There have been news coverage and analyses on why, according to estimates, only an average of 10% to 20%, or less, of gamers actually finish a particular game. The industry has studied this (through data from gaming sessions, gamer's achievements, etc.), is aware of this, and is acting, and has acted, on this, resulting in shorter games, smaller investments on certain games, and more focus on online multiplayer games, "quick-hit" game modes instead of long, involved, single-player campaigns. The proposed reasons for this phenomenon range from aging gamers with less time, younger gamers with less attention span, the success of mobile/online/MMO games, and more games being made than in the past.

https://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&biw=1273&bih=842&q=most+gamers+don%27t+finish+games&oq=most+gamers+don%27t+finish+games&gs_l=serp.3..0.2980002.2983832.1.2984031.30.15.0.15.15.0.241.2475.0j12j3.15.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.30.2447...0i131k1j0i67k1j0i22i30k1.HKHQkwJluRs&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.&bvm=bv.146073913,d.amc&ech=1&psi=OyCSWM3CKJWzjwSUs5kg.1485971520856.5&ei=ViCSWNbjNIq9jwTXjoSYCA&emsg=NCSR&noj=1

I myself seem to conform to the average gamer in this regard. I've bought games in the high hundreds in the last 20 years, but have yet to play half of them. Of the half that I have actually played, I finished about 70% of them. The half of the games that I haven't even touched indicates that I buy way more games that I have time to play. But if a game is high quality enough, I usually stick with it, hence the high 70% completion rate. I also read reviews and gamers' opinions before buying games, so I end up buying a lot of high quality games. That explains why I often finish my games, but only IF I actually play them. So to me, unfinished games are mainly due to TIME and QUALITY.

Personally, I mostly don't want an awesome story to end, so I'll usually play just until the final boss or similar point-of-no-going-back-to-experience-more-of-it, and then postpone it until I lose the savegame.

If I even somewhat enjoy a game, I usually finish it, and often replay it to see what I've missed on my first playthrough. If I notice after a few hours that a game isn't really doing anything for me, I stop playing because I don't want to waste precious time (e.g. I finished Kotor 1 despite some misgivings about that game because I got at least some enjoyment out of it; but I stopped playing Kotor 2 after the first planet or so because its verbosity got on my nerves). Admittedly this happens more often now than when I was younger, mostly because I have less patience and because I've bought quite a few games during sales here on GOG which I'm only vaguely interested in...but still, I probably have finished the majority of games I own (or at least of those I paid money for).
I can't really understand how one can buy hundreds of games and then never play them...sounds a bit like hoarding tbh.

I buy games before I'm ready to play them mainly to take advantage of deals. With all these Steam and GOG sales and Humble Bundles, you get lots of games with just a few dollars. Also, digital goods don't take up space. And of course, I only buy when I can afford. So yes, I feel safe to indulge in a little hoarding, which we all do from time to time. But the key is that I am unlikely to buy games that I won't like, because I research every title before buying it. So I rarely suffer from buyer's remorse. Having hundreds of unplayed games does not make me feel bad at all, because I don't suffer any ill effects from it (cost I can afford, no space needed for digital items). It is when I actually play a game I've bought and don't like it do I feel the regret of making that purchase.

I don't think I've ever consciously done it for this reason, but I definitely find myself abandoning more and more games when I'm very close to finishing them. I don't know whether I'm subconsciously doing what your saying or if I get a bit bored or burnt out near the end (or put off by a sudden difficulty spikes) but I can think of three games at least (all great games that I was really looking forward to playing) that I've done this with...

For me, I don't have great hand eye coordination and I just get stuck and can't progress if a games too hard. Even if it's a game where I don't have this problem with, if I stop enjoying the experience and it's just frustrating then I give up. Although many I plod through on and I'm not always sure why.....well partly it's because I want to get my monies worth so I can uninstall and install something new.

Also I have to say difficulty increasing to higher levels later in games ruins the gaming experience rather than improving it. It's a hunter gatherer instinct. Some get more of a thrill from seeking games out than actually playing them, not that they don't enjoy the latter.

Lately I been dropping out of games cause I get bored of them real fast, I am not sure if it's cause burnout of playing too much games is the cause or the game just does not keep me long enough to enjoy it. Unreal Tournament 3 and Quake 3 have been my go to for small portions at a time once a day and never gets boring. maybe it's cause I am getting older? who knows.

All I know is I rather play games like arena shooters and my old sega genesis games that you can drop a few hours and you finish it and move on to something else and feel satisfied.

Games don't have that spark anymore like they used to for some reason with me :(

Hm i have finished almost every game i bought i think, but i usually really just buy those that im interested in. Can only think of a few that i stopped playing because they were awful or just boring to me.

