Newzoo: Games Being Released During the Holiday Season Is Not Just Outdated; It's Counterproductive

In the Global Games Market Report 2025, Newzoo's market researchers examined the release period for AAA titles in recent years. They concluded that releasing games during the holiday season is outdated and counterproductive.

Newzoo has published this year's free edition of the Global Games Market Report. However, the report by the market researchers not only covers the forecast for 2025 and beyond (as reported by GamesMarkt), but also delves into a number of topics in more depth. These include data-driven launch insights and the modernisation of release windows, for example.

Through analysing AAA releases from 2021 to 2024, they found that releasing games during the holidays would lead to sales being cannibalised. They described this release strategy as not just outdated, but counterproductive. According to their analysis, games released in the less crowded first half of the year (February to May) performed 34% better on average than those released in the more crowded second half of the year (August to November).

Newzoo: "This means nearly half of all single-player titles launched during this three-month window each year from 2021-2024, resulting in avoidable cannibalization of players as publishers compete over the same time and wallet share. Aug-Nov releases performed 34% worse, on average, compared to February-May. Even when excluding smash hits like Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy underperform by 25%."

Although the data is based on single-player titles, Newzoo believes that the same principles can be applied to multiplayer games, where establishing a stable community is even more crucial. According to Newzoo, releasing games in months that are less crowded, particularly the second quarter, can greatly enhance their visibility and long-term performance.

Furthermore, Newzoo examined the duration of Early Access releases and found that titles released within four to nine months (the sweet spot is six months) of their Early Access release tend to perform better in terms of acquiring new players and reactivating existing ones. Newzoo's recommendation is to "treat Early Access as a pre-launch marketing campaign, not an open-ended dev phase".

The market researchers have also commented on the majority of player losses: "Most player attrition occurs within the first four weeks and flattens by week 12. Longer main stories reduce player attrition, and games with more management and simulation elements retain more players over the long term."

Never miss anything from the German, Swiss and Austrian games industry again: subscribe for free to our Daily newsletter and get all news straight to your inbox.