Paid game downloads surge while free-to-play accounts for one-third of all gaming time

A new study found that more than half of players are downloading their game content on consoles or PC, and that 75 percent spend at least some time playing free games. A third of all gaming time is spent on free-to-play titles, the study showed.

Jason Anderson is the president of Insights Meta, the Kansas City, Mo.-based company that conducted the 1,749-gamer survey. He said the company expects that by the end of the current console life cycle, most game sales will come from what they call “digital natives,” gamers who prefer downloads over discs. And nearly everyone is playing some free and some paid titles — which is part of how the mobile game industry could reach $25 billion by the end of the year.