Thousands of games are released every year, with numbers increasing recently thanks to an explosion of indie games across all platforms. That means there’s more opportunity than ever to find something new and unexpected among the latest releases, but for a lot of players, the comfort of a few familiar games wins out. Newly released statistics show that, at least on consoles, the biggest games of 2025 were exactly the same as 2024’s top titles. Do those figures point to an industry in crisis.
The top five most-played games on PlayStation in 2025 were (in order of popularity) Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto V, Roblox, and Minecraft, according to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella. Those same games, in the same order, topped PlayStation’s list in 2024 as well. Xbox’s own list for both years featured the exact same games, just in a slightly different order.
There are no real surprises at the top of the list, which consists entirely of games that have already been popular for years, even if it’s a little shocking to see how unchallenged their positions still are. It’s also no accident that the biggest games are all free or very cheap at this point and are the kind of games that support essentially endless multiplayer, whether that comes in the form of competitive shooters or cooperative building games.
That all points to an audience of players that’s looking for the most bang for their buck, for obvious reasons. Most people just don’t have the disposable income for nonessentials like video games. Resume Now’s 2025 Wage Reality Report, for example, found that 73% of respondents unable to afford anything beyond basic living expenses — and those were all employed professionals. At the same time, gaming as a hobby is getting more expensive. The Nintendo Switch 2 launched at a price above many estimates, and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S actually got more expensive to buy last year. With that in mind, it’s notable that since the games topping the consoles’ lists this year aren’t new releases, they’re also accessible to players who skipped the current console generation entirely.
The price of games is also slowly creeping up, with publishers experimenting with charging up to $80 for standard editions of new titles. Free-to-play games like many on the most-played list aren’t immune to those cost increases, with microtransactions offering a nearly unlimited way to make money, but the option remains to play them without spending a dime.
Price likely isn’t the only factor behind the sustained popularity of these games, though. As much as choosing infinitely replayable games is a cost-motivated decision, it might also come down to their established audiences. Games like Fortnite are as much social spaces as they are games, and the more players have friend groups invested in playing a single game, the less likely they are to abandon that game in favor of something else. Cost certainly plays into that, but so does the sense of ritual and community that logging in every day and playing with the same group of people can provide.
At this point, there’s really no way for a new game to challenge the dominance of established favorites like Grand Theft Auto V, but the reasons for the top games’ success could also point to how smaller games could succeed on their own terms. Indie games like Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong (and the not really indie but still not AAA Clair Obscur) swept awards shows this year, and even smaller games like Balatro have come from nowhere to reach massive success relative to their size recently. One thing they all have in common is a substantially lower price point than their blockbuster counterparts.
Smaller games can also facilitate the social needs of players just as well as Fortnite, as evidenced by surprise hits of games like Peak. If players are reaching for games that offer endless playgrounds for them and their friends, while at the same time being priced out of games from major publishers, it could represent a major opportunity for multiplayer indie games. None of that will replicate the kind of success that the year’s top performers have found, but with a smaller budget comes much less pressure for outsized success. There’s no doubt that Fortnite will top most-played lists in 2026, but some of the factors that make it so successful could make room for a handful of unexpected favorites, too.
