In a year which saw an increase of 88% total in-game play-time for its community on the Steam platform, free-to-play favourites CS:GO and Dota 2 topped the most-played list globally, while US gamers clocked up the most time in-game during the year.
CS:GO was the most played PC title (Steam) of the year by total play-time, with more than 300,000 gamers from Green Man Gaming’s community racking up in excess of 193 million hours in-game – at an average 643 hours per player per year. Dota 2 came a close second with a total of more than 177 million hours in-game, ahead of Team Fortress 2, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS and Warframe. Last year’s favourites Rocket League and PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS dropped off the top three list in 2018.
Not to be outdone in the title stakes, Dota 2 took the prize for the most hardcore following, topping the average in-game time by player chart with more than 138,000 of Green Man Gaming’s community members spending an average of almost 1,300 hours – 3.5 hours per day – playing throughout 2018. Falling in behind Dota 2 in the average play time chart were Final Fantasy XIV Online, CS:GO, Team Fortress 2 and Football Manager 2015.
Gamers in the United States led the pack in total play-time by country across the community with an impressive 412 million combined hours spent in-game on PC (Steam platform), an incredible 47,000 years – the equivalent of the entire population of Los Angeles watching all 123 episodes of The Walking Dead – during the year. Runner up in the total play time chart was the UK, with 92 million hours –1.5 hours per head of population – followed by Russia, Canada and Brazil.
Despite the majority of Green Man Gaming’s community residing in the US and Europe, 2018 saw gamers in Thailand to be the most active in terms of average play-time per player. They were followed very closely by gamers in the Ukraine – with Peru, Kazakhstan and Malaysia making up the rest of the top five.
Finally, Green Man Gaming’s best-sellers list for 2018 revealed further insight into the year’s big winners, with the following titles all making the top ten: Monster Hunter World, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S Battlegrounds, Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition, Warhammer Vermintide 2, Rocket League, Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and No Mans Sky.
Paul Sulyok, CEO and Founder of Green Man Gaming comments: “Video games as a form of entertainment has come into their own with revenues 2.5 times that of the film industry and 6 times the size of digital music. Gamers are playing even more games than ever before and our community data shows this with an 88% increase in playtime year on year. Games developed in Edinburgh are played by gamers in London, Los Angeles and Lagos simultaneously and the range of games available today is at an all-time high. We are truly living in the golden age of video game entertainment today and I can’t wait to see what 2019 will bring.”
The full Year in Review 2018 statistics are available in this infographic.
