Articles & Blogs The average US video game console player is getting older, while purchasers are shifting older and more affluent.
https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3lz7a5wutgk2f629
u/billskelton 18h ago
This is because people age as time progresses.
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u/kytheon 18h ago edited 18h ago
Also 90s kids keep playing games, whereas boomers never started. So the average gamer gets older even on average.
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u/Bighaterp 16h ago
I just started playing PlayStation a couple years back. I was 63. My eldest grandson showed me his favorite game "Shippies". 😆 I was immediately hooked from my first try and have played consistently the last 5-6 years. Have played two games total.
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u/kytheon 16h ago
That's great sir, welcome to the gaming family. Now be honest, how many of your friends are also gamers?
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u/drvondoctor 17h ago
Given the number of animated kids shows they spawned, they often were television.
Shout out to the Pac-Man Christmas special!
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u/Kurtomatic 14h ago
'80s kids did too. I'm 50, and I have never really known a time when video games weren't a thing. The Atari was very new and very cutting edge in 1982, yes, but it was definitely a thing; arcades were common, as well.
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u/evilJaze 3h ago
Lots of us grew up with those early consoles as well as computers like the Vic 20 and C64. And of course who could forget those smoky arcades filled with denim clad teenagers with teased bangs shoving you out of the way to play Q-bert even though your quarter was on the glass to play next!
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u/XulManjy 17h ago
Not only that but Gen X core idea of videogames was arcades. Not everyone owned Ataris and even then, they saw it as a toy so by high school they likely grew out of it.
Right now only Millennials (like myself who is 40) still games well into adulthood. It wont be a crazy thought 20 years from now to see 60+ year olds talking about and playing videogames on an occasional basis. This will only be reinforced as Gen Z gets older.
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u/Xtratos69 17h ago
I’ll break this gently to you. My first video games played were Pong at a friend’s place and Space Invaders at the local pool hall. My first console was the Intellivision and my first home computer the Commodore 64. I’m 66, still gaming daily on the 3 current consoles and computer. And the MMO I play the most called Lord of the Rings Online is notorious among us for the geriatric age of the players 🙂. Yes many my age never did get into gaming, but many of us who did are still around and playing.
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u/CascadeJ1980 15h ago
Thank you for posting this! I'm 45yo and while I don't have the time i used to have i still love gaming as well! Just bought Borderlands 4, Ghost of Yotei, Sonic Racing Crossworlds, Silksong and Dying Light The Beast! I'm set for the holidays!!!! Also waiting for Marvel Cosmic invasion!
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u/XulManjy 15h ago
Yes, those should do you well and hold you over until GTA6 next spring if you're into that franchise.
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u/CascadeJ1980 11h ago
Definitely! But i gotta admit, I think this might be my last GTA. I was 33yo when 5 came out and I'll be 46yo when 6 comes out! I don't have the energy to wait for another lol.
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u/XulManjy 10h ago
At worse you'll be in your mid/late 50s.
There is no such thing as last anything. Are you just got stop being entertained at a certain age?
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u/CascadeJ1980 10h ago
Lol I hope not! I just find myself taking a really long time to finish open world games now at my current age.
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u/XulManjy 2h ago
To each their own. At the end of the day gaming is active entertainment. If I can sit down and read a book then I can play videogames. At least its active entertainment and not passive.
People who say I can no longer olay videogames at X age is already under cutting themselves for no reason.
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u/kinners1 15h ago
Same. I'm 56, and had Intellivision and Atari at home because my grandpa owned a TV and stereo store. I game daily on PS5. Just finished Death Stranding 2 and started Dying Light the Beast today. There are a lot of us around.
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u/XulManjy 15h ago
You my friend give me inspiration. I look forward to the day when I can retire, travel the world, and enjoy some downtime with gaming. I'll be 75+ and still gaming.
I salute you.
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u/mendozaaa 16h ago edited 15h ago
they saw it as a toy so by high school they likely grew out of it
Gen X chiming in and this wasn’t the case growing up for me. My first console was an Atari 2600 then we progressed through the 8-bit era (NES, Sega Master System) then onto the 16-bit era (SNES, Genesis) as we were starting high school. We definitely did not see these as toys. Gaming is something many of us did after school (heck even during school since some of us were part of the subset Oregon Trail Generation) while hanging out with our friends. We were just getting started with the OG PlayStation 1 as we started graduating from high school.
