Nowadays, flagship 3A games that focus on stylized graphics are very rare, and major game studios are increasingly obsessed with chasing ultra-realistic graphics. But as the market analysis agency NewZoo pointed out in a recent study: "The most popular games in the world are not the games with the highest graphics fidelity" - such as "Minecraft" and "Robulus".
Although this is obvious - after all, these two games have been at the top of the list of the most played games in the world for many years, NewZoo's research found that compared with other player groups, players of "Minecraft" and "Robulus" are much less likely to play new flagship 3A games. The core reason is that they are not interested in realistic graphics.
"There is a view that these players will temporarily leave the games they often play to experience stand-alone content, and then return to service-based games." NewZoo consulting director Ben Porter explained in an interview with gamesindustry.biz during the Game Developers Conference (GDC). "To a certain extent, this statement is true, but we found that for a large number of "traditionally high-quality games" recognized by the industry, the proportion of Roblox players playing is much lower than the industry average."
Of course, this does not mean that these flagship AAA games are unpopular, nor does it mean that graphic fidelity is meaningless to a large number of players. However, the huge success of independent games, works such as "Robulus", and UGC content such as "Steal a Brainrot" on the platform have just shown that the importance of picture fidelity is far from being as high as many game studios expected.
"I think the industry has changed over the past decade, and the idea of chasing the ultimate in graphics is gradually fading. The most popular games in the world today have never been the ones with the highest graphics fidelity," Porter said. "The interpretation of the data is that the probability of players of "Robulus" playing "Monster Hunter: Wildlands" is only 40% of that of ordinary players - this data refers specifically to users of PlayStation and Xbox console platforms. "
You might think that players of Minecraft and Roblox would turn to independent games that focus on gameplay, especially since the core users of this group are young players with limited spending power, but the reality is that such players only account for a small part of this group.
"We did find that for games such as Cute Brawler, Among Us, and Total War Simulator, the proportion of Roblox players playing is much higher than the industry average." Porter said, "Although this group of players still does not account for a high proportion of the overall group, they are indeed attracted to such games, and the experience of these games is highly similar to the content that players can access on the Roblox platform."
Porter said that the highest degree of user overlap is in other service-oriented games. He explained: "We analyzed the data and found that players of Roblox and Minecraft are also playing a large number of other top service games that are among the top ten in the world."
NewZoo’s research data shows that the user overlap rate of “Fortnite” and “Roblox” players is 55%, and the overlap rate with “Minecraft” players is 46%; the overlap rates of “Grand Theft Auto 5” and the two are 28% and 25% respectively; “Call of Duty” ranks third, with overlap rates of 26% and 22% respectively.
Players of "Minecraft" and "Roblox" will indeed expand their game scope and try AAA games, but NewZoo's research results show that the probability of them playing AAA games is much lower than the probability of playing those phenomenal service-oriented games.