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