How many Games do you play in a year?

[Brian Boru]

In a galaxy far, far away…

I don't play a lot of different games over the course of a year (probably less than 20=25), but when I find one that I really like it's not uncommon for me to play several hundred hours if it's an open world-type game

Let's say "play" means more than 2 hours—ie past Steam refund time —and let's also exclude demos. Just 'normal' game playing.

I doubt I hit 20-25 a year. I'm mainly a strategy and open world player, both of which lend themselves to long play times and many replays. We're already 1/3 thru 2022 and I can only recall 5 games I've put time into. Current is my first deep dive into Civ6, so that's going to last a long time—I could easily end this year under 10 games.

 

[Zloth]

I think @Johnway may need to use scientific notation to answer properly.

Let's see 158 games played on Steam over 17 years. A few more bought in a store or played on GOG. I would call it around 10 per year.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I'm not sure, but having Game Pass is making that number be a lot higher than it used to be. I can try out a lot of games without risking paying for a game I won't like.

 

[Colif]

Probably one game a year?

I go long stretches playing nothing. Lets just say very few new releases interest me enough to actually bother buying them and playing them. No games so far this year.

 

[Pifanjr]

I got about 50 games on Steam I put more than 2 hours in over 14 years of being a member. I'm not sure how many games I play outside of Steam, but even Steam is only half or 1/3 of all games I play (which I kind of doubt), that would still put me around 10 games a year or less. Though that's assuming I play each game only once of course. I see about 13 games on my Steam list that I have come back to multiple times and there's probably some not on Steam as well. So let's say I replay about 5 games a year as well, I get to maybe 10-15 games a year.

So far I'm at 4 I think, so that seems to check out.

 

[Brian Boru]

very few new releases interest me enough

Just wondering… what would it take in a new release to catch your eye?

 

[Colif]

I don't know

it will surprise me.

 

[Ryzengang]

Things have gotten pretty slow for me recently. Frankly, I really don't have a great idea of how many games I complete, but I do play a good amount on my Switch these days, so I do probably get through a decent number altogether. Only considering games over 2 hours definitely makes it easier. I'll admit that as I've gotten busier I've become fairly ruthless with trying out games. If I'm not grabbed within an hour its getting uninstalled. I just have too many games and too little time, not even accounting for future releases that I'll no doubt pick up.

All things considered, I would say 20 games per year is a decent estimate. This does include short indie titles though, and if I only considered games that I've actually sunk a substantial (10/15+ hours) amount of time into, this number would be a fair amount smaller.

 

[mainer]

As you saw from the quote in the Elex 2 post, I'm probably under the 20-25 mark, mainly because I can spend so many hours in a game that I love, sometimes in the hundreds of hours if it's an open world. The number of games I play per year also varies year to year, sometimes more, sometimes less, so it's difficult to pinpoint an accurate total.

This year for example, I'll probably spend 6-8 weeks in Elex 2, and once Starfield releases in November, that will consume all my free hours for both Nov & Dec. I also have Mass Effect Legendary penciled in to play this year at some point, just waiting on one specific mod for that one. Those 3 games alone will consume about 5 moths of out of this year, so this could be one of those years that I don't play a lot of different games, but invest heavily in the ones I do play.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

There's a big difference between how many games I touch and how many get played significantly, especially since Gamepass came along.

Seems in the last year to this day according to GOG Galaxy I've started up 56 different games. Out of those roughly 26 have been played for more than a couple of hours.

 

[FreezerBurn]

Thankfully the question is how many games do you play in a year, and not how many games do you finish in a year.

 

[Frindis]

I think around 30-40 games would be accurate. A lot I'll play for maybe 3-4 hours before I move on to something more interesting or jump back into those I like the most.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Thankfully the question is how many games do you play in a year, and not how many games do you finish in a year.

Absolutely!

 

[Pifanjr]

I hadn't really considered mobile games when I answered this. When I still took the bus to work every day I went through a lot of free mobile games trying to find something interesting. Since working from home I've all but stopped.

once Starfield releases in November, that will consume all my free hours for both Nov & Dec.

You'll have to find something else to do for November and December as Starfield was just delayed until 2023.

 

[mainer]

@Pifanjr - Yeah, I was really sad when I read that yesterday. I was really looking forward to Starfield (well, I still am, but I'll be looking a bit longer). I'm sure Tod wouldn't have bumped the release date if it weren't necessary, so I'm glad he did it now instead of waiting until Sept or Oct. This is a new IP for Bethesda, so I know they want to get everything right.

On the bright side, it does mean 2 big RPGs releasing next year in Starfield & Baldur's Gate 3, so I'm already psyched for next year. I'm sure I'll be able to fill in Oct & Nov with some replays of older games