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by greentec 391 days ago
https://sublevelgames.github.io/blogs/2025-05-24-armor-games...

I analyzed 7 years of Armorgames.com data (999 games) to understand web gaming market trends.

Key findings that might interest fellow developers:

User standards are rising: Average ratings dropped from 7.02 (2018) to 6.45 (2025), but the percentage of high-quality games (8.5+ rating) actually increased from 12.3% to 14.7%. This suggests quality polarization rather than overall decline.

Genre trends: Rising: Idle games, Strategy, RPGs (deeper gameplay mechanics) Declining: Traditional arcade/action games Stable: Puzzle and Adventure (web gaming staples)

Innovation wins: The highest-rated "hidden gems" all had one thing in common - innovative mechanics rather than genre variations. Games like "Detective Bass: Fish Out of Water" (9.3 rating) and "SYNTAXIA" (9.1 rating) show originality still pays off.

Market maturation: The correlation between rating and popularity is surprisingly weak (0.126), suggesting quality ≠ virality. However, play count strongly correlates with favorites (0.712).
1 comments
carom 391 days ago
I'm not sure the take away for the first point that user standards are rising is correct. Could that also be the number of people making games is increasing? I say this because more highly rated games and a trending down of the average (more slop) could explain that as well. I think the idea that standards are rising would hold constant the number of games.
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lazyasciiart 391 days ago
It could also be that game standards are dropping, no?
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greentec 390 days ago
Maybe on other platforms? Armorgames curates pretty heavily, but you're right that AI-generated games could be flooding less selective platforms. Would be interesting to run this same analysis on Steam or itch.io where the barriers are lower.
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greentec 390 days ago
Fair point, but here's the thing - Armorgames is actually way pickier now about which games they accept. They're letting fewer games through their gates. So if the average rating is still dropping even with higher curation standards, that pretty much confirms users have gotten more critical over time.
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