, many become suspicious and doubt the game's quality or relevance.
- 44% of gamers who subscribed to services like Game Pass or PlayStation Plus have started buying fewer games. However, 54% of subscribers claim they have started spending more money on games.
- On average, in the past 12 months, respondents spent $368 on games. Of this amount, 46% was directly on game purchases, 32% on subscriptions, and 21% on in-game purchases and DLC.