A report shows that while the industry is growing, its biggest competition is Fortnite, GTA, Call of Duty, and Roblox
A newly released game industry report by market researcher Newzoo shows that while the PC and console market grew 2.6 percent in 2023, overall playtime decreased as gamers spent more and more time in a smaller list of old games like Fortnite* *and League of Legends.
There haven't really been many 'blockbuster' games coming out over the last couple of years either. Gone are the days of people getting hyped up for a new COD or what have you.
The only recent blockbuster I can think of is Baldur's Gate III. I (and many others) have certainly sunk a bunch of time into it, but, outside of that game, almost everything else is a good bit older.
Starfield, Diablo IV, Cyberpunk, AC games, COD games.
None of these spark joy, with the possible exception of Cyberpunk, but that was simply an expansion. I'm more excited about the idea of replaying Subnautica for the fourth time than anything else on that list.
The only thing really on that list that didn't come out to mixed reception at best is COD, and even that it's getting some tired gamers. Scores by metacritic user rating
Starfield (6.9) - generally mixed due to being basically the same as but worse than Skyrim, released ~13 years later
Diablo 4 (2.3) - generally criticised for lack of improvement in 3 as well as shitty MTX. People are generally recommending indie titles instead.
Cyberpunk (7.1) - came out shit 4 years ago, only recently got fixed, still not entirely what was promised.
AC:Mirage (7.2) - is an explicit call back to the earlier games in the franchise and mostly criticised by its new audience built up from origins, odyssey, vslhalla that expect a long grindy experience and labelled it standalone dlc sold at full price. (it also isn't sold on steam on PC, so I actually didn't even know this existed. Especially given how the marketing looks like every other origins/odyssey/AC marketing ad)