Three-quarters of gamers play multiplayer, says Unity report
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Unity released its latest report, this one on the popularity of multiplayer games. According to the report, out of the people who game, 77% of those play multiplayer titles. This is in part due to the social aspects of multiplayer gaming, as several gamers report they decide what to play based around what their friends are already playing.
Unity published this report in sync with an update to its UGS Multiplayer solutions. The new update includes several tools, including the ability to scale to millions of players. It also includes improved matchmaking and the official launch of Netcode for Game Objects.
According to the report, multiplayer titles have seen a spike of engagement this year. Jeff Collins, Unity’s SVP of engineering, told GamesBeat in an interview, “I think that during the pandemic there were more people playing games, which motivated studios to make more exciting, new content, and that continued through to this year. The new games and the consistent content seems to have maintained the engagement even though we’re getting back to normal post-pandemic life.”
Collins added, “Multiplayer gaming will continue to increase in popularity. I think we’ll see cross-play becoming tablestakes and more walled gardens come down, removing the barriers for people to play with one another across any device. I predict we’ll see growing interest in user generated content and potentially see new models of a creator economy. “
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