$30 and below is the sweet spot for PC game prices, analyst firm Newzoo finds

Analyst firm Newzoo makes notes of new trends among PC gamers, including the skew towards cheaper games at $30 and below.

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2025 was an interesting year for gaming that saw many breakout hits, including Clair Obscur, Battlefield 6, and indie sensations like Schedule I and Hollow Knight Silksong. When it comes to PC gaming, though, analyst firm Newzoo finds that users on the industry's most open platform will purchase more copies of cheaper ~$30 games--for a number of reasons.

"Sub-$30 titles are capturing a larger share of PC spending," Newzoo says in its latest games industry report.

"New games tend to perform better on PC, since the platform's audience is more dynamic in its preferences."

Newzoo also says that amount of smaller, cheaper games that are capturing increased spending on PC has increased over time:

"The number of games priced below $30 that generated more than $5 million in revenue has increased from 17 games in 2024 to 26 games in 2025, reflecting the commercial impact of breakout titles and viral indie hits."

When considering the variety of platform specifications, this dialing back to cheaper games does make sense to an extent, but it's more than that--some games are mega popular because, in part, of the fiery passion of their fanbases. Many of these games have enjoyed a highly explosive social effect where word of a game spreads like wildfire, and within hours there are suddenly hundreds of thousands of players on Steam alone.

This trend also seems to be extending into 2026, and Slay the Spire 2 is the latest example: The indie hit managed to sell over 3 million copies in its first week, with the game also being exclusively sold on Steam right now via early access.