I give up when it becomes to repetitive or boring. Some games like The Witcher 3 or Tyranny kept me hooked until I finsihed them, other games, like Pillars of Eternity i finished but by the time the White March came out, it was uninstalled and haven't yet continued. Other games are plain boring, like Fallout 3. I simply can't bring myself to even play it.

Ok, that makes sense; to some extent I've done the same, and bought games on sales out of curiosity. It would make me uneasy though if I had hundreds of games unplayed...I'm probably somewhat obsessive-compulsive in this regard.
But you're right, at least digital games don't take up physical space.

I've never finished an open world game. Not Oblivion, Skyrim, any of the Fallouts, Arcanum, Two Worlds, etc.

Too much to do and a lack of clear objectives means I wander around and eventually get distracted and bored.

Still some great games though.

I try to finish all games. It's always nice to reach the end credtis. I'll only give up on a game if I really don't like it, or it's very, very long and gets too repetative at some point and just tires me out (I usually tell myself 'll get back to it, and sometimes I do, sometimes not) or it's just too damn hard and despite repeated attempts I just can't progress any further.

I may not finish all the games I play but one thing they seem to overlook for me at least, is whether or not I will actually spend money to buy a game if they've made it shorter regardless of whether or not I might actually finish it.

One of the many factors that go into my decision to buy a game or not is how long the game is compared to how long I want it to be. Take a game like The Witcher 3 for example and it more than meets my expectations and then some. If CDPR were to create a Witcher 4 game however and say "well, only 20% of people that played Witcher 3 finished it, so we're going to only make The Witcher 4 10 hours long" or whatever, I can absolutely guarantee without any doubt in my mind that I would never buy The Witcher 4. In my mind at least, if they make a Witcher 4 - it needs to meet or exceed what The Witcher 3 did in order to have me on board.

As an example on the other side of things - look at the Trine games. I'm not particularly fond of platformer games overall however I fell in love with the artwork and smooth animation in the trailers and wanted to own the game just to experience the engine first hand more than any other factor, and I'm not even an artsy fartsy person per se, however it was a case of something being artistic enough to catch my non-artsy eye so I picked it up and ended up really enjoying the game. As such I did the same with the sequel Trine 2, and was really looking forward to Trine 3 and anticipating the transition to 3D. After Trine 3 came out however and I read about the game's various weaknesses and shortcomings and the dramatically reduced length of game play time I was immediately put off from the game. That's a bit different as the reason Trine 3 is a shorter game has nothing to do with how many people solved the previous games in the series of course, but either way it just didn't work for me personally and overall it appears to have not worked for the game series' larger fanbase as a whole.

Ultimately it greatly depends on what genre a game is, along with a number of other factors that come together to build my expectations of what a particular game should be, how many hours of game play it needs to offer to capture my attention and open my wallet. In general I am not fond of short games however I do occasionally play some if they appeal to me for other reasons that keep my curiousity despite the shorter length.

When I start a game, my goal is always to finish it, but real life is dynamic and so lots of things can end up happening that cause me to intentionally or unintentionally put a game on hold for some time and I may or may not return back to it to finish it off. Last year I *finally* got around to playing Opposing Force and Blue Shift all the way through having started them a few times over the years without finishing them. I found them both to be long enough to be worth my time and more or less meet any expectations I might have had. I can say though that had some "survey" done years ago after Half-life but before Opposing Force or Blue Shift were created ever convinced Valve to make either of those expansions shorter because "people don't finish games", and the games ended up being significantly shorter than they were - I would not have been interested in buying them nor playing them at all.

I'd rather buy a game that is what I want and have what I want even if it takes me 20 years to finish the game, than to have games that are not what I want at all and not buy nor play them at all ever. Someone needs to do a survey to balance this that is "Why don't you buy games anymore?" with questions about short-length games as I'd have some words to respond to their "survey" for that for sure. :)

What would they do then? Start making all games 400 hours worth of content because people like me wont buy a game that takes 2 hours to solve? Stay tuned for 2020 to find out. :)

One thing that happens to me:

I start an RPG (or perhaps a game with RPG-like growth and character customization), and midway through, I decide that I would rather play with a different party. Maybe there is some interesting class or set-up that I am not using, but I wish I were.

As a result, I quit the game in the middle and start over with a new party.

In some cases (like with SaGa games), I might actually finish the game, then immediately start over with a different party setup.

In general, I will finish the whole game if I enjoy it. Only for long-lasting strategy games, there will be breaks between the campaigns. If the game turned out to be dull or worse, I will try to like it but give up if that fails.