Most gamers haven’t completed Bioshock Infinite and most likely never will

Bioshock Infinite has been available since March 26th globally across PC and console platforms, but what is perhaps a telling tale as to gamers habits – especially those who rush out to buy new releases rather than wait until the dust settles – is the fact that a minority of those who play the latest games actually see them through to conclusion.

BioShock Infinite - Elizabeth2

If we take the PC audience as indicative of gamers in general, then the figures speak for themselves. Obviously, there are most likely many variables which influence why many gamers don’t finish games right away, such as playing the game slowly, not having enough time for marathon sessions (considering in this case Bioshock Infinite is a 9 hour plus game), or being distracted with things like kids and work, but it’s interesting to note, that these same people are keen to grab the games when they first release. Looking at the figures from Steam, and it shows that 43% of gamers finished the game on the easiest setting or higher, this is after a week of the game being available (as of the 7th of April the figure has climbed to 46.7%). Delving deeper and around 36.2% of gamers finished the game on the default difficulty or higher.

Experience shows that this figure will likely remain for quite some time as newcomers purchase the game and stragglers eventually finish the story. Having looked at other games in the past and the figure normally rests at just above one third of gamers actually seeing their games through to conclusion. This in itself makes some interesting arguments for shorter single player games. From a developer stand point, it must be quite the challenge to spend so much time creating assets and scenarios for the end game sequences knowing that a majority of players might not ever get to see them.  From a core gamer point of view, most gamers are likely to agree with longer games that don’t draw out repeated elements too obviously, but then again, casual gamers are likely to view things differently – perhaps not having the same desires to “finish” games in the same manner as core gamers.

In contrast, the recently released Tomb Raider fares slightly better with some 48.6% of gamers finishing the game, but that still leaves over half of those playing not seeing the ending.

Written by: Rob Cram

Rob Cram has hundreds of video game reviews, thousands of articles under his belt with years of experience in gaming and tech. He aims to remain fair and free from publisher/developer influence. With his extensive knowledge, feels his gaming opinions are valid and worth sharing. Agreement with his views are entirely optional. He might have a bias towards cyberpunk.