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[Shadowstar39]

That immersion in a game only comes from single player for me. I reckon that's because I treat it as a replacement for watching a movie or TV series, so want a similar experience.

This, I have friends that are still into only multiplayer, either mmos or survival (ark, rust, etc..). It's annoying as i have played diablo with a friend or and a few mmos years ago and all they care about is end game. Rushing through the leveling content. Which is insane to me. That's 90% of the game. They don't read anything and just plow through. I want to be absorbed in the world, take my time and I'm not in to socialize. They want to bullshit about stuff not in the game. Which if I wanted to do that, id go to their house and play couch coop, a tabletop game or anything else.

When I play rpgs I want that immersion, that I'm in a different world. Something multiplayer games don't do for me anymore. Ever quest, lotro, vanguard and Conan did it back in the day, but those days are gone. Back then the world's were huge and unknown. I'd gladly just stick to single player, even in games like diablo for this very reason.

 

[RoboFu]

Most of gaf old fart love single player more yeah, but my kids and their friends all play Fortnite , Roblox , and COD only.

 

[Shadowstar39]

I also prefer single player games but my best gaming experiences were the online modes from Splinter Cell Spies Versus Mercenaries in Pandora Tomorrow/Chaos Theory

Different era in multiplayer and I don't see it coming back. I'd probably still play if I could bounce in and play a quick match of a game like unreal tournament or quake 3. Where everyone is equal in starting, no cosmetics and just fun frantic gameplay.

I'd also try those splinter cell modes out and the gta4 multiplayer, battlefield 2 matches I used to play. I loved splinter cell, but never played the multi as I didn't have anyone into it. Now it's no longer a thing. They abandoned thr single player /multiplayer packaged game for gaas. It's a shame.

 

[Shadowstar39]

I also prefer SP. But it seems that younger generations are not as keen.

Thing is there is room for both. I don't know why game companies think older gamers (ones that have money) shouldn't be catered to. As an entertainment medium, ignoring people over 30 is just dumb. We aren't my boomer aged parents who don't /didnt game.

 

[The artful mincer]

The video in question shows that the top 15 most played games on Steam in 2012 added up to around 300,000 players.

The same video shows that the top 15 most played games on Steam in 2022 added up to around 2,490,000 players.

That accounts for over 8x growth in the span of 10 years.

The idea that there's the same percentage of single player gamers vs multiplayer gamers today relative to 10 years ago is pure fantasy.

The tip of the iceberg is growing at ludicrous rate.

The entire iceberg is growing at a ludicrous rate.

Steam Usage and Catalog Stats for 2025

Interesting Steam user stats. Includes data on users, games and more.

backlinko.com

The steam concurrent peak was 5.08 million in 2012

The peak in 2024 is 35 million so 7 times the growth.

The top 15 having slightly quicker growth is completely unremarkable as there starting from a lower a number.

 

[The artful mincer]

It's a useful metric to pay attention to considering how limited both of our (gamers) data sets actually are.

Gamers under 30 spend more time gaming than gamers over 30.

Yep

Gamers under 50 spend more time gaming than gamers over 50. Gamers are more likely to leave gaming the older they get. These companies aren't nearly as interested in courting the over 40 crowd as you like to believe.

I'm less sure about this we're in uncharted territory here. Kids who grew up in the ps1 to ps2 are now likely now in there 30s to 50s. This demographic has almost certainly never had as many gamers as it does today. People don't stop watching TV or reading when they reach a certain age they won't stop gaming either.

The gun didn't kill the sword. The sword just shrunk down to a combat knife. I've never said that single player games are going extinct.

Gen 1 GAAS will make mistakes that Gen 3 GAAS doesn't. Helldivers 2 has horrendous progression after hour 50. Helldivers 3 will certainly fix that.

Another major blindspot gamers have is thinking that GAAS hit rate vs single player hit rate is a useful metric. It's not. Single player games have always been the safer bet. The paradigm you have to be viewing this topic in is from Games as a Platform. You're used to a new piece of plastic coming out every 7 years that's more powerful from 3 or 4 big companies. The GAAS market is similar in that platform launches will come at a cadence far slower than game launches.

I can get behind this all fairly reasonable.

On a side note do you believe there will be a new game as big as or nearly as big as Fortnite released this generation? (GTA6 not included)

 

[Stevonidas]

Single Player 4EVER

 

[Stevonidas]

Singleplayer only, i've never liked MP games, fair play to those that do, but it's not my thing.

I like online Co-op (think Gears of War campaign back in the day or Firefight in Halo ODST) but yeah, online multiplayer is generally toxic as fuck when playing with strangers.

 

[mckmas8808]

Most of gaf old fart love single player more yeah, but my kids and their friends all play Fortnite , Roblox , and COD only.

Then who's playing Nintendo games?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The entire iceberg is growing at a ludicrous rate.

I'm not so sure. PlayStation published charts in 2022 and then again in 2023 that showed the full game market (physical and digital) is expected to shrink over the next 5 years. I suspect the previous 10 years had a relatively minimal (if any) growth curve. I suspect that market has plataued for some time.