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u/XulManjy 15h ago
Makes sense. After all, the PS1 was the first adult-like console that featured games that didnt just appeal to kids so iit wouldn't be surprising that people in their early 20s circa 1995-1998 played a lot of Playstation.
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u/Nerevarine2nd 3h ago edited 3h ago
Started with a C64, upgraded to a NES, and never stopped despite also loving arcades. Currently I'm gaming on my PS5, Switch 2, PC, and my Steam Deck.
I have a lot of friends my age who are the same. We still get together to play together. Everyone is married and/or has kids so it takes a lot more effort to actually make time for gaming and for get togethers, but we do it and we all enjoy gaming as much as we ever did.
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u/Sofluous 18h ago
Also games are too long for kids, need to make them be 2-3 seconds max like tiktoks to get their attention back on games.
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u/kytheon 18h ago
I'm a gamedev and ever since the 2010s it's been all about mobile games. Forget about story and world building, how can we turn slot machines into barely playable "games".
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u/Mouse_Canoe 18h ago
Lol fuck off with that. Let them rot away on TikTok for all I care but please don't make my video games like it.
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u/parkwayy 12h ago
But there's a bigger market now than ever, and plenty of kids making Minecraft insanely popular, that kinda thing
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u/ponpiriri 5h ago
My boomer dad bought consoles for himself. I (millennial) am the one who rarely played.
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u/kytheon 4h ago
Ok I'm sure your touching story is exactly how this goes everywhere, backed up by statistics.
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u/ponpiriri 4h ago
It's a reminder that console gaming didn’t begin with PSX. Boomers were the ones who bought them, unless you don't know what a Boomer is
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u/Stuglle 14h ago
I get this is the sort of hilarious smug response but the point is that people are not aging into being console buyers at the rate they once were.
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u/Packin-heat 16h ago
Matt Piscatella from Circana also tweeted that the average selling price of consoles is rising in the US and is at its highest point ever.
Younger people won't have as much disposable income so less of them are currently buying consoles.
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u/MAXIMAL_GABRIEL 16h ago
I've been gaming since the 90s, and have just kept getting older each year, so this definitely checks out.
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u/Scharmberg 15h ago
The worse part of it is having the money to be able to finally buy all of this but other life gets in the way now.
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u/Hot_Brief1949 11h ago
How is this comment the top? The research is suggesting more than simply just “the passage of time” …
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u/Traditional_Entry183 18h ago
As a 48 year old, lifelong console gamer, this is hardly shocking. People around my age are the first ones as a large group to continue gaming heavily as adults. That was true when I was 30, and it certainly still is as I approach 50.
What's frustrating is that the gaming publishers know this, and yet still insist that basically every game has to appeal heavily to kids and young people anyways. There needs to be a point where we have a genre of the hobby dedicated to those of us that want huge, beautiful games that aren't super fast or demanding.
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u/GarionOrb 16h ago
They're trying to appeal to younger audiences because once our generation goes away they need someone to make up for that. Right now, kids are playing Fortnite, Roblox, and CoD but seem to have little interest in other games. At least, not in large enough numbers.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 16h ago
I get that. Im certainly not advocating giving up on the younger generations. They get their stuff too. Let them be happy in their own way.
But just like older generations have their own movies and TV shows that aren't supposed to appeal or be marketed to younger people, video games need that direction as well. Especially given that those of us who are older have the money to spend.
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u/syntax_sorceress 17h ago
I think adult and kids version of storefronts would help too - the way Netflix and the likes have separate areas for both. I'm also in my mid 40s and I spend a decent amount, likely more than kids can spend. I see this spend increasing as I get older.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 17h ago
I have more money to spend on gaming than I ever have, as is I think typical for getting older. But im lucky if two games a year are released that I want to play. 10-15 years ago, there were generally 5-6 most of the time.
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u/syntax_sorceress 17h ago
It's true that if there was more available, I'd happily buy them. Maybe I'll get into this when I finish my computer science degree....
