Single-player games aren’t dead – and they’re not going anywhere

The video game industry tends to be volatile, with entire genres going in and out of vogue. We’ve seen fighting games, RPGs, platformers, FMV games, and real-time strategy all declared as dead as the dodo. This has extended to the entire concept of single-player games, with a multiplayer-focused industry trying to pivot away from the solo experience. 

2025 has proven that single-player games are not only alive but thriving. Narrative-focused experiences rank among the year’s top games, as do some brutally challenging action games meant to be tackled alone. Hopefully, this results in a push for more single-player content, especially in an era when so many live service titles keep collapsing. 

The Escapist recaps

• When Grand Theft Auto 6 was pushed back to 2026, 2025 became a blank slate for new releases to make their mark. 
• With a few exceptions, 2025 has been a year for smash hit single-player games, especially among the indies. 
• The Game Awards 2025 is being dominated by games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. 
• It wasn’t that long ago that the industry as a whole was predicting the death of single-player games, especially when companies like Sony went in hard on live-service titles. 

Why did the industry & fanbase think single-player games were dying? 

Money talks. It’s the same in every industry, but especially true in video games, where big productions cost a lot of cash to make. The bigger the project, the safer the bet the publisher will want, if they wish to see a return on their investment. 

Indeed, some entities have no problem taking a risk on a novel idea, such as Nintendo, resulting in some of the most unusual games of all time. There are also companies with too much money to fail, such as Valve, that can produce what they want without it ever affecting their bottom line.

Those are the exceptions, rather than the rule, and in an industry where multiplayer titles started pulling in millions and billions of dollars of profit, everyone wanted a piece of the pie. 

Games like Fortnite, Roblox, Pokémon Go, Call of Duty: Warzone, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Marvel Rivals, Destiny 2, and GTA Online bring in shocking amounts of money each year. The fact that this cash comes in regularly, with no end in sight, means companies are salivating over the prospect of making the next big multiplayer hit.

By contrast, single-player games lack a steady revenue stream. Even the big hits will quickly find their audience and then taper off. It’s rare (but not unheard of) for games to have a second life of popularity after launch. 

It’s easy to see why many companies leaned heavily into multiplayer experiences, as there was more potential for money in that route. Sony made a significant investment, acquiring Bungie for $3.6 billion, with the primary goal of developing live-service games. 

Nostradamus on a bad day could have predicted what happened next – the industry became saturated with multiplayer titles, ones that quickly died after failing to make a splash. Sony suffered its biggest nosebleed ever, with the expensive failure of Concord signaling that the time had come to pull back on live-service titles. 

Sure, some multiplayer titles do find an audience, even in 2025, with ARC Raiders being a smash hit – and rightly so. The problem is that many people are sticking to the big established titles because they know they won’t go anywhere. This means multiplayer games pose a much greater risk than they did a few years ago. 

It’s not just the developers and publishers, either, but the attitude of some gamers. It’s become fashionable to dunk on single-player titles and experiences, with some players almost being embarrassed to play them, while others are bemused by this. 

For example, how many times do we need to hear someone ignorantly declare, “Oh, I don’t play Call of Duty campaigns”, oblivious  to the fact that these are a big part of what made the franchise so beloved – not just its electric multiplayer. Or simply pretending to be oblivious, which is even worse.

The love for single-player games never truly went away

The industry reflects the audience’s tastes, which is why genres often rise and fall in popularity. In 2025, single-player games achieved massive success due to their exceptional quality, regardless of genre. 

Dispatch won over the audience with its incredible characters, world-building, and story progression. It’s the perfect entry point to the weird and wonderful superhero setting, and fans are dying to learn more. All it took was some funny banter, an office romance, and a genuinely great management sim section to make the industry care about Telltale-style story-based games again. 

Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong are two indie games that absolutely killed it with their review scores. The love for brutally hard action games is stronger than ever, even while FromSoftware busies itself with multiplayer experiences. The former focused on the roguelike aspects, with players throwing themselves into an ever more challenging meat grinder, while the latter forced people to get good and master the tools given to them to succeed.

And then there’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the title that’s the current frontrunner for GOTY at most outlets. While Square Enix is busy controrting Final Fantasy into an unrecognisable shape, Sandfall Interactive ate its lunch by making a classic JRPG-style title, with some modern gameplay elements thrown in. Throw in the excellent story and characters, and you can see why so many people love this game.

Those are just a few of the most prominent examples from the past year that have captured the gaming public’s imagination. Turns out, the rumors of the death of single-player games were greatly exaggerated. 

Why everyone should be celebrating the success of single-player games

If the industry continues to follow trends, then studios and publishers will continue to collapse. Making a video game isn’t the same as putting out a ten-second video on TikTok; it takes years of development and a ton of hard work just to finish a single product, regardless of its quality. Concord gave Sony an expensive lesson, as hero shooters were out of vogue by the time it launched. 

The multiplayer boom was never going to last forever, because there are only so many hours in the day, and only so much interest a person can sustain in the same title over and over again. Tastes change and evolve, and while some live-service games will maintain their success for the foreseeable future, they may not be around forever. 

The reason games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Dispatch, and Hollow Knight: Silksong did so well is because it’s clear that they’re labors of love. You can feel it with every second of gameplay. These titles weren’t released to make a quick buck or become the next viral hit; they’re products of a genuine love for the medium, which is why fans love them in turn. 

Sure, live service and multiplayer games are a blast to play, but sometimes, gamers want art, not just gameplay loops. Some of us compare gaming to reading an epic novel, and it’s easy to see why experiences like The Witcher 3, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, or Dispatch could evoke such feelings. There’s more than one way to enjoy video games, and nobody gets to declare one way is better than another.

Of course, then there’s the other side, how following a game like Destiny from the start to The Final Shape can be such a transformative experience for those who’ve invested many years in that story. This manages to tick both boxes: live service multiplayer and the feel of an epic novel. But those same feelings can be achieved without the live service and multiplayer elements just as easily.

And that’s just it, when it comes to those of us who love single-player games: we want to feel something, not just have fun, and games often do this better than any other medium. 

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