A new survey has provided some interesting statistics regarding the buying habits of video game players in the United States. This particular survey has been conducted by Circana, a company formed in 2023 by the merging of two others whose combined history spans over half a century in market research (NPD, formed in 1979, and IRI, formed in 1966). Circana’s Senior Director, Mat Piscatella, formerly worked at Activision and Warner Bros. Games, and states on his social media page that “I helped get one of your favorite games greenlit.”
While it has, at times, been reported that the video game industry rivals Hollywood in terms of sales revenues, it too has proven to be a highly volatile sector when it comes to bombs and hits. Statistics from Circana’s upcoming Q3 2025 Future of Video Games survey paint a somewhat bleak picture when it comes to the buying frequency in the U.S. By combining the latter three columns in the report it can be determined that roughly 63% of those surveyed only buy one or two games per year and just under a quarter will buy a game every three months or so.
Hyper enthusiast, price-insensitive players are really keeping things going, especially in the non f2p gaming space.According to Circana's Q3 2025 Future of Games, only 4% of US video game players buy a new game more often than once per month, with a third of players not buying any games at all.
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2025-10-02T16:54:18.096Z
It will be interesting to see how these numbers change by Q3 ’26, when we’ve reached the first anniversary of the latest industry-wide price hikes, which only recently began to go into effect. Base prices for video games have increased from $59.99 to $69.99 and now $79.99 in recent months, leading many to question how many games they can afford to purchase in a year. Throw in newly increased prices for Xbox and PlayStation consoles, and gaming costs continue to hit new highs that might affect the buying behaviors of gamers. All that being said, Mr. Piscatella’s sense of humor pushes forward (spend a minute or two on his Bluesky page and you’ll quickly notice it), despite the current industry trends as seen by the following clip from the 2000th episode of Games Daily.
“I just want to start every market presentation I do with this clip. Would save me so much time when talking about the state of the industry over the past few years.”
Mat Piscatella, Senior Director & Video Game Industry Thought Leader at Circana