„They don't even notice that prices have gone up.” Analyst on who is really buying AAA games today

Gaming isn't a cheap hobby, especially if we want to play new AAA games, which currently often cost well over 70 bucks. Despite the high prices, such titles still sell well, which, according to one analyst, is mainly due to a wealthier group of players.

"They might not even notice that prices went up"

Mat Piscatella is an experienced industry analyst and executive director at Circana. He recently appeared on the Delayed Input podcast hosted by Kyle Bosman. During the conversation, they talked about how the rising cost of living is affecting the gaming industry.

The analyst pointed out that due to changes across the market—such as rising food or housing prices—there has been a shift in people's spending patterns. However, the changes went unnoticed by the wealthier group of people.

Piscatella called this phenomenon "silent inflation," where wealthier people aren't fully aware of the price increases of many products or deliberately ignore them. It's really because of the players in this group that AAA games are still selling well.

On the other hand, there are people for whom the rising cost of living has a much stronger impact. According to Piscatella, more and more players from this group are going for cheaper games or even free ones like Roblox or Fortnite.

The analyst claims that many of them are withdrawing from purchasing games at retail prices, opting instead for subscription models like Game Pass. He noted the increase in the popularity of subscriptions in 2025, which is primarily due to the change in spending habits.

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October 2, 2025

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• gaming industry
• game prices
• the video games industry