A new survey has revealed that around 60% of gamers in the US only purchase one or two games a year at most, with 10% buying games on a monthly basis. The results come from data gathered in Circana’s Q3 2025 Future of Video Game survey, revealing some surprising results about the spending rate on video games in one of the biggest markets in the world.

The data, shared by Mat Piscatella, revealed that around 18% of gamers purchase a new video game once every six months. Around 12% buy one new game a year. The survey later reveals that 33% of gamers purchase a new game less often than once a year, bringing the total percentage of gamers who purchase around one to two games a year to just above 60%. On the other hand, 22% of gamers buy a new game once every three months, while 10% say they buy games once a month. Only 4% of gamers buy more than one game a month.



This spending rate isn’t all too surprising given the current, expensive state of gaming at the moment. Nintendo was the first to pull the trigger on an $80 price tag for Mario Kart World; a domino effect that pushed other publishers to also price their games similarly – with the exception of Xbox, which caught a lot of backlash for attempting to price The Outer Worlds 2 at $80. This decision was later reversed, though it probably won’t stop another price increase next year.

Piscatella addressed the cost of gaming affecting the spending of US gamers but also acknowledged the rise of free-to-play games like Fortnite and Marvel Rivals, meaning most gamers are less inclined to actually spend money on new games when F2P titles remain the popular and, in most cases if you avoid microtransactions, less costly option:

“Been talking about this trend for years when it comes to games spending. Why are there premium gamepads, $149 collector’s editions, Pro consoles and general rising prices? Because the price-insensitive, affluent players are the ones doing more of the spending as everyone else shifts more to free-to-play.”