Throughout the last decade, the games industry has been chasing Fortnite. Trying to replicate the recipe for success in order to land a sure-fire stream of income for years to come. And in 2026, chasing after that permanent income stream seems to be costing publishers, and players, more than ever.

Data collected last year reveals that new games represented just 13% of PC and console gaming hours in 2025. Meanwhile, games over the age of six accounted for a whopping 54%, led by Roblox, Fortnite and Call of Duty (Newzoo's 2026 PC & console report, via Game World Observer). Of the 19 new live-service games released last year, 15 are unable to hold on to a fifth of their peak concurrent player counts (TheGamer).

For example, Supervie’s all time high of 47,913 concurrent players is already a distant memory, with the game only mustering a peak of 284 this month. It’s not all bad news, but it’s clear that players are growing fatigued by FOMO-inducing live service titles, preferring to pour their time and money into games they already know and love, unless they are presented with something truly special.

It seems that the fatigue lies with the commitment element of live-service games: battle passes that expire, events that come around infrequently and reward players with shiny new loot, essentially turning a leisure activity into an obligation, which is an unpaid job that must be slotted into diaries. It isn’t that people aren’t hungry for games, just tired of live-service games that demand their daily presence.

Even long-running live-service game Destiny 2 is feeling the effects, with Bungie confirming back in June that it had completed its final Destiny 2 update, leaving its live universe in a static position until further notice. Bungie now has all of its eggs in Marathon’s basket, which was met with mixed reviews upon its release back in March and is currently struggling to be the breakout hit the company is counting on (Engadget).

Thankfully, there are games out there that offer live-service-esque progression without the FOMO factor. Warbonds in Helldivers 2 never expire. Deep Rock Galactic’s Seasonal rewards are limited to purely cosmetic customisation, rather than game-altering additions that are then missed out on if players aren’t online at the correct time.

More and more developers seem to be taking notes, scaling back on weekly releases in favour of bigger-but-further-between content drops. 2026 could very well be the year of the live-service shake-up, with only those that respect their playerbase, by letting players walk away guilt- and consequence-free, still standing come New Year.

Written by

Dee