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In This Cost-Cutting Crisis, The Global Games Market Has Hit $200 Billion Yearly Revenue

Hideous Snake

Hideous Snake

Gold Member
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In an all-new report, it has been confirmed that the global games market ended 2025 with a whopping $201 billion in yearly revenue. This is the first time that the wider market has pushed through that $200 billion mark, and there are indications that, by 2028, it could reach as high as $234 billion.

In a new report from Newzoo, it was confirmed that, by the end of 2025, the global games market had secured $201.6 billion in revenue, up a whopping 9.1% year-over-year. This is the first time that the market has surpassed the $200 billion mark, and it trumped expectations and estimations going into the year.

  • PC delivered a massive 12% boost year-over-year, securing $43.6 billion in revenue
  • Console revenue reached $44.7 billion, a rebound from 2024's shortfall performance and up 2.8% YoY
  • Mobile revenues hit an eye-watering $113.3 billion, up an incredible 10.7%
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insider-gaming.com

In This Cost-Cutting Crisis, The Global Games Market Has Hit $200 Billion Yearly Revenue

Despite experiencing a cost-cutting crisis, the global games market is making record-high revenue figures, it has been revealed.
insider-gaming.com insider-gaming.com
 
Need to exclude mobile from these reports. I think its an entirely different market tbh. Interesting how close PC and console are though.

Its like using academia/university books to gauge the health of the 'book' market
 
The PC market growing 12% is pretty wild, especially given how much everything is against it on the hardware cost front now.

Mobile market is gonna get more interesting when arm-based translation layers gets better, and we see more core games in that space too.
 
Miles708 said:
Explain it to me like I'm 5: cost cutting over record profit?
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200b revenue, not profits, thats why they are cutting costs, especially among overpaid agenda pushing western dev studios.
And remember that 200b is total gaming industry, including mobile, i did check how it all stacks up and console gaming is aprox 50b, pc gaming 40-50b.
So in conclusion we got record revenue but budgets skyrocketed too, and many of those cut western dev studios perform worse compared to newbie studios from outside of the west(lower salaries, no or barely any DEI infestation, much better studio management).
 
cormack12 said:
Need to exclude mobile from these reports. I think its an entirely different market tbh. Interesting how close PC and console are though.

Its like using academia/university books to gauge the health of the 'book' market
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Hideous Snake said:
I agree. Pretty sure most of this revenue is from gacha
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It's still games. Gatcha and mobile games are not a different medium.
What you propose is like excluding certain music genres that people with horrible taste listen to in the millions from the music industry revenue reports, because you don't think it's legit music. And I agree with the sentiment, but the principle is wrong. After all, with the current dedicated hardware prices, it's pretty obvious that gatcha and the likes of it are going to erode into the traditional gaming market more and more. Take mobile away from those numbers, and we'd be singing a very different tune right now.
 
NeoIkaruGAF said:
It's still games. Gatcha and mobile games are not a different medium.
What you propose is like excluding certain music genres that people with horrible taste listen to in the millions from the music industry revenue reports, because you don't think it's legit music. And I agree with the sentiment, but the principle is wrong. After all, with the current dedicated hardware prices, it's pretty obvious that gatcha and the likes of it are going to erode into the traditional gaming market more and more. Take mobile away from those numbers, and we'd be singing a very different tune right now.
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I didn't say they're not games but I don't think it's right to mix $50-70 games with free to play that depends on in-game purchases
 
NeoIkaruGAF said:
It's still games. Gatcha and mobile games are not a different medium.
What you propose is like excluding certain music genres that people with horrible taste listen to in the millions from the music industry revenue reports, because you don't think it's legit music. And I agree with the sentiment, but the principle is wrong. After all, with the current dedicated hardware prices, it's pretty obvious that gatcha and the likes of it are going to erode into the traditional gaming market more and more. Take mobile away from those numbers, and we'd be singing a very different tune right now.
Click to expand...

But they are different markets. 'Games' is too broad a category, it's like how orchestral and classical music are tracked under special categories in the music industry (trying to use your example).

You can group it into all one bucket but is there value in doing that? In fact you could probably argue treating gamers as one monolithic core market is what has led to so many 'GaaS/Games for everyone' failures. Precisely because they aren't differentiating between them.
 
Durin said:
The PC market growing 12% is pretty wild, especially given how much everything is against it on the hardware cost front now.

Mobile market is gonna get more interesting when arm-based translation layers gets better, and we see more core games in that space too.
Click to expand...

I cant imagine what the PC growth would have been if the Rampocalypse didn't start in September. Probably 15 to 18 percent growth considering the amount of sales that are done in Q4.
 
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Durin said:
The PC market growing 12% is pretty wild, especially given how much everything is against it on the hardware cost front now.

Mobile market is gonna get more interesting when arm-based translation layers gets better, and we see more core games in that space too.
Click to expand...

With hardware being so expensive, people prefer to spend on software.
 
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Durin said:
The PC market growing 12% is pretty wild, especially given how much everything is against it on the hardware cost front now.

Mobile market is gonna get more interesting when arm-based translation layers gets better, and we see more core games in that space too.
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PC growth is solely from third world countries and cheap hardware
 
Hideous Snake said:
I don't believe there's cheap hardware anywhere in the world. You'd be amazed by the amount of potato rigs in 2026
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I mean it's mostly absolutely low end new hardware or just used parts. There are still plenty of old graphics cards and cpus floating around. India and Africa certainly aren't playing with the newest Nvidia models.
 
