Prolonged Early Access Can Ruin a Game - Researchers Determine When the Critical Moment Arrives

Not all developers successfully reach version 1.0 while maintaining or even expanding audience interest.

Recently, analysts from NewZoo presented a study dedicated to games in early access. They calculated the optimal time for a game to be in this status.

Many gamers know successful "early access" examples like Valheim, V Rising, Ready or Not, or Baldur's Gate 3, but there are not many such success stories.

At NewZoo, they were able to identify correlations between the number of months a game spent in "early access" and the number of players it retains during the first three months after its full release.

The collected data showed that the peak of a game's "effectiveness" after launching in early access format occurs at approximately six months. If the term exceeds this time frame, then the game's potential to gather a significant audience decreases sharply.

The researchers note that the growth in indicators for games with an early access period of 22-24 months is due to V Rising and Ready or Not - without them, there would be a sharper drop in indicators on the graph.

At NewZoo, they emphasized that "most games will show minimal [audience] growth or no growth at all after reaching version 1.0 compared to 'early access,' and only those that are released within six months will show steady growth."