Ampere has dissected its global panel of gamers to get to grips with what was driving play-time in 2024. Gamers across Steam, Xbox and PlayStation spent an average of 9.7bn hours in-game each month through the year*. Multiplayer was key for breaking into the top titles – all of the top 10 games (by monthly active users) included a multiplayer mode. But it was tough for new titles to break ground against perennial fan favourites like Fortnite and Call of Duty. 17% of the top 200 titles were released in 2024.

Average total game time per month reached 9.7bn hours, with EA as the leading publisher

Players spent a vast amount of time gaming in 2024. From January to November, players spent an average of 9.7bn hours every month in-game. The top month for game time was January, when players spent nearly 11bn hours engaging with titles.

While the top titles by average total play time per month and average monthly active users (MAUs) are largely aligned - with Fortnite, Call of Duty HQ (inc. Modern Warfare III, Modern Warfare II, Warzone), Counter-Strike 2 and EA Sports FC 24 taking the top four spots - Dota 2 (Valve) amassed the fifth highest game time at 298m but ranked 11^th by MAUs. This suggeststhat the player base is disproportionately over-engaged.

EA was the top publisher by total play time per month, reaching over 1bn hours on average in 2024. This is largely attributable to its catalogue of Sports franchises, like EA Sports FC or EA Sports College Football. But its Battle Royale title, Apex Legends, was the third most played title by average total game time in 2024.

All the top ten titles by average monthly active users in 2024 included a multiplayer mode

Epic Games’ Fortnite continued to dominate and stood out as the most played title by average MAUs across Xbox, PlayStation and Steam. At 38m, its average MAUs are a staggering 11m ahead of the second most played title, Call of Duty HQ (Activision Blizzard). Of the top ten titles, all included multiplayer modes, demonstrating gamers’ strong appetite for competitive content.

Shooters have consistently accounted for the largest share of MAUs by genre in every month of 2024 – three of the top ten titles were multiplayer Shooters (Call of Duty HQ, Counter-Strike 2, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege), with Battle Royale games further rounding out the appetite for the mechanic (Fortnite and Apex Legends).

17% of the top 200 titles by average MAUs in 2024 were first released this year

Gamers tended to stick with tried and tested titles through 2024. Of the top 200 titles by average MAUs across Xbox, PlayStation and Steam from January to November 2024, 34 (17%) were first published this year. Around a third (11) of the titles were premium, single player experiences. Uptake of single player titles is typically strongest close to the release date, as they have a short window of 2-4 weeks to make an impact. Meanwhile, live service titles have a much longer lifespan as their consistent content updates keep gamers engaged long term, often maintaining their position in the top 200 despite being a few years old.

The top title released in 2024 by average MAUs (for the months it has been on the market) was EA Sports FC 25 (EA). Published in September, it averaged at around 12m MAUs across three months. The second most popular title was Helldivers 2 (Sony), available on PlayStation and Steam it has amassed around 7m MAUs on average between February and November 2024. Sony’s relationship with live service has several peaks and valleys, while Helldivers 2 represents a success, the publisher pulled Concord – its hero shooter – from sale around two weeks after launch in September 2024. While the company has not altered its goal of launching six live service titles by March 2026, it will no doubt be applying the lessons it has learned in 2024 moving forward. Other key titles include Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science), Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom), and Palworld (Pocket Pair) as the third, fourth, and fifth most popular 2024 releases.

*Data covers January to November, across Xbox, PlayStation and Steam - some games are not available across all platforms.