Steam Usage and Catalog Stats for 2025

Interesting Steam user stats. Includes data on users, games and more.

backlinko.com

The steam concurrent peak was 5.08 million in 2012

The peak in 2024 is 35 million so 7 times the growth.

The top 15 having slightly quicker growth is completely unremarkable as there starting from a lower a number.

Can you explain how the "tip of the ice berg" is "starting from a lower number"?

It's also important to note that Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Valorant, FFXIV, and Escape from Tarkov are not listed on Steam and would contribute to significantly greater than 8.2x growth for multiplayer. I just don't think it's realistic to suggest that multiplayer hasn't grown significantly faster in terms of popularity over the last 10 years.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Yep

I'm less sure about this we're in uncharted territory here. Kids who grew up in the ps1 to ps2 are now likely now in there 30s to 50s. This demographic has almost certainly never had as many gamers as it does today. People don't stop watching TV or reading when they reach a certain age they won't stop gaming either.

Here's a survey showing what I think most of us would expect...

How Much Time Do Americans Spend Gaming? | CenturyLinkQuote

We surveyed 1,000 Americans about how much time they spend playing video games—and found that even Boomers participate regularly in this new national pastime.

www.centurylinkquote.com

Generally speaking, the older you get, the less you play. Also, the older you get, the more you play on mobile as opposed to console/PC. A huge reason people stop playing games, or play significantly less, is when they start having families.

I can get behind this all fairly reasonable.

On a side note do you believe there will be a new game as big as or nearly as big as Fortnite released this generation? (GTA6 not included)

I've never liked setting Fortnite as some kind of meaningful barometer. It's literally the biggest game of all time.

I would not expect to see a Fortnite size hit release in the next 4 years. I do expect to see a number of highly successful GAAS games released over the next 4 years though. Games that prove to be more popular / profitable than Helldivers 2, for example.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

Different era in multiplayer and I don't see it coming back. I'd probably still play if I could bounce in and play a quick match of a game like unreal tournament or quake 3. Where everyone is equal in starting, no cosmetics and just fun frantic gameplay.

I'd also try those splinter cell modes out and the gta4 multiplayer, battlefield 2 matches I used to play. I loved splinter cell, but never played the multi as I didn't have anyone into it. Now it's no longer a thing. They abandoned thr single player /multiplayer packaged game for gaas. It's a shame.

The online modes for Splinter Cell were ground breaking back in the day. No other game has been able to capture the same asymmetrical cat&mouse gameplay. It really was a "you had to be there" game.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The online modes for Splinter Cell were ground breaking back in the day. No other game has been able to capture the same asymmetrical cat&mouse gameplay. It really was a "you had to be there" game.

A fellow Spies vs Mercs aficionado. My man.

Have you tried The Finals? I feel it scratches 30% of the same itch as Spies vs Mercs...Mostly setting up defenses and coordinating movements with teammates.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

A fellow Spies vs Mercs aficionado. My man.

Have you tried The Finals? I feel it scratches 30% of the same itch as Spies vs Mercs...Mostly setting up defenses and coordinating movements with teammates.

No I haven't tried it. The last game in the same vein that I tried was "SPECTRE" ( or SPECTER), which was an almost direct copy of SvM but it awful beyond words.

 

[Skelterz]

The 360 generation was the best period for online gaming cod4 halo3 and gears 1-2 online gaming now is geared towards e-sports and monetisations it sucks ass, small fuck you to naughty dog also for cancelling the last of us online game and not putting multiplayer in part 2. I never played part 2 but I would have bought it purely for an online mode.

 

[GMAK2442]

Normally, I prefer MP. I'm very good. But they cheat too much. So I prefer SP for now.

 

[The artful mincer]

Can you explain how the "tip of the ice berg" is "starting from a lower number.

Generally it's easier to get exponential growth when you start from a smaller number.

E.g. when Tesla started first selling cars it was easier to sell double the previous years when they were only selling 10s of thousands of cars. When they reached a million units sold it became much harder to get the same growth in percentage terms.

 

[jufonuk]

By single player I mean majority/whole of the game on cartridge. Also a couch co-op is ok. But GAAS nah.

 

[Ridicululzz]

I heavily preferred single player games, but as I got older I definitely liked when the game had some sort of multiplayer aspect to it; even if it was only optional. I love having the opportunity to play with my friends, or even randos.

 

[RPSleon]

I used to love online gaming, until things like sbmm and monetisation of everything ruined it.

 

[EDMIX]

I prefer single player titles, but the data supports most buy MP titles.

Those that even give a fuck are not voting on this type of thing via some graph on a website, you can track the record purchase and downloads of MP titles from COD, to Fifa to Fortnite etc

 

[Kumomeme]

funny that almost every year we gonna hear the claim of single player is dead.

this year gonna be different huh?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Generally it's easier to get exponential growth when you start from a smaller number.

E.g. when Tesla started first selling cars it was easier to sell double the previous years when they were only selling 10s of thousands of cars. When they reached a million units sold it became much harder to get the same growth in percentage terms.

Then wouldn't this suggest the idea that MP gamers and SP gamers grew proportionally with one another over the last 10 years is wrong?

