The headline figure is striking. In Western markets (US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain), titles ranked 21st and below accounted for 56% of total PC gaming revenue in 2025, up from 48% in 2022. That means the majority of money spent on PC games now goes to titles outside the top tier — a meaningful inversion compared to just three years ago. Console platforms are moving in the same direction, but more slowly: titles outside the Top 20 represented 38% of PlayStation revenue and 35% of Xbox revenue in 2025.
Playtime tells a similar story. The share of PC playtime captured by games outside the Top 20 grew from 33% in 2022 to 42% in 2025. Crucially, this isn’t just redistribution away from the top: playtime among titles ranked 21+ grew 44% over that period, while Top 20 playtime was flat, and total PC playtime grew 14%. The long tail is expanding alongside the broader platform, not at its expense. As a further measure of how the market is broadening, in 2025, it took the top 79 games to account for 80% of total PC playtime, up from just 52 games in 2022.
The top, however, remains deeply entrenched. The Top 5 PC games have been unchanged since 2023. In 2025, only Marvel Rivals and Wuthering Waves were among the rare new entrants to break into the Top 20.
Genre and business model matter below the top tier. Outside the Top 20, RPG and Adventure genres significantly over-index on all platforms. On PC specifically, notable titles include Path of Exile 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, alongside durable catalog titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which is remarkably still capable of generating meaningful playtime over a decade after launch, likely thanks to the tireless modding community. Below the Top 20, 73% of PC playtime goes to premium games, whereas the Top 20 is dominated by large free-to-play ecosystems. New free-to-play releases represent just 2% of long-tail PC playtime.
The three platforms tell different stories. On PC, the long tail is growing in both engagement and commercial terms. On PlayStation, growth below the Top 20 is real, but spending remains franchise-led: newcomers to PlayStation’s 2025 Top 20 were all backed by major IP (Marvel Rivals, Monster Hunter Wilds, Battlefield 6). On Xbox, the picture is a little more ambiguous: engagement outside the Top 20 has grown, but revenue distribution hasn’t kept pace. Newzoo interprets this as Game Pass enabling discovery and trial without converting that breadth into proportional spending.
The analyst firm concludes that the space below the blockbuster AAA games is becoming more strategically meaningful than it was a few years ago. The full findings are part of the PC & Console Gaming Report 2026, available as a free download at newzoo.com (after you’ve provided your data).
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief.
In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech’s gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews.
Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications.
His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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