Sony's recent big games and their meticulously crafted stories are bucking the trend of most players not finishing games

[bombshell]

We have heard plenty of times from games industry people how most people don't finish games and sometimes only a fraction of a game's playing base even do so.

Example: From a GDC talk by Richard Rouse III

"Statistically, most players don't finish games. We've all seen numbers that say something like a third [do finish games], on average," Rouse III said later in the presentation.

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Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/17/gdc-most-players-dont-finish-games


So with the Top 2 games in the Era 2018 GOTY results being Sony first party published games, it was a good time to look at a stat that these two particular games have in common in regards to the finishing rate of their main story: They have both been completed by more than 50% of their playing base according to data taken directly from PSN.

God of War

Marvel's Spider-Man

(this one was actually in line with GoW's completion rate before Christmas, but took a hit presumably from Christmas gifts down to below 50% and is now working its way up again with more of the new players completing the game)


That's mighty impressive! For one they have both sold a boatload of copies: God of War sold 5 million within its first month and Marvel's Spider-Man sold 9 million within its first 2.5 months, so the unusually high completion rates is definitely not explained by a small playing base. They also both have meaty story-lines that take a significant number of hours to complete even when ignoring the plenty of side content they have: 20 hours on average for God of War's main story and 16 hours on average for Spider-Man's main story.


- Here's some example completion rates from my personal pile of completed games to get some reference points, none of them has to my knowledge been given away for free as that tends to screw with completion rates:

Sony first party examples: (to see that they have not been pushing above 50% completion with their story driven first party games immediately prior to GoW/Spider-Man)

Horizon Zero Dawn

Uncharted 4

The Last Guardian

Third party examples:

Red Dead Redemption 2

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Resident Evil 7

The Witcher 3

Dying Light

- Discussion:

• What makes the God of War and Spider-Man story-lines different in that they were able to compel the majority of their players to actually complete the games that the other exemplified games were not able to?
• Are there examples of other (preferably similarly long) games with above 50% main path completion rates?
• Are there examples of games with shockingly low main path completion rates?
• Feel free to discuss other talking points as well

Final note before you ask or complain. Yes, Spider-Man is a Sony first party game.
Here is proof from James Stevenson (Insomniac Games) on Sony's heavy involvement in the crafting of the game's story:

Sony FP has the best pipeline and support system in the business to create big story-based games. Some people don't realize all of the support a publisher can give a developer, and that's true of every major publisher for every major game. Marvel approached Sony, wanting them to do one of their characters right with a big first-party story game. They wanted to work with one of the developers Sony FP works with frequently, and even mentioned us by name to Sony as a developer who they felt particularly fit.

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[vestan]

What makes the God of War and Spider-Man story-lines different in that they were able to compel the majority of their players to actually complete the games that the other exemplified games were not able to?

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I can't say this for God of War but Spider-Man's story has a fantastic sense of flow despite its poor pacing. You're constantly moving from story beat to story beat keeping the player engaged. There are moments of downtime tackling the side content but it is to the game's detriment in the final act IMO. The story finds new ways to keep the experience somewhat fresh until the end. The open-world design accommodates both players that just want to beeline the story and those who'd rather tackle side content first.

If I had to sum it up, the game respects the player's time and lets them take things at their own pace. You could be the busiest person in the world but still find time to finish the story over a few days. I don't think there is any point in the story that dragged at all, can't say this for God of War however. Also helps that the game is generally really fun to play, I didn't get bored of the general moment-to-moment gameplay which kept me in the game longer.

 

[Deleted member 1413]

I'm not sure if two games are enough to sense a trend, but it's impressive that GOW would achieve that since it's pretty lengthy.
It is one of Sony's best games in recent memory.

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

Minor spoilers in here.

I don't think its bucking a trend when games like tomb raider have 44%

But it certainly a good improvement, probably caused by good quality.

 

[Lant_War]

Spider-Man also has a stupidly high Platinum %.

