Industry report says Steam users play more noncompetitive games than console players—and our interest in PvE keeps growing

A group of hunters posing together at base camp in Monster Hunter Wilds.

In popular conception, the gamer is an individual preoccupied with virtual conquest—in shooters, in MOBAs, or in any other format allowing for what the ancients once called "pwning," before the term was rightfully culled from common parlance. PC players, however, aren't as preoccupied with PvP. According to industry analysts, Steam users are more likely than console players to play noncompetitive games, and that interest keeps increasing.

In its 2025 report on games industry trends, market research company Newzoo had surveyed "raw telemetry data taken from over 1 million players" to compare gameplaying trends on different platforms. Examining the games that each player in its dataset had played at least two hours of, Newzoo said that 58% of the games played by Steam users in 2024 were entirely noncompetitive PvE games, compared to 42% of games played on PlayStation and 41% of games played on Xbox.