NewZoo, one of the most trusted data and analytics firms in the business, recently published the Global Games Market Report for 2025. This monumental document, which is more than 200 pages long, dives into every aspect of the wider gaming industry and its performance over the last year, including a telling segment about games in early access.
In recent years, the concept of the early access launch has skyrocketed in popularity. It allows developers to get their game on the market while still piecing it together, seeking feedback and finances while they work. It can be a pitfall, though, and that’s what NewZoo was referring to in the new report.
Too Long in Early Access Spells Death
The recent report from NewZoo, a reliable source of statistics in the gaming world, presented a tidy section all about games entering an early access window as opposed to a traditional launch:
Early Access has become a widely used release model, particularly for indie studios looking to offset development costs, gather feedback, and build early awareness. While traditionally associated with smaller teams, several AA and AAA titles, like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Sons of the Forest, have also used Early Access to great effect.
This report quickly followed up with a breakdown that portrayed the relationship and correlations between how many months a game is in early access compared to how many players the game retains in the first three months of full release.
The data shows that performance for a post-early-access launch peaks at around six months. Any longer than that, and the potential for a game to yield a sizeable audience drops dramatically. The report stressed that the increase in performance at the 22-24 month mark was driven exclusively by V Rising and Ready or Not.
It’s a sticky spot for some. NewZoo highlighted that most games will see minimal or no growth when they hit 1.0 compared to their early access launch, and only those that get out the door within six months show consistent growth overall.
The report mentioned that some outliers exist, like Dave the Diver, which was in early access with Mintrocket for eight months, then erupted post-launch, hitting more than 1.5 million players. When removed from the dataset, other titles with that amount of time in early access show marginal gains at best.
What’s the longest you’ve tracked a game through early access? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
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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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