 

[bombshell]

I'm not sure if two games are enough to sense a trend, but it's impressive that GOW would achieve that since it's pretty lengthy.
It is one of Sony's best games in recent memory.

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The trend is that most players don't finish games, I found several articles when googling for it. I'm not saying these two games are a trend in themselves, just that they are simply not following the trend of most other games.

Spider-Man also has a stupidly high Platinum %.

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Can't look at my PS4 right now, but around 10%, right?

 

[Sibersk Esto]

Getting every trophy in Spider Man is child's play tbh

 

[Adamska]

I wonder if Days Gone will continue this trend. Seeing as how it's an open world title and the combat can be quite challenging from the demo I played, I think it might be more in line with Horizon than GOW/Spider-Man.

 

[TheRaidenPT]

Red Dead is at 21%? No wonder... Out of my group of friends of 30 people only me and my friend d finished Red Dead rest of them are either stuck in Chapter 2 or 3 and quickly got bored.of the game because of the gameplay.

 

[Betty]

Main reasons for me at least since I platinumed both and rarely do is:

1) They aren't enormous, both can be fully beaten withing about 20 or so hours, the platinum a dozen or so more.
2) They are really fun to play.

 

[Phamit]

They aren't not that long and big which helps, Horizon, Witcher 3 and RDR2 are quite different beasts. They are also quite mainstream in what they in comparison to The Last Guardian. Tomb Raider is also pretty high, which isn't to far off from UC, SM or GoW. Being quite polished and fun to play helps also.

Spider-Man also has a stupidly high Platinum %.

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It's not hard to get, if you want it, which helps a lot.

 

[monmagman]

Spider-Man also has a stupidly high Platinum %.

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That's because it was so easy to get......I don't chase trophies and I got it almost by accident.

 

[bombshell]

I wonder if Days Gone will continue this trend. Seeing as how it's an open world title and the combat can be quite challenging from the demo I played, I think it might be more in line with Horizon than GOW/Spider-Man.

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Yeah, it probably will follow Horizon's completion and the first post by vestan is a good explanation for why Spider-Man even though it's an open world game was still able to see the majority complete it with how fun the game was to play. Likewise for God of War, but that is also an almost linear game, which historically helps completion rate.

 

[lorddarkflare]

Smaller games get more people to complete them.

If you can realistically spend 50+ hours in a game, it is no surprise that most people do not finish. Whats more, I think that is okay.

 

[Kolx]

Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 44%? that's impressive and unexpected.

 

[Braaier]

50%? Wow, that's really high?

Can someone check what the completion rate was for Bloodborne? I just sold my PS4 so i can't. lol

 

[Edgar]

Well God of War and spiderman are not 60+ hour games. I don't think completion correlates with actual quality of the game that much. Come on

 

[Aters]

The only thing I see here is shorter games are finished more often, except The Last Guardian lol.

 

[entremet]

LOL at The Last Guardian. The heck happened there? I would think the opposite since that's a smaller and engaged fanbase.

 

[IIFloodyII]

The thing both have in common is very good to great gameplay with some great characters to keep people engaged for the 20-40 hours. I don't think either game's story has much of a hook (Spidey does get 1 much later in), they are pretty basic, but both pretty much instantly had me liking the main characters and gameplay, Spidey especially so, absolute perfect opening.

 

[Braaier]

LOL at The Last Guardian. The heck happened there? I would think the opposite since that's a smaller and engaged fanbase.

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I would guess some of that has to do with hype. It's a first party game so people may have picked it up because they like Uncharted or TLoU and what they got.....was a bit different.

 

[DigSCCP]

I don't think two games are enough to say that they are "bucking a trend".
Anyway the reason both Spider Man and God of War stand out when compared to other games is because they achieved a great balance between an engaging story with good pace and good gameplay. Something that really few games achieve.
Add to that the fact that they are not 30+h games, like many others this gen, and you have a perfect mix that can keep any kind of player hooked to it until the end.

 

[srtrestre]

rest of them are either stuck in Chapter 2 or 3 and quickly got bored.of the game because of the gameplay.

