Deep Strategy Games Are Now Less Popular Among Players, Study Suggests

A new study suggests that gamers are starting to become less interested in playing titles that feature deep strategy mechanics despite the rise of games in this genre.

The report, released by Quantic Foundry, collected nine years' worth of data from the researcher's own Gamer Motivation Profile tool. This was used to track how appealing different aspects of games are to different people.

Are Strategy Games Less Popular?

Deep Strategy Games Are Now Less Popular Among Players, Study Suggests — A new report by Quantic Foundry suggests that gamers are less interested in strategy games that require deep thinking and making complex decisions.
(Photo : Slavic Magic, Hooded Horse / Screenshot taken from Steam)

The categories that were included are Destruction, Excitement, Competition, Community, Challenge, Strategy, Completion, Power, Fantasy, Story, Discovery, and Design. Quantic Foundry also looked back on what has motivated gamers over the years.

The researcher found that all of these categories have remained relatively consistent, except for one, which is Strategy.

The summary of the report states that gamers who score high on this particular component enjoy games that require careful decision-making and planning. These are people who like to think through their options and potential outcomes.

It added that these may be decisions related to balancing resources and completing goals, managing foreign diplomacy, or finding optimal strategies. These types of gamers tend to enjoy both tactical combat in games such as XCOM or Fire Emblem, according to IGN.

But across Quantic Foundry's 1.7 million surveys, it found that roughly two-thirds of strategy fans all over the world, except China, "have a very different gaming motivation profile."

It added that they have lost interest in this element of video games as 67% of gamers today care less about strategic thinking and planning compared to those from 2015.

The researcher also said that when they looked for long-term trends across the 12 motivations, they discovered that many motivations were stable or experienced only minor deviations. Quantic Foundry noted that Strategy was the exception as it had a significant drop in the last nine years.

While the company analyzed the trend, it could not find any distinct separations between many factors, such as men and women or gamers who were based in or out of the United States. The researcher likened its report to other trends related to a decrease in attention span.

The Future of the Genre

The summary also noted that there are many seemingly related findings in terms of other media consumption habits. Gamers, overall, now prefer shorter time horizons to plan for. They also prefer less complex decisions that rely on fewer parameters to consider, said Digital Trends.

This comes despite many strategy games coming out recently that have become widely acclaimed, such as Manor Lords, developed by Slavic Magic and published by Hooded Horse. This game was released in April on Steam in early access and immediately sold 1 million copies in its first 24 hours.

Despite Quantic Foundry's report, SteamData showed that strategy games have grown since 2015 and as of 2022, have peaked at more than 2,400 titles being released. Moreover, the percentage of strategy titles that have been launched has stayed relatively consistent.

The genre has made up 6% to around 7% of games that have been released per year since 2016. Some titles have also seen slight growth or steady coasting in the years post-release, according to GameDeveloper.