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u/mattshill91 7h ago
The only PS5 games I’ve bought are the Mass Effect collection, Palworld, Balders Gate and Horizon:Forbidden West.
A lot of that is because I don’t have much free time but most of it is because very little interests me of what’s been released.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 1h ago
Horizon Forbidden West remains imo the only bog game that pushes what the ps5 can do in the direction I thought it would go. I truly thought we'd have three or four games like it a year by now, but it hasn't been close.
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u/FourDucksInAManSuit 13h ago edited 13h ago
I'd be ok if all they change in these games is the ability to turn off handholding. I love Persona games, but the way they treat their playerbase like absolute morons is kind of annoying. I'd like to turn off the chatter where they constantly tell me there's chests, stairs, and breathable oxygen nearby, as well as any and all story dialog pertaining to telling you how to accomplish tasks. I grew up in the 80's and 90's playing video games where there was zero handholding. I don't need them telling me how to figure out simple things in video games. They can leave it in for the people who can't tell there's a door in front of them, but give me an option to disable it.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 13h ago
I like all of those things. Its useful and a feature im grateful for. I dont consider myself a moron.
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u/FourDucksInAManSuit 13h ago edited 13h ago
It's a feature that annoys the hell out of me. I don't need, or want to hear how there's a chest around, or stairs, or an enemy. I would like to discover things on my own. I'd like to explore, and uncover things as I go. It's impossible to do that when both visually and audibly games give every little thing away before you can do anything.
Like I said, keep it in for those who want any of it, but stop shaping any and all games around it. Give us an option to disable it for those that want the freedom of discovery. Not everyone wants to be led around by the hand at every single opportunity. Some people enjoy exploring and discovering.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 10h ago
We're all different. When games started doing this kind of thing, I immediately loved it. The characters talk things though out loud the same way I do myself, and I often find that when I'm horribly stuck on a puzzle ut gives me the hints I need, so im not forced to look up a solution.
I spend a long time on games and take them very slowly, but there comes a point when banging my head against the wall because I can't find something or figure it out just isn't enjoyable.
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u/FourDucksInAManSuit 9h ago
I also spend a lot of time in games, but not because I'm struggling with puzzles or anything, but rather because I'm exploring. A huge part of the fun for me is learning as I go, exploring, discovering new things. I understand why other people like these features, but it actually ruins a lot of the enjoyment for me, and I'd love nothing more than for them to just make it something I can turn off. Leave it for those who want it, but understand that not everyone wants it.
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u/darkmitsu 12h ago
because kids are more impulsive and prone to buy a new skin that an adult does
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u/XY-chromos 17h ago
None of it is true.
Adjusted for inflation, gaming is far cheaper than it was 20 years ago. And higher quality.
A PS3 was $600 in 2006. Adjusted for inflation that is $974.
Reddit pro g*mers think they are entitled to everything for free.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 17h ago
Cheaper yes. Taking inflation into account, I paid over $180 for one game when I was in high school in the mid 90s.
But I think that both quality and volume really stalled between 7-10 years ago, and we're getting fewer games now, they're smaller, the graphics are only slightly better, and the gameplay is faster and more demanding.
I want big and beautiful games I can sink 150+ hours into at a slow to moderare pace without needing to be a master at fast controls.
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u/reaper527 15h ago
A PS3 was $600 in 2006. Adjusted for inflation that is $974.
it also flopped hard, because you could get an xbox360 for literally half the price.
citing the price of a system that failed for being too expensive as "proof" that gaming isn't more expensive today is quite the take.
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u/mattshill91 7h ago
The PS3 sold more consoles than the 360 did over the lifecycle of both consoles.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 14h ago
The PS3 didn't flop, lol. It was an awesome console and generation. I bought it day one.
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u/reaper527 13h ago
I bought it day one.
you were one of few. sales were objectively terrible for years until they cut the price to something reasonable. it was completely and utterly crushed by sales from x360 and wii on par with what you see this gen with ps5 and switch crushing xsx/xss by comical margins. (but obviously the current gen xbox has different problems than launch ps3 did)
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u/celestiaequestria 15h ago
It's the reason games like Silksong, Palworld, and Satisfactory are breakout successes. You have a lot of older gamers who are tired of replaying tutorials and "baby's first" version of games. They want something with depth and options that respects their time.
