Players actively delay purchasing a game past its release month, waiting an average of five months in anticipation of discounts.

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, November 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- According to a new report from the world’s largest marketplace for digital entertainment, G2A.COM, and PC and console games market intelligence firm Newzoo, 73% of premium gamers view new releases as overpriced at launch and actively delay buying until prices fall. The report titled ‘Game purchasing behavior in an era of choice’, based on insights from more than 6,000 respondents, provides a detailed examination of the way that today’s PC and console players are dealing with higher prices, attitudes to discounts, the impact of subscriptions on game sales, and more ways than ever to buy games. Beyond price sensitivity, the findings reveal a broader shift in how gamers navigate an increasingly diverse purchasing ecosystem, balancing value, convenience, availability and choice across different purchasing channels.

Newzoo surveyed 6,166 respondents from the UK, US, Germany, Poland, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. The respondents selected were defined as ‘premium gamers’, meaning they were active PC or console players aged between 18 and 55 who had purchased or played at least one AAA/AA game in the past year. The data was weighted against Newzoo’s Global Gamer Study to ensure representative age and gender profiles across all regions.

Key Findings:
The Discount Sweet Spot: On average, premium gamers wait until a game’s price is discounted by 29% (when it starts to feel "reasonably priced") to 45% (when it becomes a "good deal"). However, among the same gamers, around 70% is the average point where suspicions are raised about a game’s quality or relevance.

Price Drops are Trending: 45% of respondents delay their game purchases in anticipation of discounts or price drops. On the flip side, 37% take advantage of pre-order deals or early discounts before or during a game’s first month.

Launch Month No Longer Dominates: 58% of games are purchased more than a month after launch, with 36% of all purchases occurring more than six months after release.

Subscriptions Change Spending Habits: While 44% of premium subscription users report buying fewer individual games since subscribing, 54% say they spend more on games overall with a subscription.

More Spent on Add-Ons and Subscriptions: Across all markets, premium gamers spend an average of $368 each year on games, subscriptions and add-ons. Up to 36% of subscribers also favour buying in-game items for titles accessed through subscriptions, compared to up to 19% who favour investing in games they own outright.

Beyond Official Stores: The Role of Alternative Purchasing Channels. While official storefronts lead overall browsing, alternative storefronts, including third-party marketplaces (24%) and authorised resellers (16%), play a meaningful role in competitive pricing and providing access to specific digital content, harder-to-find offers, and a wide range of purchasing options.

“Today’s gamers are making increasingly deliberate purchasing decisions. They’re not simply looking for lower prices, but weighing when, where and how to buy, taking into account convenience, availability and choice. This research highlights why a diverse digital commerce ecosystem matters: different purchasing channels serve different consumer needs, and empowering players with more options is essential to the future of gaming,” said Katarzyna Jakubiec, Chief Business Officer at G2A.COM.

"The data shows that the commercial journey for new releases is now longer ever, often going well beyond launch,” said Alexis Pamboris, Research Director at Newzoo. "With nearly 60% of purchases occurring later than release month, publishers need long-term monetisation strategies that go well beyond the first week or month. Subscriptions and timed discounts aren't destroying revenue. In fact, they act as vital discovery tools that keep players active and increase overall spending."

Download the Report from: https://newzoo.com/reports/game-purchasing-behavior-in-an-era-of-choice

###ENDS###

Press Kit: https://bit.ly/Newzoo-G2A-Report
Press Contact: communications@g2a.com

About G2A.COM
G2A.COM is the world's largest marketplace for digital entertainment, serving over 35 million users from 180 countries with more than 200 million visits in 2025. As a true gateway to digital entertainment and a rapidly evolving digital ecosystem, G2A.COM gives access to over 125,000 digital offerings, including vouchers, games, DLCs, in-game items, and non-gaming items such as gift cards, subscriptions, software, or e-learning, sold by sellers from all over the world. A compliance-driven organization audited by Deloitte for over a decade, G2A.COM is a leader in online security, recognized by the prestigious American CNP Award alongside industry giants like Microsoft and PayPal. Today, the company is a key gateway for recognized global brands, leveraging its scalable infrastructure to drive the next phase of e-commerce through agentic AI and global M&A - continuously expanding its role as the Gate 2 Adventure in the digital world.

About Newzoo
With nearly 20 years of expertise, Newzoo delivers actionable insights spanning title-level engagement and revenue metrics, gamer research, market sizing and forecasts, and store intelligence to support strategic and operational decisions across the entire game lifecycle.

Trusted by the world’s leading game developers, publishers, investors, and media, Newzoo is widely recognized as the definitive source of PC and console games market intelligence.

www.newzoo.com

Communications Team
G2A Group
communications@g2a.com
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