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Same here (tho I didn't get stuck, I simply stopped caring). I feel zero motivation to finish it, and doesn't feel like I'm missing out on much.

 

[IIFloodyII]

50%? Wow, that's really high?

Can someone check what the completion rate was for Bloodborne? I just sold my PS4 so i can't. lol

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It has multiple endings, so hard to say, also been on PS +.

 

[vestan]

Well God of War and spiderman are not 60+ hour games.

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Ok but God of War isn't a short game either so what's your point here?

I don't think completion correlates with actual quality of the game that much

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Who's saying this?

 

[Braaier]

It has multiple endings, so hard to say, also been on PS +.

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Okay, thanks. I didn't realize there were trophies for each ending. And yeah, PS Plus would skew that quite a bit.

 

[bombshell]

Smaller games get more people to complete them.

If you can realistically spend 50+ hours in a game, it is no surprise that most people do not finish. Whats more, I think that is okay.

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But they are significantly bigger than some of the examples that I provided, so there must be other reasons at play.

 

[Papercuts]

I think there needs to be more examples to see if there's really a trend towards that st all. IIRC Persona 5 has something like 40-45% and that game literally took me 140 hours to beat, though I'd have to double check at home.

Hitting 50% is still good in general though. clearly they're doing something right to engage people.

 

[Edgar]

Ok but God of War isn't a short game either so what's your point here?

Who's saying this?

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My point is that more people finish shorter games. Shocking, right?

 

[bombshell]

50%? Wow, that's really high?

Can someone check what the completion rate was for Bloodborne? I just sold my PS4 so i can't. lol

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I wanted to include that one, but because it has different endings with their own trophies I don't think there is a specific trophy for completing the game.

 

[IIFloodyII]

Okay, thanks. I didn't realize there were trophies for each ending. And yeah, PS Plus would skew that quite a bit.

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I looked it up anyway each ending is 10.4 (the easiest ending funnily), 13.6 and 14.6 (the hardest).
Edit: The last mandatory boss is 23.9%

 

[Braaier]

I think there needs to be more examples to see if there's really a trend towards that st all. IIRC Persona 5 has something like 40-45% and that game literally took me 140 hours to beat, though I'd have to double check at home.

Hitting 50% is still good in general though. clearly they're doing something right to engage people.

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45%?! No way! Can someone check?

 

[Nostradamus]

Actually I'm impressed with how high RDR2 is.

 

[jackissocool]

50%? Wow, that's really high?

Can someone check what the completion rate was for Bloodborne? I just sold my PS4 so i can't. lol

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That would be harder to figure out because it doesn't have a single completion trophy.

 

[KratosEnergyDrink]

Both games are short, and despite that 50% of players could not even bothered to finish them. Not exactly an achievement. GOW earns all the praise it got to turn a franchise in a new direction but it gets a repetitive fast.

If long games like Witcher 3, Skyrim, Zelda or Mario Odyssey gets many players to finish them, that would be an achievement. But I think the number of players who finish lengthy Nintendo games are impossible to get.

 

[Starlatine]

IIRC Persona 5 has something like 40-45% and that game literally took me 140 hours to beat, though I'd have to double check at home.

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Now this would be indeed amazing. Expected a long ass rpg like it to be around 20% most

 

[Le Dude]

The dataset is way too small to conclude anything. Plus there's tons of other variables to consider. How long is each game? (Howlongtobeat is down at the moment). What's the time been since release? (For instance, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a much more recent game than God of War, giving people less time to complete it). Does RDR2's epilogue count as the main story? (I haven't played through it, so I genuinely don't know). Do you get the "Playing it safe" achievement in Resident Evil 7 when you play on a harder difficulty? My guess would be no.

 

[Papercuts]

I wanted to include that one, but because it has different endings with their own trophies I don't think there is a specific trophy for completing the game.

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The one for beating the wet nurse is basically right before the ending so that'd be fairly accurate, I recall Bloodbornes having a shockingly high percent relative to how hard it is.