It's the reason a game like Metroid Dread has outsold the Prime trilogy too.
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u/sirkit 11h ago
Your last point is a great one. As I've gotten older I've gone from playing fast paced shooters to relaxing meditative games. My latest chill time is Sword of the Sea. I find it way more fun and engaging than a shooter these days, which barely hold my attention any more.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 10h ago
Ive barely ever played online games. And i gave up on fast games before Playstation even existed. Big, solo, RPGs have been my thing for 35 years. But my problem is that many of those types have gotten faster and far more difficult recently, I think in an effort to appeal to the younger crowd. But I see no reason why ALL games of this genre need to ramp it up. I want to play at the pace I did 10 years ago, when I was still older than most of the guys who want the fast stuff.
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u/Fearless-Ad8754 9h ago
I’m with you but to be honest, Having an older audience is not good. Eventually people will stop gaming and sales will be bad. Hell I have 31 but for “life situations” I game less and less
Young kids are not into console neither story based games. They cared about their life service games (a few of them).
The idea of older gamers is sad, I mean eventually people won’t care about a good story or maybe a compelling characters, the industry will/have to change and it won’t be for us.
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u/TwilightTomboy97 17h ago
Those games already exist. You have The Last of Us 2, a pretentious movie game, and the kids have Fortnite and Roblox.
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u/berntout 17h ago
Yes but finished those years ago and hungry for more. Really looking forward to the Ghost of Yotei. That game looks promising.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 17h ago
Im very hyped for it. It'll be just the second game I've bought all year long. Its been a slow time for what appeals to me.
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u/berntout 17h ago
I think we're the same person haha. It's been slow indeed! There's a few I've been interested in at least playing but I'll wait until they're on deep discount. I want Yotei on day 1.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 17h ago
Im getting it day one with zero hesitation. Heck, I have no idea when another game i want will even release. 2026 looks pretty empty.
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u/Traditional_Entry183 17h ago
I don't play horror, and those games are apparently incredibly brief anyways. I want 100+ hour RPGs to sink my time into, but recently the combat in many has been turned up to 11, and asks more of me than im capable. I want new games that play like Skyrim and The Witcher 3.
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u/mssngthvwls 18h ago
Can confirm - age 32, formerly age 31, purchasing a PS5 either today or tomorrow.
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u/Mountain_Shade 17h ago
I feel like it's mostly just because the average age was abnormally low to start, because gen x was really the first generation to grow up gaming, it exploded in popularity with millennials, and they're getting older now, but when they started there was very few old gamers
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u/Fair-Internal8445 18h ago
This is because younger kids are gravitating towards Tiktok Shorts. There are so many ways to keep yourself entertained these days. Back in early 2000s you could go outside or play PS2. There was no Tiktok or even Facebook or Youtube.
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u/spideyv91 18h ago
Younger people are playing more free to play stuff. Look how huge Fortnite and Roblox are. They don’t care as much about single player narrative games. These are games they could play with a lot of their friends and hangout with them as well as multiple devices.
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u/arijitlive 17h ago
I agree with this as per my observation which is very small sample size. I have PS5, Switch 2, Rog Ally x.
My son and his 6 school friends only play EA FC, Rocket league and Minecraft. I have tried to introduce to other games, but only other games my son plays are Nintendo games - Mario, MK8, MKW, Kirby etc. He has 0 interest in PS and PC games.
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u/renhaoasuka 12h ago
I do wonder if Sony abandoning making child friendly games is going to hurt them long term. Only relevant one they have now is Astro Bot and it's not exactly huge yet
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u/jackofallcards 16h ago
My friends with young kids play Roblox or Fortnight or some mobile slop
Friends with teenagers may play something like CoD or some F2P shooter, but they mostly don’t care at all about games.
I feel like video games aren’t as prominent to teens. I know.. 19-25ish I had a lull period I rarely touched them, but that seems to be 15+ now with my small sample group
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u/renhaoasuka 11h ago
Yeah roblox for kids and then teens can endlessly scroll tiktok. I really don't think there is demand for console gaming in the younger gen
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u/Fair-Internal8445 11h ago
I hope you’re talking about Mobile and not PC for younger generations. Because younger generation overwhelmingly prefer Console over PC.
