The gaming industry is undergoing significant changes, largely due to the dominance of Epic Games and its games.

Mat Piscatella, an analyst at Circana (formerly NPD Group), commented on the latest game sales data and noted that U.S. spending on game subscriptions hit a record $600 million in May 2025, growing for the third consecutive month. Piscatella believes this uptick is connected to inflation and general economic uncertainty, which drives consumers to seek out value—a value that services like Xbox Game Pass can provide.

Responding to a user who said subscription services are killing the games industry, Piscatella argued that live service games like Fortnite are a far bigger threat to the industry than platforms like Xbox Game Pass. The top ten live service games account for nearly half of all hours played on PlayStation and Xbox, squeezing out most other games before they have a chance to catch on. The analyst highlights in every presentation that Fortnite is the biggest rival to any new game or live service launch.

Compared to what Epic Games’ flagship title, Minecraft, and Roblox can do, nothing else really matters. This is not the first time this week we’ve heard that it’s becoming harder to compete with the likes of Fortnite. Just a few days ago, a former Square Enix business executive delivered a deep dive into the current state of the industry and how the transition to a social network era for games is shaping the future.

The lesson: there are too many games, too few players, and not enough time. In other words, not everyone should be pushing the live service model—especially since these games are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to long-term preservation.

Source: WCCFTech, Bsky, Bsky