No one knows lottery games—and players—like Scientific Games. The company’s ONE Segmentation Study has long tracked player motivations, and while a significant shift in players' behavior was anticipated in a postpandemic world, recent data reveals a striking trend. Extended play games are booming, largely fueled by a huge surge in player engagement. In the past five years (CY 2019-2024), the extended play category has grown by 32%. It now represents 18.3% of U.S. lottery retail sales. What was once a niche product has evolved into a major force, offered by 44 U.S. lotteries, with retail sales topping $11.5 billion last year. According to the ONE Segmentation Study, extended play has traditionally been most popular with two specific segments of players: Fans (fans of instant scratch games and the most avid lottery players) and Visitors EXT (players that come and go with scratch games who tend to like games that take longer to play—and tend to be low frequency players). “Comparing our 2024 to our 2014 study, the biggest shift is the size of those two segments. Fans' playership grew from 24% to 36%, with Visitor EXT playership growing from 16% to 27%,” explains Haley Bobo, Director of Data Science, for the world’s largest lottery games company. Expanding Popularity—and Price Points Extended play game revenue has grown at a much higher rate than non-extended play games in the past five years. The compound annual growth rate for non-extended play games in the U.S. from 2019 to 2024 is 3.36%, compared to 5.81% CAGR for extended play games. “Players are experiencing more extended play scratchers every year. Every reporting U.S. lottery had at least one extended play game in its portfolio in fiscal year 2025, and the number of games continues to grow,” says Bobo. While the $3 price point remains the most popular for the majority of lotteries, the percentage of extended play at other price points has grown significantly, with lotteries offering games at almost every price point from $5 to $100. In 2019, 55% of lotteries offered a $10 extended play game. This surged to 77% in 2024. Similarly, the $30 price point, offered by only two U.S. lotteries in 2019, is now available from nine lotteries. Scientific Games research shows that higher price point extended play games are appealing to more players in the Fans segment than ever before, offering a longer scratch experience that’s different from the other games they play. "Based on sales trends and consumer research, interest in extended play games was not just a fluke coming off the pandemic. There's significant interest in these products across all price points. It's important that we continue to expand our product offerings in this category, and not just by going up the price point ladder," Bobo advises. Danielle Hodges (left) and Haley Bobo (right)
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