Video game spending has dropped almost 25% amongst young people
Gaming has never been the cheapest of hobbies, but it has undeniably become more expensive in recent years, to the point that many have had to cut back their spending.
Not only has the price of consoles gone up, with the Nintendo Switch 2's £395.99 price tag considered affordable by comparison, but so have the games. The ninth generation began with Sony insisting it had to start charging £70 for games and now we have Nintendo asking up to £75 for Mario Kart World.
Regardless of where you stand on whether such price increases accurately reflect the value of the games, there's no doubt that they're a key factor in why spending on gaming as a whole is seeing a decline, especially amongst young adults.
Matt Piscatella, executive director and industry analyst at Circana, has shared a chart on Bluesky collating data on the average weekly spending among adults aged 18 to 24 in the US, within the four weeks ending in April 2025.
Aside from gaming, the data covers spending on things like houseware, accessories, and clothing.
Compared to the same period of time in 2024, there have been sharp declines in spending among young adults in all areas, with gaming seeing the largest impact – a drop of nearly 25%.
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For what it's worth, video game spending among all other age groups hasn't declined as much, but it's still dropped by about 1 or 2%. This isn't universal among other industries though, with spending on sports equipment and beauty products up this year.
Video game spend among 18 to 24's is down sharply."Young grads are having a much tougher time finding jobs. Student-loan payments are restarting for millions of borrowers… credit-card delinquency rates have risen to their highest points since before the pandemic…"www.wsj.com/personal-fin… — Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2025-07-01T14:25:35.367Z
While this data is specifically for the US, spending habits between it and the UK aren't dissimilar, so it's safe to assume that more or less the same applies here. Even if it didn't, the US is a massive and important market for the games industry, so this should still be cause for concern amongst games companies.
This all lines up with past data. Last year, chip company AMD (which both Sony and Microsoft are partnering with on their next consoles) admitted that demand for gaming had become 'quite weak.'
Earlier this year, another Circana report revealed that more than 70% of active PlayStation 5 and Xbox players in the US were dedicating a significant amount of time to playing at least one of the 10 most popular live service games, such as Fortnite, Call Of Duty, and Roblox, rather than any new releases. More Trending
A big part of this is because they're free-to-play, so there's less of a barrier to entry. As such, anyone who enjoys games but can't justify spending upwards of £80 on new releases is more likely to shift their attention to free-to-play fare.
This in turn stands to further incentivise studios into making live service games, which earn their money through microtransactions; a strategy Sony has obsessively chased for years, with very little success beyond Helldivers 2 (which wasn't even made in-house).
But even that isn't guaranteed to address the industry's woes, as evidenced by how many live service games have crashed and burned over the years. This is best exemplified by a March report that showed the vast majority of PC players are not only primarily playing live service games, but ones that were at least two years old.
With the likes of Counter-Strike and League Of Legends still holding a fierce chokehold on the market, what chance do any new live service games have?
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Looking at him I can see why companies are so desperate to make a live service game but also how pointless it is, because they're not really interested in the game, just the community it creates. Publishers are training whole generations of young people not to bother paying for video games, or even to play them properly, and that is obviously going to bite them on the ass sooner or later. Tepes Accurate predictions Remember when people were trying to pretend it was fearmongering, saying that the Activision Blizzard acquisition would lead to job cuts? 6,000 people in less than two years is just disgusting. It'd be terrible whatever the situation, but it also clearly means the end of Xbox. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Going multiformat is one thing but with what games? Who's going to make their games if they keep laying everyone off? And I see the rumours (which have got everything right so far) say this isn't even the final round of layoffs! People say Xbox is turning into Activision, but I don't think they realise just how accurate that is. The whole Xbox brand is based around Call Of Duty now and the future is going to see anyone that isn't involved with creating it either laid off or turned into a support studio. Well done, Phil! You're doing great! Benjy Dog Not that shocked The games industry really is shocking. I don't know what's worse: Microsoft and the other big players regularly axing jobs or Romero Games instantly firing everyone seemingly within 24 hours of losing some funding. Were they running the company that badly that they knew they'd face instant bankruptcy if they didn't? It's not like they're young inexperienced people, that don't know the risks. And you'd think for a company with a bit under 100 employees there would be more of a personal feeling of responsibility to them and to work out a plan. But instead, it seems like they just decided to cut everyone while they find another partner. And as usual, it's the people actually making the game taking the hit. Tim Email your comments