The Fun World of Playtime Stats

Playtime tracking has been a rather fun thing for me since the 3DS came with such a detailed tracking app. It was so easy to see the games that had me invested each year, even going down to individual months or even weeks. No such tracker has ever been as detailed, but at least I could still see which games I was investing the most time into across a variety of ecosystems.

Discovering Exophase in 2024 was great, especially since the Switch only displays playtime in blocks of five hours. All ecosystems in one place, easily viewed and easily sorted. So, I had an idea. In 2025, why don’t I track per month using Exophase and a spreadsheet? And so I got it set up. Knowing how little I was likely to play Steam games, I excluded it from the results. Keeping things with just Xbox and Nintendo.

Across 2025, I kept up with the tracking, checking in on Exophase to pull the latest playtimes across each month, and letting the spreadsheet tally them up for the full year. It should be no surprise to what game has captured my attention the most, or which console. And though not tracked on the spreadsheet, I do want to talk of some playtime from Steam, since getting a Deck from a very generous friend near the end of the year certainly wasn’t in consideration at the start of it.

L: A tractor seeds a field as a train passes by. M: A party fight a giant turtle on a beach. R: A farmer stands at a stall with product awaiting sales.

First up, I’ll talk about the playtime per console. As a note, any Switch games I played on Switch 2 will still count as playtime for the first. The only exception being Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, which is the only game I’ve bought the upgrade for. I know for a fact I did not play in June until the Switch 2 arrived and I could upgrade, so that is simple to split the playtime for.

In total across 2025, I had 1113 hours of playtime across Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. 333 hours come from Xbox games, with the Nintendo Switch just under that with 331 hours. Yes, the new console got a lot of attention at 449 hours, but a part of me wonders how that would have looked without a certain game getting me invested for most of the year.

I am talking of Fortnite, where the lure of a Star Wars mini season had me playing on Xbox up until the Switch 2 released. Where, thanks to it being a launch day release, I then swapped to playing it on the new console for just over 100 hours. Only being beaten by Mario Kart World, which sees a lot of playtime thanks to Mario Kart Mondays on GRcade. Now with those of Nintendo South Wales joining in. By November, I’d had my fill of Fortnite. Along with the fact it now demanded over 40GB of storage space.

L: Bicycle riders race along a dirt path. M: A police officer stands on a park path in the rain. R: A Calicorn and its herder face each other.

With Fortnite no longer taking the spot of chill time game, that returned to GTA Online in December. Where I might have overcompensated a bit, with just over half of the yearly playtime coming from just December. Which is definitely what allowed the Xbox playtime to get above 300 hours. The three games of Mario Kart World, Fortnite, and GTA V are the only three games to reach 100 hours.

Now, I do know that playtime isn’t everything when it comes to enjoying a game, with several low playtime games such as The Precinct and Wheel World being completed and even ending up on my top ten games of 2025. Which is why I’m not focusing too much on individual game time with this. However, to round out the top five games in playtime of 2025, fourth would be Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, with number five being Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. Both, along with Mario & Luigi Brothership, being above 50 hours.

In terms of months, it’s a surprise June isn’t the most played month, coming in at second at 128 hours. October is the month with the highest playtime, though only with ten hours more. Although, as you’ll see in a bit, it’s actually a lot more. Most months saw upwards of 80 hours per month, with only two months not. The super-hot July with only 65 hours, and the smallest amount of playtime in February with 46. Which I’m sure is accounted for with VR games and a few from itch.io.

When it comes to the types of games I enjoy, it’s obvious from the playtime stats what those are. In the mid-range of playtime – between 20 and 50 hours, are a few farm life sims. Sugardew Island and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar being among them. And not that I really need playtime stats to show it, but racing games filled the list. Kart racers such as Garfield Kart 2, or the more realistic ones such as Forza Motorsport. Most might not have seen above 10 hours of time on them, but I still love them.

L: Arthur Morgan rides a horse toward water. M: Darth Maul faces himself in lightsaber combat. R: A powerwasher aims at an airship.

Then, there is Steam. Though I rely on PC gaming for enjoying games not found elsewhere, along with enjoying games from the likes of Tiny Teams and Jingle Jam, it has not been my main source of playing games for many years. Once again, I was considering a Steam Deck, knowing that it might get me playing more of my library. And then, when mentioning that to one of my best friends, he gave me his. It was something he’d bought when having laptop issues, then not touched when those were resolved.

And suddenly, I now had three options for games. Wreckfest, that I’d bought earlier in the year to try out some mods, suddenly saw a lot more playtime. Easy Delivery Co., though a short game, was fully played on the Deck. Then came the choice of where to get PowerWash Simulator 2. Opting for Steam, I completed it mostly with the Deck, then bought the first and all its expansions in the Ultimate Bundle. Seeing what a big change that had made in my playing, I also bought Red Dead Redemption 2 while it was on sale.

My Steam playtime for the last three months had increased greatly. What would usually not be 100 hours across an entire year had now become more than that in just three months. The handheld had given me excitement for my Steam library again. Though it’s also possible the Steam Machine which releases this year continues that. Considering were less than ten days into the year and my Steam library is already the highest playtime, I think it’ll continue even without it.

It’s been fun to keep track of these stats per month. Doing so may not be for everyone, but I like to see the consistency or lack of per month. The way my playtime differs per console depending on when a new release comes. And in general seeing what games invest me to keep playing them to completion for those that have a definitive end. If you read this to the end, I hope you’ve enjoyed the stats and facts I’ve presented about my playtime of 2025.

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