☕ Have your coffee or tea with your very own MobyGames mug

Forums > News > MobyGames Stats - 2023 edition

user avatar

vedder (71279) on 1/26/2024 10:03 PM · Permalink · Report

A new year, a new graph and animated chart! 🥳 The database visualization showing the almost exponentional growth in games over the past decades and our noble effort to document them all!

(Click to enlarge)

An explanation: each coloured shape in the graph represents a platform. The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis represents the number of games released and is stacked. So the height of a shape on a given point in time indicates the number of games released for that platform that year. The total height of the graph on a given point in time shows the total releases that year. The graph is meant to represent game releases and thus excludes DLC, Special Edition and Compilation items. Each game is represented once for each platform it was released on.
As usual we see a drop-off at the end, simply because we haven't been able to keep up with all the new game releases.
Feel free to point out interesting info in the graph and your contributions in the thread!

I have also updated the bar chart race I made last year with this year's data:

(click to go to animation)

Previous editions:
January 2023 - January 2022 - January 2021 - January 2020 - January 2019 - January 2018 - June 2017 - January 2017 - January 2016 - January 2015 - January 2014 - January 2013 - January 2012 - January 2011 - January 2010 - January 2009

user avatar

Tracy Poff (2095) on 1/27/2024 1:00 AM · Permalink · Report

Excellent, as always! It's hard to believe that a decade ago, our yearly peak was only about 3,500 games (in 2011), and now we have more than 14,000 for 2021 (and around 6000 for 2011, it looks like). We really do improve, every year.

user avatar

hoeksmas (155732) on 1/27/2024 1:37 AM · Permalink · Report

Yay! The CoCo and TRS-80 have made an appearance on your graph. I think I'm largely responsible for that big bulge around 1982/1983. Hopefully next year you'll feel compelled to put the BBC Micro on there.

user avatar

Serrated-banner9 (3527) on 1/27/2024 8:27 AM · Permalink · Report

Added 18 games to the database after joining mid February last year.

Games added:

Live or Die (2022 on PS4) Raining Blocks (2017 on Android, 2018 on Linux, Windows and Mac) NFBL: National Fantasy Basketball League (2023 on Windows) Skyous (2019 on Windows) Tank Slam (2018 on Windows) LuckCatchers (2016 on Windows) Football Coach: College Dynasty (2022 on Windows) Filthy Frank Kart (2019 on Windows) Sinister (2022 on Windows) A Smooth Game (Unlike... Life) (2022 on Windows) European War 4: Napoleon (2014 on iPhone, iPad, and Android) Totally Unbalanced (2016 on Windows) Lawgivers II (2023 on Windows, Linux and Mac) Mirror Shoot (2022 on Windows) Forest of Lesbians (2023 on Windows) SGS NATO's Nightmare (2023 on Windows and Mac) Unsorted Horror (2023 on Windows) The Cold War Era (2016 on Windows)

Lots of windows titles mainly because their sheer abundance makes them easy to add to the database. I already had 9 games approved this year, so hopefully I'll get a lot more this year :)

user avatar

Minhoca (1504) on 1/31/2024 3:56 PM · Permalink · Report

It's fascinating to see for how long DOS has endured around the top in the bar chart race, finishing up still at 9th place for most games released of ALL platforms and remaining on top of more modern market dominators like PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.