to: gamecentral@ Hope springs eternal I've been playing quite a bit of the Perfect Dark remaster recently, as well as doing the campaign of Halo: Combat Evolved (via the Master Chief Collection), having never played the original. Perfect Dark still holds up very well, with its level design and gun variety. Halo, on the other hand, seems to be of its time, with several parts a slog to get through (I finally get to experience why the Library level was so poorly received back in the day). With the cancellation of the Perfect dark sequel and Halo having struggled to make a comeback in recent generations, it's a sorry state of affairs for these two franchises. Is it safe (and sad) to say Perfect Dark will never return? ttfp saylow (gamertag) GC: Never say never, but it's very hard to imagine it making it a comeback within the next 10 years. Warts and all People can be disappointed with some of the things in Mario Kart World and I get that – it's not quite what I imagined either – but dammit it is a ton of fun. I've just spent all afternoon playing Knockout Tour online and while I didn't win a single one, I had a ton of fun. It's just a great game and while there's obvious ways it could be improved that doesn't mean what's there isn't good. I'm happy with it and so is everyone I've played it with. I do wonder why Diddy Kong isn't in it though. Is he going to be added when the new game comes out as well? 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His previous games speak for themselves, but every successful person gets to the point where they start believing their own hype and Intergalactic has the whiff of that about it. We badly need a new story-based exclusive on PlayStation 5 though, so I hope it turns out to be a good one. And the other secret one, whatever it is. I feel like everything Sony has been doing this gen has been pulling away from the PlayStation 4 and while everyone's hoping that they U-turn on it all they've never said they're going to. I don't think they've even admitted things have changed. The further we get away from it, the more obvious it is that the PlayStation 4 was the sweet spot for Sony and probably gaming as a whole. Amazing graphics but just cheap enough to make and turn a profit. I can only hope we get back to that soon but in these last few years we've already lost Xbox, so who knows what other disasters are coming. Casper Call of Battlefield I used to play all the Battlefield series. They were fantastic and the graphics were phenomenal. Then came Battlefield 2042, what an absolute disaster… disappointing! I am sure I am talking for hundreds of thousands of other players. The battleships were fantastic but the game had too many players going all over the place. Just too many players, it was a mess… a disaster. Look at how Call Of Duty does it. Anon Summer gaming Some excellent summer games choices by GC viewers and awesome to have Mario Kart World have Wave Race style courses. Although this summer may be taken up by another game designed by a certain Kojima character. I think, generally speaking, the second Death Stranding game has been accepted by most gamers as another classic, which is probably incomparable to anything else other than the first game in this series. I'll be getting stuck into this game soon but even though I'll be avoiding spoilers, I would be very surprised if it meant anything as by the time I get to that point in the game, I'd probably have context and only then understand it… possibly understand it! Straight away, from a brief play of Death Stranding, the controls and menu functions are reminiscent of Kojima's design methods for the last couple of decades, with the familiar sounds and cursor operations all ringing true to Metal Gear and other games by the famous designer. Things I noticed are graphical moments which always make me double take, such as the lifelike characters models, which have definitely come a long way since the last title. I came in on a Twitch content creator's stream recently and saw a photo opportunity with three girls and literally thought they were real people on the screen, until I realised it was Death Stranding 2 I was watching. The concept of what is technically a walking simulator at first has always fascinated me. I can't wait to see the new methods of transport you get to experience as the world's exploration opens up to the player. Obviously, the other main draw is the acting by some very well-known actors including Troy Baker, Elle Fanning, Léa Seydoux, and of course Norman Reedus. These actors and the others show the seriousness of the game Kojima imagines and wants shown to play out the far out and deep nature of the tale. Of course, the music will be epic and well thought out, plus the original score taking us through the many moments of cinematic events. So chuffed to finally be playing another game of the year contender with another big congratulations to Hideo Kojima the dream maker, continuing to take us on a journey through his unique mind. Alucard Inbox also-ransI wish I was Phil Spencer. I could do whatever I want, get paid millions, and then when everything goes wrong and none of my plans work… absolutely nothing happens. Focus Xbox is one thing but when I see crazy things like having 100 million people playing Battlefield 6 I begin to wonder whether there's anyone sane in charge anywhere in the games industry. Bagley More Trending Email your comments to: gamecentral@ The small print New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers' letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader's Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don't forget to follow us on Twitter. MORE: Select Games Inbox: Has Xbox become irrelevant this generation?Games Inbox: Has Xbox become irrelevant this generation? 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