Playtime slump: Fortnite, Apex, CoD fall
Newzoo data shows major playtime drops this cycle — Fortnite down 29%, Apex down 24% and Call of Duty down 33%, while sandbox titles gained ground x status. Sports titles also slid as a share of total playtime from 84% to 79%, signaling real player churn across genres x status.
[Newzoo reported]investgame.net that the long tail is expanding — titles ranked 21+ captured a growing slice of engagement on PC, with Rank 21+ playtime up 44% from 2022 to 2025. The [firm framed]investgame.net the market as being at an "inflection point," pointing to stretched hardware cycles and rising development costs as reasons players are becoming more selective about where they spend time. Annual sports franchises showed concrete erosion: EA Sports FC experienced a 13% playtime decline in 2025 per Newzoo data shared by Matheus [Gamer reported]soccergaming.com, and [GamesIndustry noted]gamesindustry.biz that Call of Duty and Battlefield "struggled to stand out" during the 2025 holiday window. Industry [coverage flagged]dexerto.com that sandbox and open-world titles gained playtime share as match-based battle royales lost engagement, a trend also summarized in Sportskeeda's write-up of the Newzoo findings. sportskeeda.com
