In a recent report published by Newzoo, the state of play for the gaming industry was outlined, with the firm looking back at 2023 in broad strokes and then looking to the future and what’s coming next. One standout slide spoke about the top ten games from every core platform in terms of MAU (Monthly Average Users) through 2023, which by itself revealed some interesting tidbits.
This data showed that Starfield was the only single-player game to appear in the top ten games by average MAU in 2023 across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. It was also the only ‘new franchise’ to occupy one of the top spots. Every other game featured in these top ten lists was a multiplayer or cooperative game – and astoundingly, the average age of these games is more than seven years.
Stellar Results
In the Newzoo report, it was made clear that live service titles continue to reign supreme over everything else in the industry. On every major platform, Fortnite boasted the highest MAU through 2023, followed closely behind by the likes of Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Roblox. There were also special mentions for Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, and Rocket League.
Starfield was a standout example amongst these lists, which took data from thirty-seven markets around the world. It was the only single-player-exclusive game to hit the top ten on a global scale, which was likely thanks to the game launching as part of Xbox Game Pass in September 2023. It wound up in eighth place overall, sitting between Rocket League and Apex Legends.
Ultimately, Starfield’s marketing campaign and hype train is what won over millions of players initially, but the drive behind the title seems to have fallen flat since it was released toward the end of 2023. There’s no indicator of any major expansions arriving any time soon, but there are expectations that we’ll see something revealed at the Xbox Summer Showcase, which should also give us our first look at Gears 6.
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