Newzoo says games outside the Top 20 are taking a bigger share of playtime and revenue

Games outside the yearly Top 20 are becoming a bigger part of the PC and console business in Western markets, according to Newzoo’s latest data. The shift is most noticeable on PC, where lower-ranked games grew their revenue share from 48% in 2022 to 56% in 2025, while their share of playtime climbed from 33% to 45%.

That doesn’t mean the biggest hits suddenly stopped dominating. On console especially, spending is still heavily concentrated around major franchises. But Newzoo’s numbers suggest there’s more room than before for games below the very top to make real money and hold players’ attention.

The firm says premium releases and older catalog titles helped drive the PC change across the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

Some of the games called out in the report include Path of Exile 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, along with older games that are still pulling weight like Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Skyrim. Newzoo also says shooters lost some ground while action RPGs and survival games gained.

On PlayStation, games outside the Top 20 made up 38% of revenue in 2025, up from 33% in 2022. Their share of playtime also rose by 32% over the same stretch. Newzoo points to first-party action-adventure games like God of War Ragnarök, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and The Last of Us Part 2 as major drivers there, with adventure and RPGs still leading the platform.

Xbox showed a smaller change. Playtime for games outside the Top 20 grew by 12%, but those titles accounted for just 35% of revenue in 2025. Newzoo suggests Game Pass is part of that gap, since subscriptions can push players toward trying more games without those games generating the same direct spending.