{
  "id": 12198561,
  "title": "Free-to-play playtime is broadly flat as gacha RPGs drive PC growth, says Newzoo",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/free-to-play-playtime-is-broadly-flat-as-gacha-rpgs-drive-pc-growth",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-05T17:15:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "GamesIndustry",
    "slug": "gamesindustry",
    "url": "https://www.gamesindustry.biz/free-to-play-playtime-is-broadly-flat-as-gacha-rpgs-drive-pc-growth-says-newzoo"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Newzoo's special focus report suggests free-to-play (F2P) gaming is not shrinking, despite assumptions to the contrary. Between 2021 and 2025, F2P's share of playtime on both PC and consoles fell by 2.9 percentage points, to 29.3%, but the total hours spent on F2P remained largely unchanged. This decline is primarily due to growth in other segments, such as premium games and Roblox. On PC, F2P playtime actually increased, while on consoles, it declined, mainly affecting a few established live-service titles. The number of F2P live-service launches on PC and consoles peaked at 36 in 2017 but dropped by 31%, from 21.3 titles in 2020-2022 to 14.7 in 2023-2025, despite an overall rise in releases across the market. Factors like higher costs, increased risks, and strong competition are making it challenging for new F2P live-service games to succeed. Moreover, F2P revenue is becoming more dispersed among the top five titles, with their combined share falling from 79% on consoles to 72% and from 68% on PC to 65% across key markets in Europe. Gacha, a progression-based monetization system, is driving F2P growth on PC. There are now 17 major gacha titles on both PC and consoles in 2025, up from just three in 2021. F2P playtime on PC grew by 92% between 2021 and 2025, adding a whopping 864 million hours, while console gacha added 85 million hours over the same period, even though console gacha dropped in two years. RPG games were the only F2P genre to gain market share on both platforms. On PC, RPGs' share of F2P playtime rose by 5.3 percentage points to 14.3%, thanks to games like Wuthering Waves, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero, which added a combined 1.1 billion hours by 2025. On consoles, RPG's share increased slightly from 10.0% to 10.3%. Games like Zenless Zone Zero, Wuthering Waves, and Honkai: Star Rail gained popularity upon their launch on consoles, while Genshin Impact saw a decline. Newzoo suggests that much of the PC gacha growth comes from players switching between titles in the category. However, this growth has not led to a proportional increase in revenue, as there is a growing gap between engagement and monetization. Several new releases have entered Newzoo's Top 20 revenue charts, with EA Sports Madden NFL 27 debuting at No. 2 on consoles and House House's co-op title Big Walk ranking No. 3 on PC.",
  "summary": "\"F2P is not dying,\" according to a Newzoo special focus report that challenges assumptions that free-to-play is in decline. Read more",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}