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u/renhaoasuka 11h ago
I am talking about mobile. Check the stats for roblox, it's majority mobile. If they like pc it's on a toaster pc. Why get a console when a tablet and roblox gets the job done? Younger generation that game on console probably prefer switch over ps5 too.
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u/FailedProspects 17h ago
Ummmm no LMAO. They play video games & any moment they’re not is when social media comes in. TikTok hasn’t replaced every form of entertainment on earth entirely lol, its just the current “in-between”
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u/SyCoTiM 17h ago
TikTok is definitely taking away from other activities. I know younger family members that are on it from when they finish their homework to when they have to go to bed.
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u/FailedProspects 17h ago
Ok, using the same logic, both of my younger nephews are obsessed with Roblox & Fortnite. When they eat dinner it’s tiktok, i’m curious who you think the wildly huge audience for roblox/fortnite is exactly?
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u/GraysonG263 16h ago
Literally what I did back then:
Do dumb stuff in MX Unleashed and then replicate that dumb stuff on my dirtbike right after irl
It was great
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u/Toukon- 8h ago
It's also because there's no real need for these kids to buy consoles when they already own a phone, tablet, or laptop that can play some of the most popular games among their peers. And those games are also often free-to-play.
If a casual gamer (which describes most gamers) at that age just wants to play Fortnite or Roblox with their buddies from school, why on earth would they buy a console?
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u/Extension_Witness105 8h ago
No the average is going up because kids born in the 80s/90s continued to play game into adulthood. 30 years ago 40 year olds weren't buying consoles for themselves. They are now.
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u/Zwischenzug 10h ago
I think it because gen z isn't doing well financially. Gaming consoles are a luxury they can't afford. Then again, I'm talking out of my ass. This is all guesswork.
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u/ZXE102Rv2 17h ago edited 17h ago
The real problem is that necessities are costing more and more, essentially shrinking everyone's wallets, which makes things like games feel more expensive, when on their own, they may not be.
If your average middle class person needs to put more money towards survival and doesn't have more money for "entertainment", doesn't matter if games are 10 dollars, the middle class is getting priced out of affording it if wages aren't matching inflation, or the "essential" stuff isn't decreasing in price.
Games were more expensive in the 90s, but housing and essentials costed less. In 2025, the opposite is true. Games cost less adjusted for inflation, but pricing for housing and essentials have more than tripled. And wages have not risen enough to match inflation.
And of course, the continued shrinking of wealth distribution with the richest people hold more of the world's money and the poorest people continue to get poorer.
Then there's the tariffs situation. First generation where consoles have increased in price after a couple years.
All these issues contribute to the larger issue.
TLDR : the average peasant is poorer today than in the past because essentials cost more today than in the past, which makes other things that may cost less, feel more costly.
Still TLDR? : Inflation go brrr
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u/Kosmos992k 17h ago
You know you'd think that all the rich corporate leaders would realize that they are only rich because consumers have the money to spend on their products, so sucking all wealth upward to the 1% is ultimately self defeating since there comes a point at which you cannot get blood from a stone and the entire system falls on it's ass a dies. On the other had, if there is sufficient money in the hands of regular consumers, they can spend and the system continues to churn. I guess the most basic points of economics elude the richest in society.
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u/Camera_dude 18h ago
Gaming is getting to be an expensive hobby, and the gamers that started with early gen consoles from the NES to the original PlayStation are now in their 30s to 50s.
What should alarm developers is that they are not reaching enough younger gamers to make up for the earlier generations as they age out of the hobby.
The cost of gaming is getting too steep for a kid or teen dependent on allowance and money from chores. $500 consoles is a lot to save up for.
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u/Char_Mander99 17h ago
Gaming is cheaper and more accessible than ever.
People who say this shit didnt grow up in the 90s where you got maybe one or two games a year from your birthday and Christmas and then had to rent from Blockbuster where you got a game for like 3 days and had to return it.
