NewZoo has published a fresh report about the state of the gaming industry through 2025 and beyond. It’s a massive, 80-page beast that covers every angle of the industry possible, including what games are occupying the top spots across multiple platforms.
One slide refers to the top twenty games on PC through 2025, ranked by playtime. It’s not a hugely surprising mix, but there are a couple of outliers that broke into the ranking for the first time.
Battle Royale Falls, Free to Play Remains King
At the top of the PC table sit the free-to-play titles that have remained in those lofty spots for years. The number-one spot is owned by Roblox, with 9.7% of all PC playtime through 2025. It’s followed closely behind by Counter-Strike 2, which boasts a handsome 7% market share, and then League of Legends, just nipped by CS2 with a 6.9% share.
The data reveals that battle royale games are plummeting out of favor with gaming fans, as Apex Legends barely managed to claim a spot in the top rankings with a 0.9% market share. It’s joined in that spot by Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, beaten ever so slightly by Diablo IV with a 1% share.
What’s surprising is the emergence of Escape from Tarkov in 11th place, nestled between Call of Duty and Overwatch 2. The extraction shooter from Battlestate Games managed to beat PUBG, GTA 5, and Marvel Rivals in 2025 in the playtime stakes, securing a 1.7% share.
But it’s important to point out that it came from early access and had millions of players backing it from a decade on the market, so there’s that.
PC’s success is coming from a ‘rapidly expanding long tail’, which is how NewZoo described the growth. While console-based players typically stick to the top twenty games, PC goes beyond that, with the majority of playtime being made up from the backlog of tens of thousands of PC games out there.
So, there’s the data from NewZoo. These evergreen titles like Roblox and Counter-Strike remain king, while battle royale games are collapsing, and extraction shooters continue to be disruptive.
Are you surprised at all about this ranking? Let us know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news about the latest Counter-Strike 2 update
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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