According to GameSpot, new data from Circana analyst Mat Piscatella reveals a stunning lack of change at the top of the gaming charts. For 2025, the top five most-played games on PlayStation 5 in the US were, in order, Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto V, Roblox, and Minecraft—an exact match to their 2024 ranking. On Xbox, the 2025 top five were Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA V, Minecraft, and Roblox, which were the same five titles as 2024, just in a slightly different order. This follows a 2024 Newzoo study showing that 60% of all playtime in 2023 went to games over five years old. The data underscores how established, multiplayer live-service titles are dominating player engagement, with one in three people who turned on a PlayStation or Xbox during Christmas week in the US playing Fortnite.
The Established Order
Here’s the thing: the gaming industry keeps pumping out shiny new $70 blockbusters every month, but what people are actually *playing* is a completely different story. We’re not talking about sales charts here, which flash and fade. This is about consistent, daily, weekly engagement—the kind that defines a platform. And that engagement is locked down. Piscatella put it perfectly: “Things are a bit established at the top.” That’s a massive understatement. It’s more like a fortress. These five games—Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA V, Minecraft, Roblox—aren’t just popular; they’re infrastructure. They’re the reason a huge chunk of people boot up their console in the first place.
How The Black Holes Work
So why is this happening? It’s the live-service model, perfected. These games aren’t static products you finish. They’re constantly updated platforms. Fortnite changes its map and has crossovers with everything from Star Wars to Lego. Call of Duty funnels multiple games, including the new Black Ops 7 and the free Warzone, into a single launcher (COD HQ), making it one perpetual ecosystem. Roblox and Minecraft are essentially infinite creation tools. GTA V persists because of GTA Online. They all create relentless reasons to return: a new battle pass, a new season, a new update, a new item to buy. They’re designed to be habits, not hobbies. And once that habit is formed, it’s incredibly hard to break. That’s why some call them “black hole” games—they suck in time, attention, and money, leaving little gravitational pull for anything else.
What This Means For New Games
This creates a brutal environment for new games, especially other live-service hopefuls. Think about it. A player’s free time is finite. If their routine is “log into Fortnite to check the new challenges, hop into Warzone with friends, then maybe build something in Minecraft,” where does a new multiplayer game fit in? It has to be monumentally good, or offer a completely novel hook, to displace an existing habit. It’s not just about competing on quality anymore; it’s about competing against entrenched daily rituals. This data suggests that breaking into the top tier of *engagement* might now be harder than ever. You can have a flash-in-the-pan sales success, but building a community that sticks around for years? That club has a very exclusive, and seemingly permanent, membership.
Is This A Problem?
Is this stagnation? Or is it just stability? For players deeply invested in these worlds, it’s fantastic. Their favorite game keeps evolving. But for the overall health and creativity of the industry, it’s a double-edged sword. It massively de-risks investment for the companies that own these titles—why gamble on something new when you can just feed the beast you already have? But it also potentially stifles innovation and variety. When the top spots are seemingly locked in for half a decade or more, where’s the incentive for bold, new multiplayer ideas? The data from Circana and that earlier Newzoo report isn’t just a curiosity. It’s a clear signpost for where the games business truly lives now: in a handful of endlessly updated, social, and seemingly permanent worlds. Everything else is just visiting.
