2025 Game User Survey

The 2025 Game User Survey, conducted by Korea's Creative Content Agency, examines the state of game usage, spending, and attitudes among the South Korean general population aged 10 to 69. Fielded between July 14 and August 29, 2025 through online and face-to-face interviews, the study drew 10,000 respondents, of whom 5,024 were game users, with a margin of error of ±1.00 percentage point at 95 percent confidence. Its central finding is a notable contraction in play: the overall game usage rate fell to 50.2%, down 9.7 percentage points from the prior year and more than 10 points below pre-pandemic levels, with usage falling steeply with age (80.9% among teens versus 23.1% among those in their 60s).

Mobile remains the dominant platform, with 89.1% of gamers playing on mobile and 62.0% ranking it as their primary platform, while PC (58.1% participation) and console games show distinct engagement profiles. PC players are driven chiefly by immersion (70.8% as first-choice reason), average longer weekday sessions than in 2021, and favor shooters and RPGs. Console play has declined in average duration, with action-adventure and action RPG as the leading genres, and arcade visits are motivated mainly by platform-exclusive content. Among non-players, time constraints (44.0%) and video-watching substitution (86.3%) are the most cited explanations for quitting.

Monetization and community findings point to growing sensitivity toward aggressive pricing. About 37.8% of paying users bought new in-game content, with price and gameplay impact as top criteria, while 71.9% of ad-supported players would not pay to remove ads. Indie game participation slipped from 28.0% to 23.3%, and IP-based games face skepticism when they fail to reflect their source material. Roughly half of gamers knew AI was used in content production, and most expected it to benefit games, while 13.9% reported a dispute with a company and 46.4% experienced cyberbullying in the past year.