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Free-to-play playtime is broadly flat as gacha RPGs drive PC growth, says Newzoo

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Free-to-play playtime is broadly flat as gacha RPGs drive PC growth, says Newzoo

New report says annual F2P live-service launches on PC and console fell 31% since the early 2020s

"F2P is not dying," according to a Newzoo special focus report that challenges assumptions that free-to-play is in decline.

According to the new analysis - which uses Newzoo's Game Performance Monitor, covering PC and console engagement across 37 markets, excluding China, India, and mobile - F2P's share of playtime fell 2.9 percentage points between 2021 and 2025, to 29.3%, but absolute hours remained broadly flat.

Newzoo attributes the fall largely to growth elsewhere in the market, including premium games and Roblox.

On PC, F2P playtime grew even as its share declined, while on console, F2P playtime fell, with the decline concentrated in a handful of established live-service titles. F2P live-service launches on PC and console peaked at 36 titles in 2017, but the annual average fell 31%, from 21.3 titles in 2020-2022 to 14.7 in 2023-2025, even though releases rose across the wider market.

The report cites rising costs, greater risks, and established competitive titles as making it harder for new F2P live-service games to break through.

F2P revenue is also becoming less concentrated among the top five titles. Their combined share on console fell from 79% in 2021 to 72% in 2025, and on PC from 68% to 65%, across the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

Gacha, which Newzoo defines as progression-based loot box monetization, has become the main area of F2P growth on PC. The report counts 17 major gacha titles on PC and console in 2025, up from three in 2021.


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