Hmmmm, just downloaded a demo yesterday...

Why release a demo when you can charge people for early access?

They don't seem to release that many Demos on Xbox One, but I've played a few demos on PS4. I just played the Detroit:Become Human demo and before that the Nier Automata demo. As for PC, I don't think I've played many demos on that platform recently either.

I enjoy them, that recent demo detroit something, very good demo and conviced me i might purchase.

Recent demos;
Detroit
Wipeout
Zone of the enders
Enigmatis (excellent btw and purchased)
Gravel
Mgs
True fear

There are still demo's, maybe not the same amount as years gone by. But it actually costs devs money to put a demo on a store and sometimes it can hurt the game. Motorstorm 2 had this happen. Was a great game ruined by a poor demo imo.

Betas are more common and probably better since you get to see what the games about and whether or not you'll think it'll improve enough to buy it. Plus you get a decent amount of time with it.

Because nowadays games tend to release with at least 2-5 gb first day patch and not even stable. How would they give us a demo of unstable thing?

They release unfinished games for us to do unpaid QA work instead. I think they call it "early access".

Ps4 has demos as well.

There was just a demo for Detroit Become Human the other day.

Still get quite a few demos about, it's just with the Internet as a whole a lot more popular than it was back back in the late 90s/2000s people are able to watch gameplay videos to make up their mind, I'd prefer playing a demo any day but that's just how it is

Loads of demos on switch there isn’t that many. Demos unfortunately are pretty rare nowadays. A bad move in my opinion, it gave consumers a taste of the game I know I have bought many a game from playing the demo. Most developers just construct trailers of all the best bits tied in with cutscenes almost like film makers do unfortunately it gives a false impression of the game.

They are called open beta now.