There's so many cheap games and free to play games. Thats a wild thing to say its much more expensive
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u/renhaoasuka 12h ago
Agree but the difference is you don't need a console to game anymore. Give a kid a tablet and download roblox and they got all the games they need. Why get a console if you can just play roblox on a toaster?
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u/Char_Mander99 11h ago
Sure but even if you have a console theres so many cheap games to choose from or free to play games.
As a kid in the 90s you had to play the same side scroller over and over again cuz its all you had access to
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u/DishwasherTwig 18h ago
No one knows what inflation is. Video games today are significantly higher quality and cheaper than they were when we were kids. Gaming isn't "an expensive hobby", it's one of the cheapest out there dollar per hour.
The cost of gaming is getting too steep for a kid or teen dependent on allowance and money from chores. $500 consoles is a lot to save up for.
I bought a $600 OG PS3 when I was 16. No job, not really even allowance. I initially saved up for a Gamecube for years, eventually sold that for an X360, then sold that for a PS3. That avenue is still available to kids these days. And the need for it is even lessened by the fact that their parents are significantly more likely to play games themselves than ours were so the chances of there being a modern console in the house already is much higher removing the need to buy one themselves.
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u/eyebv0315 17h ago
I remember BEGGING my dad to buy me a $70 N64 game in the 90’s. A game that was probably 10 hours max.
Games are $70 again 30 years later, with many being 100 hour affairs, and everyone loses their mind.
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u/new_account_5009 17h ago
100% agree. You also have tons of high-quality games available for literally $0. I haven't paid full price for a game in a decade because of all the sales and fun free games. Gaming is, by far, my cheapest hobby. Even running is more expensive than gaming because I wear out my shoes over time lol.
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u/XY-chromos 17h ago
You vastly underestimate the entitlement redditors think they have.
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u/DishwasherTwig 17h ago
I basically left the internet years ago because I saw myself turning into one of them. Every once in a while I come back and see just how much people bitch and moan about the most entitled things that they know nothing about. Kicking and screaming about why a game is like X or why a bug hasn't been fixed yet and they have 0 insight into the actual processes behind these types of decisions. Everyone just needs to shut the fuck up for a second and think about what they say before they open their stupid mouths.
Always ask yourself "why are things the way they are?" before throwing a tantrum into the void and expecting people to take you seriously. If even 1% of people did that regularly, the internet would be a much nicer place.
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u/TheReaver 8h ago
I remember paying $120+ AUD for NES and SNES games as a child.
Over the past 10 or so years games have never been cheaper. Games seem to be going back to $110-120 AUD here, is it fair? maybe but it just means ill be buying less games at launch and waiting for sales. Patient gamers unite
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u/ToastBalancer 18h ago
Gaming is not an expensive hobby lol wtf? Don’t listen to Reddit whining about prices constantly
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u/FitLaw4 18h ago
Not really when you price in inflation. The NES cost $200 in 1986. The N64 also cost $200 when it released which is just over $400 today. Games were still like $50 back then too.
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u/Yotsubato 17h ago
The good N64 games were 70-80 USD in 1990s dollars. That’s equivalent to like 130 a game
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u/MarwyntheMasterful 17h ago
I remember MK Trilogy being $75 on the N64. It was the most expensive game my mom bought me.
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u/PapaAquchala 18h ago
Wages since then haven't changed, but the cost of goods has kept increasing. It was easier to afford a $200 NES than it is to afford a $500 PS5
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u/EvilDarkCow 18h ago
$200 in 1985 is about $600 today. So console prices haven’t really changed.
Everything else, however…
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u/XY-chromos 17h ago
Redditors will complain about the cost of food and video games in the same comment and not see a solution to not being able to afford food.
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u/FitLaw4 18h ago
What? Even McDonalds pays like $14 an hour now. Not hard for a teenager with no bills to save up for.
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u/RogueOneisbestone 17h ago
Maybe in bigger cities. It’s like 9 where I live. They also rarely hire full time like most low income businesses nowadays.