 

[The artful mincer]

Then wouldn't this suggest the idea that MP gamers and SP gamers grew proportionally with one another over the last 10 years is wrong?

Yes you are correct about this.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Most of gaf old fart love single player more yeah, but my kids and their friends all play Fortnite , Roblox , and COD only.

Ding, ding, ding. That is the correct answer.

 

[Generic]

Then who's playing Nintendo games?

IIRC most Switch players are 20-25 years old.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Yes you are correct about this.

 

[mckmas8808]

IIRC most Switch players are 20-25 years old.

Where did you see this at?

 

[Havoc2049]

I enjoy both. Lol

 

[Trilobit]

I prefer one and done games that have endings. I'm not much for those 500+ hour games even if people seem to have fun playing them.

 

[Shadowstar39]

IIRC most Switch players are 20-25 years old.

I buck that trend, I'm 45. Switch is my main platform outside of pc(which includes my desktop 3060ti and steamdeck) . Followed by (right now) ps2, as I'm in a classic games bender. Then ps5. Finally Xbox sx, gamecube/wii and my modded retro minis (genesis, snes) and unmodified turbografix16.

Why it's easy to play switch on a break, on the porch, in the park, at a hotel, on thr toilet, sitting on the couch with my wife.

 

[Brakum]

I feel like 'Single Player' is a nearly useless term nowadays. Like many things are single player games but they couldn't be more different, and i'm not talking genres per se. Like roguelikes and strategy games are like a completely different thing than single player.. campaigns i guess.

I play mostly single player games but it's games that wouldn't even cross most of GAF's minds if i mention it.

Liking Singleplayer games does not mean you like GoW, or Zelda, or GTA, or The Witcher, or any other Sony game, or Skyrim, Final Fantasy, RDR2 etc. In fact i couldnt care less about those games and would much rather play multiplayer games. There are exceptions in my case but there don't have to be.

 

[diffusionx]

I think we are going to see the WOW-ification of the gaashit market, where it solidifies into a few different games and companies don't take the massive bets like they did with shit like Concord because the chances of success have become so small. So if you want to play a game like CS, you play CS2 or you play Valorant, there are no third options. Actually I think most of those gaashit genres will solidify into two games because that's what tends to happen. There will be other ones, but they'll be fighting over scraps.

As for what people will play, who knows. A kid who is 16 today knows nothing of gaming beyond gaashit. Im not even sure he would get into a singleplayer game, ever. He's probably more likely to stop playing videogames than spend his life playing gacha.

 

[yanhash]

Marvel movies make bank because they attract casuals, Drake makes back because he attracts casuals, gamers are irrelevant to this discussion as they have us either way, the real money is with Fortnite, FUT, COD type shit, so video game companies dont care

 

[Danjin44]

Then who's playing Nintendo games?

I can bet you anything most adult play Zelda and Mario games while kids most likely play Fortnite and COD because thats whats most of their friends play.

 

[twilo99]

Directly correlated with age

 

[The artful mincer]

I think we are going to see the WOW-ification of the gaashit market, where it solidifies into a few different games and companies don't take the massive bets like they did with shit like Concord because the chances of success have become so small. So if you want to play a game like CS, you play CS2 or you play Valorant, there are no third options. Actually I think most of those gaashit genres will solidify into two games because that's what tends to happen. There will be other ones, but they'll be fighting over scraps.

As for what people will play, who knows. A kid who is 16 today knows nothing of gaming beyond gaashit. Im not even sure he would get into a singleplayer game, ever. He's probably more likely to stop playing videogames than spend his life playing gacha.

He will play GTA6 which will have a huge single player component. BOOM got him!

 

[mckmas8808]

I can bet you anything most adult play Zelda and Mario games while kids most likely play Fortnite and COD because thats whats most of their friends play.

So who is buying all those Pokeman and Animal Crossing games on the Switch?

Directly correlated with age

What type of games are PVE? Can someone give me a list of 3-5 popular games that's PVE?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

What type of games are PVE? Can someone give me a list of 3-5 popular games that's PVE?

Destiny 2, Helldivers 2, Warframe

Shooting AI with friends games.

 

[Danjin44]

So who is buying all those Pokeman and Animal Crossing games on the Switch?

I don’t know about Pokémon but I know lot of adults bought Animal Crossing.

Kids these days care much more about social games and even watching twitch of some else playing Minecraft.

 

[mckmas8808]

Destiny 2, Helldivers 2, Warframe

Shooting AI with friends games.

Thanks. Surprised to see these are the games liked the least out of all the choices in all age groups.

I don’t know about Pokémon but I know lot of adults bought Animal Crossing.

Kids these days care much more about social games and even watching twitch of some else playing Minecraft.

I'm just not sure about that. I'm curious if Nintendo has ever released numbers of their own customers, based on age.

 

[Danjin44]

I'm just not sure about that. I'm curious if Nintendo has ever released numbers of their own customers, based on age.

In my personal experience I have seen more kids who spend majority of time on their iPad watching other people play Minecraft. They also less attention spam for games like Animal Crossing or haven puzzles heavy games like Zelda.