Roblox has surpassed Fortnite and Minecraft in total playtime on PC and consoles, Marvel’s Wolverine topped the U.S. sales chart in September, and Microsoft revealed the hourly cost for access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. Here's a rundown of notable events in the gaming industry over the weekend.
- Roblox became the leader in total playtime on PC and consoles in the first half of 2026. According to a study by Newzoo and GEEIQ, users spent 4.05 billion hours on the platform—a 15% increase from the previous year. Fortnite logged 2.89 billion hours, and Minecraft 2.28 billion. Notably, the mobile audience of Roblox was not included in this comparison. The study's authors also highlighted the platform's maturing audience: 80% of Roblox players over 16 years of age spent money on video games in the past six months compared to 59% among those who do not play Roblox. Analysts believe the platform needs to compete more actively with traditional PC and console games.
- Marvel’s Wolverine was the best-selling game in the U.S. in September. According to data from Circana, the action game by Insomniac Games surpassed NBA 2K27 and EA Sports FC 27. Furthermore, it had the best debut month for a Sony-published title since Helldivers 2, which was released in February 2024. By the end of September, Marvel’s Wolverine ranked 11th among the best-selling games in the U.S. throughout 2026. Meanwhile, PlayStation 5 sales grew by 43% in dollar terms and by 22% in units. Overall spending by Americans on gaming hardware increased by 12% to $362 million, while spending on gaming content decreased by 2% to $4.2 billion.
- Microsoft revealed the cost of access to Xbox Cloud Gaming without a Game Pass subscription. Starting October 21, Xbox Insider program members can purchase packages of cloud gaming time: 10 hours for $3.99, 25 hours for $7.99, or 50 hours for $11.99. Purchased hours do not expire, but games themselves are not included in the cost. A broader launch of this model is expected in November. At that time, Microsoft will introduce monthly cloud gaming limits for Game Pass subscribers: 5 hours for Essential, 10 hours for Premium, and 15 hours for Ultimate.