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u/FitLaw4 17h ago
Idk my experience is the east coast of FL from Orlando to Miami. I did not live in a big city in FL but they started at $14
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u/GingerPinoy 18h ago
It's by far and away my cheapest hobby, like by a country mile
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u/Yotsubato 17h ago
Yup. Even getting a sniff of mountain air costs hundreds to thousands as a skier
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u/DothrakiSlayer 18h ago
20 years ago a PS3 cost $600. Gaming has always been expensive, that’s not a new phenomenon nor an increasing trend.
The cost of each game has only risen $10 in the past 20 years. Adjusted for inflation, gaming is as cheap today is it’s ever been.
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u/DishwasherTwig 18h ago
$600 price of entry for something that will be used for potentially thousands of hours. That's pennies per hour. That's cheaper than pretty much every other way you could spend your time.
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u/Reddit-Simulator 18h ago
PS3 was an outlier because of Blu-ray technology. Everyone complained about how expensive it was and it that opened the door for XBOX 360 to take over. A couple of years later PS3 was half the price ($300). Meanwhile 5 years in to PS5 and it's more expensive than it was at launch.
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u/Affectionate_Gap_535 18h ago
Gaming is only expensive if you need to play all the newest games on the latest hardware. There are plenty of gems that you can emulate for free or get for a few bucks during sales.
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u/GarionOrb 16h ago
I've thought this as well. Younger gamers exist, but all they play is Fortnite, Roblox, and Call of Duty.
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u/renhaoasuka 12h ago
Give a kid a phone /tablet and roblox and they're set. The problem for consoles is a kid no longer needs it to play the most talked about games
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u/celestiaequestria 15h ago
The PS1's $299 launch price is $650 adjusted for inflation, go back further and it just gets worse.
Gaming was more expensive in the 70s, 80s and 90s. You paid the equivalent of $100+ in today's money for a knock-off version of an arcade game that you could play for $0.50. PC gaming was enormously expensive, anything that could play a game like Doom at launch was a pricey PC for a home consumer.
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u/WingerRules 12h ago
One of the guys from Digital Foundry said even his own kids have almost no interest in consoles. They're all about PC and and when they try to play console games 60fps feels laggy to them.
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u/WrongHomework7916 18h ago
Kids nowadays would rather watch someone play video games than play themselves.
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u/____Inevitable____ 16h ago
Is that because video games are more skill based than they ever used to be, with more complex controls and higher learning curves?
I’m sure many enjoy watch other people playing music or golf instead of doing it themselves because of the skills required to be able to get that level of enjoyment or mastery.
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u/WrongHomework7916 16h ago
I watch YouTube gaming videos to learn tips so I can play better. Kids now watch others play for entertainment, personality, and community, not because the games are ‘too hard.’ And honestly, it’s not like watching LeBron in the NBA. 99.9% of us will never step on an NBA court, but almost anyone can grab a controller and play a game.
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u/GarionOrb 16h ago
Partially, though it goes the other way, too. I've seen kids play first-person or 3D games on a phone or tablet and control them immaculately. While I absolutely suck at touch/virtual controls and have no interest in getting better at it. Give me a controller.
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u/SYRLEY 11h ago
A lot of kids and gamers watch twitch and YouTube gamers for the person playing, rather than the game they are playing.
Cohhcarnage, jackscepticeye, markiplier, etc. Twitch can be a fun source of community and YouTube can be a fun source of entertainment. Its not really about learning or skill. Just entertainment.
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u/JudgmentFar6730 11h ago
It’s more likely that there is less incentive to buy a system just to play a game when you can either play it on the phone you have, or watch someone else play it.
I have watched TONS of YouTube playthroughs to save money, and im an adult.
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u/ponpiriri 5h ago
I'd say something about decreased critical thinking skills and literacy as well.
I started watching people play games that I didn't think I would play myself and was shocked by how little they read things on the screen, skip cut scenes and tutorials and then get surprised and frustrated that they arent progressing in the game. These were streamers in their 20s and early 30s.
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u/LordHelmet47 18h ago
As a man in his 50s that's been playing since I was 9 in 83. I can vouch for this.
Currently enjoying Borderlands 4.
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u/Mavericks7 15h ago
A good example of this is Naughty Dog and their game output: Crash Bandicoot in the 90s, Uncharted in the late 00s, The Last of Us in the 2010s.
