Gaming has evolved so much since the days of the Sega Genesis or the Nintendo 64. Where gaming was once straightforward, the rise of new platforms and diverse new studios has opened the hobby up. Between online multiplayer, family game night, and good old-fashioned single-player, the sky's the limit. However, some players are claiming that the rising popularity of multiplayer settings is phasing out single-player games. While the popular part is true, the latter is hard to agree with considering the amount of successful single-player games within the past few years, along with the interests of the general consumer.
Look At The Stats
Titles like Super Mario Odyssey, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and NieR: Automata have taken the single-player market by storm over the past few years, with BOTW having sold over 4.5 million copies in North America by the beginning of 2020. What these titles all have in common is that they each provided a complete single-player experience, especially the third one. Consumers enjoyed the setting, story, music, and aesthetics; it's not always just about gameplay.
People Love A Story
All is not as it seems in 2B's sad world in NieR: Automata. There are a lot of perspectives and a lot of plot points that combine beauty, devastation, and to some, utmost confusion about how life really should be. This game was a hit and is considered one of Yoko Taro's defining masterpieces to date. The factors of that success prove that the demand for upholding the craft of storytelling in gaming will ensure the single-player setting always exists.
To get a firsthand opinion of this, I spoke with a group of young gamers about the kinds of games they enjoy and are most likely to purchase. "I like games that are either enjoyable to play when I'm relaxing (ie: Harvest Moon) or games that offer a unique storyline and tells their story through excerpts (ie: NieR)," one person said.
Quality Never Discriminates
AAA games aren't the only ones invited to the party. The indie farming sim game Stardew Valley is a hit that's sold over 3.5 million copies. Players love the story of the small town fighting against the power of big corporations and working towards restoring their home to its former glory. There's also a lot of character development among the villagers themselves, along with threads of family dysfunction and problems like depression and alcoholism. This is the kind of raw storytelling that consumers will always like to see in single-player games and the kind that every game company's writers room should familiarize themselves with.
There's A Big Difference
People tend to confuse obsolete with trendy, when in reality they are two completely different things. Just because one thing under an umbrella of categories is all the rage doesn't mean it will stay at the top forever. In fact, it makes sense for the multiplayer category to be more popular right now because the pandemic is forcing people to social distance and it's a way for people to connect with their friends while staying safe apart. Obsolete is VCRs being no longer needed thanks to tapeless DVDs, because who really had the patience to reroll the insides of a film eaten by the machine?
All People Don't Like The Same Thing
All in all, single-player games will always be in demand due to what tends to be the varied differences in people's preference for games. There's a reason people nicknamed League of Legends "League of Salt."
"The competitive ones, you're going to find a bunch of ragers," someone else in the group conversation pointed out. "I'd rather not have to deal with that toxicity," another person said in agreement. These answers paint a clear picture that the single-player game market is still strong. The environment of online gaming is really stressful for certain people, which is why they tend to lean toward the more easygoing single play settings. So unless all introverts somehow phase out out existence, games like Zelda and Fire Emblem will always have a market.
Rest assured, single-player games are not, and never will be VCRs.
Source: Statista , DualShockers , Boing Boing