Almost half of gamers delay purchasing games until discounts appear, study shows
The analytics company Newzoo, together with the platform G2A, studied gamers' purchasing habits. It was revealed that many players are not in a rush to buy new releases and are increasingly opting to wait for sales.
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As part of the study, analysts surveyed over 6,000 individuals from the USA, the UK, Germany, Poland, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. They focused on gamers who regularly play AAA/AA games on PC or consoles.
Below are several findings:
- Respondents stated that only 42% of the games they bought in the last three years were purchased at release or during pre-order. In other cases, they preferred to wait, sometimes quite a while—18% of purchases were made more than a year after the game’s release.
- PC gamers delayed purchases more frequently than console gamers—70% compared to 45% of the time.
- The main reason for delayed purchases is waiting for a discount, cited by 45% of those surveyed. Additionally, 37% of gamers said they wait for technical issues to be fixed, and 36% wait for reviews from other players.
- On average, gamers expect to see an "attractive" discount about 4.9 months after release.
- Regarding the appeal of discounts, respondents confessed that they generally start considering a game’s price reasonable with a 29% price drop. A 45% discount is seen as an attractive deal. However, if the discount reaches 70% or more, many begin to suspect a catch and doubt the quality or relevance of the game.
- 44% of gamers with subscriptions like Game Pass or PlayStation Plus reported buying fewer games. Meanwhile, 54% of subscribers claimed they started spending more money on games.
- On average, over the past 12 months, respondents spent $368 on games. Of this amount, 46% was spent directly on game purchases, 32% on subscriptions, and 21% on in-game purchases and DLCs.