This report extensively covers how consumers play and engage with live service games in the US. The live service gaming market is constantly evolving, and brands must adapt to keep pace with preferences, industry trends, and challenges. Below, we’ve provided a definition of live service games, summarized the core topics covered, and handpicked insights from the full report.
What Is A Live Service Game?
Appearing on any platform or genre, live service games monetize through micro-transactions, battle passes, subscriptions, and ads. These pay to support regular content updates patches, balancing fixes, and premium in-game content like new stories, areas, and cosmetics. All of which is designed to keep players engaged with the game consistently over a long time.
Core Topics Analyzed
- Trends impacting live service video games.
- Which live service games players play, and which they have stopped playing.
- How much time gamers dedicate to live service games per week.
- How much players are spending on in-game shops.
- Player sources of information about live service games.
- What motivates players to keep coming back to live service games.
US Live Service Gaming Market Outlook
Live service gaming has reached a saturation point in the market. The landscape is tumultuous with companies like Disney investing heavily in games like Fortnite, while Sony has revised its strategy due to a player drop in Destiny 2. Despite the uncertainty of many new live service games, the market is poised for change, with potential for live service games to fade back in 2025-26, similar to the decline of MMORPGs and MOBAs. Brands must strategize now to retain interest.
Live Service Gaming Market Insights
- A significant portion of gamers are spending money in live service games. Most believe that games with cash shops should be free-to-play, and almost two-thirds would try any free live service game.
- Social gamers bounce around based on what is popular and are drawn to games with larger player counts, as 52% quit playing when a new traditional game comes out. The challenge for brands and advertisers is to create new games or improve existing ones to address issues and convince weary players to return.
- Casual gamers, as segmented in this report, aren’t likely to be playing the big live service game titles on the market like competitive gamers, due to the competitive atmosphere. Appealing to “casual” gamers will come down to simplifying gameplay.
Explore the live service gaming market fully with your copy of this report. You may also be interested to browse our other gaming market research.
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Expert Analysis
Leading gaming analyst Brian Benway delivers expert industry insights with this detailed report.
The gaming industry moves fast, with new trends outpacing development. Live service games can be a costly risk that must be treated as more than a revenue source.
Brian Benway
Senior Tech and Gaming Analyst
Collapse All
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- Key issues covered in this Report
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Executive Summary
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Consumer Insights
- Consumer fast facts
- Service games played
- Graph 1: service games played or interested in, 2024
- Graph 2: service games currently played, 2024
- Graph 3: service games currently played, by age and gender, 2024
- Graph 4: service games currently played, by gender, 2024
- Graph 5: service games currently played, mom vs dads, 2024
- Graph 6: service games currently played (select), by gamer segments, 2024
- Graph 7: service games interested in trying (select), by race, 2024
- Time spent playing live service games
- Graph 8: weekly time spent playing live service games, 2024
- Graph 9: weekly time spent playing live service games, by age, 2024
- Graph 10: mean hours spent playing live service games, by age and gender, 2024
- Graph 11: mean hours spent playing service games, by race and Hispanic origin, 2024
- Spending on live service games
- Graph 12: monthly spending on service games, 2024
- Graph 13: monthly spending on service games, by amount of time spent playing, 2024
- Graph 14: spending any amount of money on live service games monthly, by age and gender, 2024
- Graph 15: spending any amount of money on live service games monthly, by race and Hispanic origin, 2024
- Graph 16: monthly spending on service games, by household income, 2024
- Graph 17: monthly spending on service games, by gamer segments, 2024
- Information sources
- Graph 18: I typically hear about live service video games from…, 2024
- Graph 19: I typically hear about live service video games from…, by gender, 2024
- Graph 20: I typically hear about live service video games from…, by age, 2024
- Graph 21: I typically hear about live service video games from…, by gamer segments, 2024
- What gamers like about live service video games
- Graph 22: what gamers like about live service video games, 2024
- Graph 23: what gamers like about live service video games, by age, 2024
- Graph 24: creating my own character, by age and gender, 2024
- Graph 25: completing daily or weekly tasks, by age, 2024
- Graph 26: seeing the game story evolve over time, by age, 2024
- Graph 27: what gamers like about live service video games (select), by gamer segments, 2024
- Graph 28: player versus player combat, by age and gender, 2024
- Graph 29: browsing the in-game shop for skins/items, moms vs dads, 2024
- Attitudes toward fun and free-to-play
- Graph 30: attitudes toward fun and free-to-play (% any agree), by age, 2024
- Attitudes toward player satisfaction
- Graph 31: attitudes toward player satisfaction (% any agree), by age, 2024
- Graph 32: attitudes toward player satisfaction (% any agree), moms vs dads, 2024
- Attitudes toward new games
- Graph 33: attitudes toward new games (% any agree), by age, 2024
- Graph 34: attitudes toward new games (% any agree), by household income, 2024
- Graph 35: attitudes toward new games (% any agree), by gamer segments, 2024
- Attitudes toward service games motivations
- Graph 36: attitudes toward service game motivations (% any agree), by gender, 2024
- Graph 37: attitudes toward service game motivations (% any agree), by household income, 2024
- Graph 38: attitudes toward service games motivations (% any agree), by gamer segments, 2024
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Competitive Strategies
- Launch activity and innovation
- Marketing and advertising
- Opportunities in live service gaming
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The Market
- Market context
- Market overview
- Graph 39: global video game industry revenue, 2019-26
- Graph 40: global video game industry revenue share (% billions), by device, 2023
- Graph 41: US; wages and CPI, percent change from year ago, 2021-24
- Graph 42: consumer sentiment index, 2021-24
- Market drivers
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Appendix
- The consumer
- Graph 43: “What devices have you played video games on in the past three months? Please select all that apply.,” 2024
- Graph 44: “How often do you play video games?,” 2024
- Graph 45: gaming motivations, 2024
- Graph 46: Mintel gamer segments – motivations, 2024
- Graph 47: gamer segments – motivations, by gender 2024
- Graph 48: gamer segments – motivations, by age 2024
- Graph 49: Mintel gamer segments – devices and frequency, 2024
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