Study: Gamers Buy Consoles Because of Exclusives

According to Circana’s consumer survey for the first quarter of 2026, cited by The Game Business, exclusives remain the main reason for buying consoles in the United States.

According to the survey, 41% of American players choose a console because of exclusives. The social factor took second place: 38% of users buy the same platform as their friends or family. As The Game Business editor-in-chief Christopher Dring notes, exclusives have remained the main reason for choosing a console for decades. For buyers, having unique games is more important than power or price, unless there are dramatic differences between devices. Even if a gamer spends most of their time in Call of Duty, EA Sports FC, or Fortnite, they still take the library of unique projects into account when choosing a device. According to analysts, this is one of Nintendo’s key competitive advantages.

Changes in Microsoft’s and Sony’s strategies point to the same thing. In recent years, the companies have actively released their exclusives on PC, and in the case of Xbox games — even on rival consoles. However, judging by insider reports, the companies may now abandon this policy, fearing they could lose their core audience. According to Bloomberg, Sony no longer plans to release major single-player PlayStation 5 games on PC. In particular, the report said that Ghost of Yotei and Saros are expected to remain PS5 exclusives, while online projects like Marathon and Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will still come to computers. Bloomberg’s sources claimed that there are concerns inside Sony that PC releases could hurt the PlayStation brand and future console sales. Microsoft’s new gaming chief, Asha Sharma, also stated that support for its own consoles and exclusives is a company priority.

At the same time, as The Game Business notes, Sony’s delayed PC ports of single-player games were unlikely to have hurt game sales on PlayStation. According to Ampere, God of War Ragnarok attracted around 300,000 players on PC in its launch month, compared with 6.9 million on PS4 and PS5 over the same period. Spider-Man 2 reached around 260,000 players on PC at launch, Horizon Forbidden West — 230,000, while Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut performed noticeably better, with 710,000 players.

In other words, PC ports may have brought Sony an additional audience, but they did not necessarily replace console purchases. However, experts believe the situation is changing because of the emergence of new PC devices and hybrid “PC consoles.” If PlayStation games begin to be associated not only with traditional computers but also with competing console-like devices, this could weaken PlayStation’s uniqueness as a platform.

The situation with Xbox is more complicated. Microsoft has long released all of its games on PC, and in recent years it has begun actively bringing its projects to PlayStation. This has given the company new revenue streams: thanks to sales of its own games on PlayStation, Microsoft’s gaming division has already earned more than $667 million from this. Microsoft’s main problem is declining interest in its own hardware. The Game Business notes that sales of Xbox Series X/S and the number of active console users have noticeably declined. At the same time, Xbox games’ margins are further hurt by Game Pass: releasing projects on PlayStation expands the audience, but also weakens Microsoft’s own platform.

Whose exclusives are better — Nintendo’s, Microsoft’s, or Sony’s?