There's a tree at the bottom of my street. I don't water it, nobody ever waters it. I don't give it nutrients, or trim the branches, or do anything to it. Nobody ever does. Still, it grows. Nobody ever does anything, and still it grows. Its only impulse is to grow. That tree is a lot like my gaming backlog—and probably yours too. Without any of us doing anything, without anything occurring but the passage of time, it grows and grows and grows. Sound familiar?

Every time I open a storefront or a subscription service, another game slips into the pile. Free monthly titles, seasonal sales, bundles I swear I'll play next month... Before I know it, that backlog has roots deeper than the oak at the end of my road. The question is: when do we actually grab the axe?

Let's be real—most years start with a bang. In early 2023, the first two months were absolutely stacked. We had God of War on PC, Rainbow Six Extraction, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Dying Light 2, Sifu, Horizon Forbidden West, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, and a little game called Elden Ring. I barely had time to catch my breath, let alone think about older games. By the time the dust settled, my backlog had grown another hundred hours. Did yours?

Fast forward to early 2026, and I finally feel like I can exhale. That's not to say the release calendar is empty—there are always new games. But after the chaos of late 2025 and the usual holiday rush, the opening weeks of this year feel more like a quiet meadow than a battlefield. There's no Elden Ring-sized monster demanding my attention, no must-play open world swallowing whole weekends. Instead, there's actual space. Space to finish a game. Space to uninstall something with a clear conscience. Space to finally attack that tree.

Back in 2023, we saw something similar. January's major offerings were Fire Emblem Engage, Dead Space, and Forspoken. Don't get me wrong—those are real games with real fans. But one appeals to a fairly niche strategy audience, another is a remake of a relatively short horror classic, and the third had every hallmark of 'wait until it's on sale'. Sorry, Forspoken, I liked you, but that's just the way it goes. February was equally thin: Octopath Traveler 2, Like a Dragon: Ishin!, Wild Hearts, and Destiny 2: Lightfall were the biggest guns, and they were more like derringers compared to Elden Ring's bazooka. There was also Hogwarts Legacy, the one truly huge title, but due to the controversy around J.K. Rowling's views, plenty of players skipped it entirely. That left an open road for backlog hunters.

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Even with a few games shifting out of January and February that year, the early months were still wall-to-wall crowd-pleasers. A mainline Pokémon game, a massive Sony triple-A, the most anticipated title of the year—all in the first eight weeks. Compare that to now. 2026 has plenty to offer once we get deeper into spring, but for the next seven or eight weeks, many of us are looking at open road. Why not use it?

Here's what this quiet stretch actually gives us:

  • 🪓 Fewer massive releases competing for attention

  • ⏳ Time to tackle those 50+ hour RPGs we keep postponing

  • 🧹 A chance to clear subscription-service guilt

  • 🎮 Permission to actually finish games instead of hoarding them

Personally, I'm not here to tell you exactly what to play. Adding more suggestions to an already bloated backlog feels counterproductive. But I will say this: if you have a giant game sitting in your library—a Red Dead Redemption 2, a The Witcher 3, a 100-hour RPG you've been avoiding because it feels too big—right now is the time. Games don't often slow down like this. Don't let the window close.

I'm using this stretch to tackle a couple of long-neglected Yakuza games myself. After that, I might hit something completely different before March heats up with bigger releases. But I'm not in a rush, and that's the point. When was the last time you played a game without feeling the pressure of the next big thing already downloading? Feels almost luxurious, doesn't it?

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Look, I know it's tempting to grab every new game that launches, especially when year-end lists are still fresh in your mind. But that backlog isn't going to trim itself. The tree keeps growing whether we water it or not. The only way to cut it down is to actually start chopping. And a quiet early game calendar is a rare, beautiful thing.

Whatever you decide to play, I hope you actually play it—not just install it, scroll menus, and log off. We've all been there. But with a little breathing room in the next couple of months, we finally have a chance to reduce those hundreds of unplayed games to, say, 90. Baby steps.

So here's the real question: if not now, when? The next Elden Ring or Hogwarts or Horizon could arrive before you know it, and then the tree gets a fresh growth spurt. Take advantage of this moment. Sharpen your axe. And maybe, just maybe, enjoy finishing something for once.