In a recent analysis by Newzoo, the narrative surrounding the free-to-play (F2P) gaming model is being reexamined. The report, which draws insights from Newzoo’s Game Performance Monitor, indicates that while F2P’s share of playtime is projected to dip by 2.9 percentage points from 2021 to 2025, settling at 29.3%, the total hours spent on these games have remained relatively stable.
Market Dynamics and Shifting Trends
The decline in F2P’s share is attributed to the burgeoning popularity of premium games and platforms like Roblox. Interestingly, the report highlights that on PC, F2P playtime has actually increased, despite its diminishing share. Conversely, on consoles, F2P engagement has waned, particularly among a select group of established live-service titles.
Newzoo notes that the peak of F2P live-service launches occurred in 2017, with 36 new titles introduced. However, this figure has since dropped significantly, with the annual average falling by 31% from 21.3 titles in the 2020-2022 period to just 14.7 in 2023-2025. This decline occurs even as the overall market continues to see an uptick in new releases.
Several factors contribute to this trend, including rising development costs, increased risks, and the dominance of established competitive titles, which create a challenging environment for new F2P live-service games to gain traction.
Revenue Distribution and Gacha Growth
Another noteworthy finding from the report is the decreasing concentration of F2P revenue among the top five titles. On consoles, their combined share has decreased from 79% in 2021 to 72% in 2025, while on PC, it has dropped from 68% to 65% across key markets such as the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.
Within this evolving landscape, gacha games—defined by Newzoo as progression-based loot box monetization—are emerging as a significant growth area for F2P on PC. The number of major gacha titles is expected to rise from three in 2021 to 17 by 2025. Notably, PC gacha playtime has surged by 92% during this period, contributing an impressive 864 million hours, while console gacha also saw an increase of 85 million hours, despite experiencing declines in two of those years.
Genre Performance and Player Behavior
Among various genres, RPGs stand out as the only F2P category to gain market share on both platforms. On PC, RPG’s share of F2P playtime has risen by 5.3 percentage points to 14.3%, with titles such as Wuthering Waves, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero collectively adding 1.1 billion hours by 2025. On consoles, the RPG share has slightly increased from 10.0% to 10.3%. The success of these titles contrasts with the declining performance of Genshin Impact.
Newzoo’s analysis also reveals that much of the growth in PC gacha titles can be attributed to players transitioning between different games within the category. However, this surge in engagement has not necessarily translated into proportional revenue, highlighting a widening gap between player engagement and monetization.
In August, several new releases made their mark on Newzoo’s Top 20 revenue charts, with EA Sports Madden NFL 27 making a strong debut at No. 2 on console, while House House’s co-op title Big Walk secured the No. 3 position on PC.