 

[MillionIII]

I think that those games have a clear objective so people are more inclined to finish them, games like rdr2 and the Witcher 3 are more laid back and the story can wait while you do other stuff.

 

[Kolx]

I think there needs to be more examples to see if there's really a trend towards that st all. IIRC Persona 5 has something like 40-45% and that game literally took me 140 hours to beat, though I'd have to double check at home.

Hitting 50% is still good in general though. clearly they're doing something right to engage people.

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Just checked and Persona 5 "A new journey" is at 34.8% (which is still high).

 

[DigSCCP]

50%? Wow, that's really high?

Can someone check what the completion rate was for Bloodborne? I just sold my PS4 so i can't. lol

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Bloodborne numbers are not good ones for any metric after being a PS Plus game - every PS Plus game has shit completion rate - and having 'multiple endings'.
Anyway ending trophies for Bloodborne are 10.4%, 13.6% and 14.6%.

 

[Strangelove_77]

It's kind of sad how few people finish their games.

 

[Braaier]

That would be harder to figure out because it doesn't have a single completion trophy.

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Yeah, I know. I've been corrected several times already. LOL!

I don't pay attention to trophies at all so I didn't realize that. Not once did I check to see what trophies I got in Bloodborne.

 

[Zedelima]

I think both (and some sony games) have good stories and good to great gameplay.
Also, set pieces/cinematic really help
I only enjoyed spider-man in a second game, with NG+. The entire story works better without the side bullshit. Even the pace is really better.

 

[bombshell]

How long is each game? (Howlongtobeat is down at the moment).

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I have the stats from howlongtobeat in the OP.
20 hours for GoW's main story and 16 hours for Spideys main story, so they are not short games.

Do you get the "Playing it safe" achievement in Resident Evil 7 when you play on a harder difficulty? My guess would be no.

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It's unlocked when you beat it on any of the higher difficulties, so it shows the exact percentage of the total completions. Same with Uncharted 4's Explorer difficulty trophy.

 

[Indiana Jones]

Spider-Man and GOW were nicely paced and never felt like a chore. I think they were both the perfect length.

I'm in the middle of RDR2 now since picking it up at release and while I can really get into it and enjoy it when I have some time to sit down and absorb the world, I do have to find the motivation to pick it up at night now. It's slowwwwww.

 

[lorddarkflare]

But they are significantly bigger than some of the examples that I provided, so there must be other reasons at play.

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I mean, they are well designed and paced. They are really, really GOOD short games.

The fact that they are good well paced games is not unique. Plenty of those out there that have much, much worse completion rates.

It is the length in conjunction with that that get people to finish.

It's kind of sad how few people finish their games.

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Ehh, its not. Not really. Games are not books. Or movies.

It is perfectly possible to gain a rich, full experience without actually hitting the end credits.

 

[Magic]

Surely it's simply down to the fact that they're both really really good games, that and the fact that they're not massive time investments.

I personally platinum'd them both, and they never outstayed their welcome.

 

[Sanctuary]

I'm not sure how this indicates anything, especially when one of the games is extremely short. I usually try to finish most games, even if they start getting boring near the end, but I simply couldn't bring myself to finish Spider-Man; mainly because it didn't do anything new that had not grown old by the time it released anyway. It was just another Arkham open-world game, but for those who prefer Spider-Man. I didn't play Spider-Man or God of War for the "story" either, and only one of them was pretty good in that department anyway. Nothing groundbreaking, simply good.

edit: OK, while I didn't find the story in Spider-Man to be all that great, especially due to how it's broken up and because of the very annoying stealth missions that are supposed to be you playing a "side story", it did at least have some interesting characters, and the parts of the overall story that involved them were the best. I think that game was more episodic though with an overarching story. Some episodes were pretty good, while others fell really flat.

 

[night814]

Well God of War and spiderman are not 60+ hour games. I don't think completion correlates with actual quality of the game that much. Come on

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It does seem like time is the main hump people can't get over.