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Jake Brigstock
Aug 12, 2025
Most Gen Zers spend $0 on dating: Survey
Straight Arrow News / VideoElephant
Gen Z's gaming habits could be the worst thing possible for the industry if a recent study is anything to go by.
Circana is an American market research and technology company and has conducted a study that found younger people spend far less on gaming than those in older age brackets.
As shown in a Wall Street Journal report, 18-to-24-year-olds' gaming spend dropped by almost a quarter in the four weeks ending April 2025 compared to the same timeframe in 2024.
Games that came out during that time included Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and South of Midnight.
The decline in gaming spend among older age groups is significantly less than this, at just one per cent less across the same periods.
Gen Z is spending less in general, with online and retail purchases down by 13 per cent in the first four months of this year compared to last too.
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...
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— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 1 July 2025 at 15:25
Mat Piscatella, senior director and video game industry thought leader at Circana, reposted parts of the analysis and report on BlueSky and followed that up with further thoughts and insight.
In the replies, he posted: "The rug's not just being pulled out from under young people, it's being burned while they're still standing on it.
"They're still playing but engaging more with free-to-play on devices they already have access to."
2025 has been a great year for gaming so far with the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 console and huge titles such as Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Monster Hunter Wilds and Assassin's Creed Shadows to name a few.
But it seems less people in the 18-to-24-year-old bracket have been purchasing these products which could be a worrying trend for the future of the gaming industry as people in this category get older.
Elsewhere from indy100:
- Echoes of the End: How a tiny Icelandic studio made one of the year's hottest indie games
- Gen Z romanticise paying rent and buying groceries: 'We've reached an economic point of no return'
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