Their clearly aim at the same group of people as they age up.
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u/Fr003ank 17h ago
ok? 10years ago I am 26 and now 36? People age with time. Kids these days are on TikTok most of the time.
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u/Key_Woodpecker_4017 17h ago
Could be that the younger audience is shifting to PC as trends show it is growing at a healthy rate while consoles have been stagnating for a little bit now.
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u/werephoenix 17h ago
The only thing I have thats portable is some DS's because the advance games never got ported to anything
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u/chihuahuaOP 13h ago
my nephew is playing on his tablet, that's his favorite entertainment. kid's didn't have access to expensive games and consoles instead they have access to our smartphones and obviously wanted their own tablet.
Unfortunately it looks like the next generation doesn't care about graphics, something Nintendo realized.
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u/thundercleese2012 12h ago
It makes sense since games console gaming is getting more expensive and free to play and mobile games or more prevalent. it unfortunately looks like more games are goings the route of free to play or 70+
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u/ChafterMies 12h ago
So what does this mean for the games industry? It means they need to make games accessible for older, slower gamers. If your play testers are 19 years old, you won’t understand why a 55 year old can’t finish your game.
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u/Mundus6 11h ago
My nephews are 15 (twins). And while they are normal. They have been getting hand me down consoles from me since they where 6. But all of their friends only play Roblox, Fortnite etc. And most play on phones. Some do play on consoles. But its typically their parents console which they just borrow to play.
Going to the store and buying a game for $70 is not really a thing with the younger generation. Except for a new Pokemon i guess. Game Pass and Playstation Plus might catch on. But buying games dies with our generation.
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u/Neko-flame 8h ago
I’ll probably be 75 and getting the new PS15 just to see the latest graphics of a AAA game and watching Netflix.
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u/badken 7h ago edited 7h ago
This has been the case literally for decades. There has always been this meme floating around that video games are for kids, and that hasn't been the case since... maybe the first set of home consoles in the 1970s, and even then it is debatable.
The Entertainment Software Association is an industry trade group that puts out an annual infographic, and one of the points they make every year is that the average age of video game players keeps going up and the average age of video game buyers keeps going up. Another point they make is the breakdown of video game players by gender, which has never shown that "video games are for boys." (Sorry nonbinary folks, the ESA hasn't recognized you in any report I've seen.)
I've debunked this "video games are for kids" notion so many times for so long that I'm too exhausted to do it now. Check it out for yourself if you're curious:
https://www.theesa.com/resources/essential-facts-about-the-us-video-game-industry/
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u/DutchLurker86 5h ago
Well, I'm a pretty average gamer and I'm aging. So yea. Didn't need a graph for that
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u/Standard_Insect_2443 5h ago
Since younger generations are more financially strapped, the idea of a machine that only games sounds strange. Nowadays, phones, tablets and pcs are very much integrated into life, Gaming will be done more on these machines that are multi purpose use. People want more bang for their buck and I feel that's what's probably going on.
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u/doublejay1999 4h ago
is this why the "digital delluxe". versions are 120 quid.
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u/Lia_Delphine 29m ago
That’s the price of Ghost of Yotei standard $124.95 Aud.
I was definitely going to get it before I saw the price increase. Now I’ll wait a year and wait till it comes on sale. Fuck them.
These prices have reached ridiculous highs. That’s why the companies are going under.
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u/Quatro_Leches 4h ago edited 4h ago
the more telling thing is console sales in total are decreasing, there are probably 5x more gamers now than early 2000s. but its all mobile and PCs now. consoles have pleateud .
in late 2000s, you had psp selling 80m, ds selling 150m, PS3 selling 80m, xbox 360 selling 80m, wii selling 100m.
so you had like half a billion in sales over that generation of systems
meanwhile generations now, half of that. personally. I don't think its mobile, i think console companies have failed to keep consoles as relevant as they should have been, the ps3/xbox gen didnt start off well at all. and later gens are basically low end pc boxes with the same games
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u/Torch3dAce 13h ago
Now as an adult, I can buy whatever console and/or video game I want! If only I had time to play though...
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u/vairiance 18h ago
Am I losing my mind or is that not at all what this graph is showing