According to research from analytics firm Ampere Analysis (per VGC), over the last two years, players spent twice as much on remakes of video games compared to remasters. It's no secret that players are, for the most part, fond of a good remake and remaster. In the last two years (2024-2025), according to Ampere, across Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, 72.4 million players spent approximately $1.4 billion on remakes and remasters and microtransactions related to them.
Between January 2024 and September 2025, a period during which 15 remakes were released and 27 remasters, on average, players spent 2.2x more on remakes. Of course, there are a lot of factors here, like how remakes cost more to make, and as a result, cost more for players to buy. Remasters can cost less to make, but, as Ampere puts it, they "offer faster turnaround and lower cost, but generally deliver less engagement."
That's not always the case; The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is a huge exception in that period between January 2024 and September 2025, a game that continues to sell well and even as of last week is one of the top-five best-selling premium games in the US in 2025 so far. Over 9 million players have stepped back into Oblivion, and according to Ampere, it reached $180 million in consumer spending and 7 million monthly active users on PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam at its peak.
Senior analyst at Ampere Analysis, Katie Holt added, "As games and IP development costs escalate, publishers are increasingly raiding their back catalogues for cost-effective remakes and remasters. Publishers deciding between a full remake versus a remaster have to balance franchise planning, investment risk, age of content, platform support, and more when choosing which route to take."
Remakes and remasters have become a massive part of the industry over the last decade, and there's no sign of that changing anytime soon. But with this research in mind, it'll be interesting to see if/how the approach to remasters and remakes changes.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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