An interesting study from marketing research firm Circana recently revealed that gaming habits in the U.S. are drastically shifting in 2025. The results were revealed by prolific games industry expert Mat Piscatella in an October 2 post on BlueSky.

The senior director for Circana explained that only 30 percent of U.S.-based gamers purchase one or two games per year. However, the even more surprising statistic is that 33 percent of gamers in the U.S. don’t buy any new games at all over a typical 12-month period.

It’s unclear if this is being impacted by subscription services such as Game Pass or the continued popularity of free-to-play games such as Roblox and Fortnite. Microtransactions in live-service games, for example, aren’t typically counted as game sales. Mat Piscatella went on to explain that most game sales in the industry are being fueled by “hyper enthusiasts.”

“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 U.S. video game players buy a new game more often than once per month, with a third of players not buying any games at all.”