Sohurmk833 said:
I mean it's mostly absolutely low end new hardware or just used parts. There are still plenty of old graphics cards and cpus floating around. India and Africa certainly aren't playing with the newest Nvidia models.
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Oh yeah absolutely. When Steam reviews introduced posting your rig with the reviews, it was mental how many people are still running potato rigs. On top of that, it's a god damn shite time to upgrade.
 
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cormack12 said:
Need to exclude mobile from these reports. I think its an entirely different market tbh. Interesting how close PC and console are though.

Its like using academia/university books to gauge the health of the 'book' market
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Hmm, I get what your saying, but a lot of the PC market is super casual people as well, playing f2p slop on tablets and laptops.

Both PCs and mobiles are multi-purpose devices, whereas ~90% of consoles are bought to play games.
 
Major Insano said:
Hmm, I get what your saying, but a lot of the PC market is super casual people as well, playing f2p slop on tablets and laptops.

Both PCs and mobiles are multi-purpose devices, whereas ~90% of consoles are bought to play games.
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If you have steam installed, then you likely use your gaming PC for other tasks, or have a gaming PC / Workstation hybrid imo. This is regardless of the specs (like those 3rd world PCs playing counter strike or LoL). Actually, out of interest is there an Asian version of Steam or do they just use steam with simplified language?

Sure you might get some kids trying to play roblox or Minecraft on their folks Pavilion but they are specific cases imo.
 
cormack12 said:
But they are different markets. 'Games' is too broad a category, it's like how orchestral and classical music are tracked under special categories in the music industry (trying to use your example).

You can group it into all one bucket but is there value in doing that? In fact you could probably argue treating gamers as one monolithic core market is what has led to so many 'GaaS/Games for everyone' failures. Precisely because they aren't differentiating between them.
Click to expand...
The difference here is that orchestral and classical music are niche, while mobile and gacha is a huge chunk of the gaming market.
I agree that considering it all a monolithic market is deceiving, but again: remove mobile and gacha from those numbers, and is the overall picture still as rosy?

There's a huge interest in the numbers from mobile and gacha because, like it or not, they will keep rising and will be an essential slice of the gaming market as traditional gaming shrinks due to all the concomitant factors that we all know about and that are quickly coming to a reckoning. Anything that isn't a luxury is destined to boom in the next few years, and consoles and PCs are definitely becoming a luxury under our very eyes.
 
NeoIkaruGAF said:
The difference here is that orchestral and classical music are niche, while mobile and gacha is a huge chunk of the gaming market.
I agree that considering it all a monolithic market is deceiving, but again: remove mobile and gacha from those numbers, and is the overall picture still as rosy?

There's a huge interest in the numbers from mobile and gacha because, like it or not, they will keep rising and will be an essential slice of the gaming market as traditional gaming shrinks due to all the concomitant factors that we all know about and that are quickly coming to a reckoning. Anything that isn't a luxury is destined to boom in the next few years, and consoles and PCs are definitely becoming a luxury under our very eyes.
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I get what you're saying but crossword puzzle apps, bejeweled, clash of clans, angry birds and flick the paper in the bin are not ever going to be 'games' in the purest sense of the word. Just like ad jingles are not going to light up the top 40. It's grouping things together that don't make sense because they are fundamentally so different.
 
cormack12 said:
Need to exclude mobile from these reports. I think its an entirely different market tbh. Interesting how close PC and console are though.

Its like using academia/university books to gauge the health of the 'book' market
Click to expand...
Like half of console and 80% of PC playing the same games as half of mobile market (Fortnite, gachas etc)

Hideous Snake said:
I love it. More people are finally realising what's the superior platform
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In China and other developing countries

DenchDeckard said:
Will Ferrell Lol GIF
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If you substract 3% of inflation to get real growth instead of nominal one, and take into account 10% EUR to USD appreciation - you'll see that Europe is slightly down and US barely grew and all growth concentrated in new territories
Those, coincidentally, massively prefer PC (and mostly entry level PC) for gaming
 
Felessan said:
Like half of console and 80% of PC playing the same games as half of mobile market (Fortnite, gachas etc)


In China and other developing countries


If you substract 3% of inflation to get real growth instead of nominal one, and take into account 10% EUR to USD appreciation - you'll see that Europe is slightly down and US barely grew and all growth concentrated in new territories
Those, coincidentally, massively prefer PC (and mostly entry level PC) for gaming
Click to expand...

With all these calculations you are doing, how does that affect the consoles number?
 
Remarkable growth for PC. Makes sense, 2025 was the year Nvidia made the most from gaming GPU sales, even if it was overshadowed by AI growth.

Bet 2026 is going to be negative growth for everything other than mobile.
 
Zathalus said:
Remarkable growth for PC. Makes sense, 2025 was the year Nvidia made the most from gaming GPU sales, even if it was overshadowed by AI growth.

Bet 2026 is going to be negative growth for everything other than mobile.
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No, no, no... thanks to GTA6 consoles will go up 50% or more!!11

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First time I'm seeing PC and Console at the same market share. Not so much that PCs have grown, rather consoles have shrunk.

Why is the 2025 showing YoY growth for console? Where is that 12% PC growth coming from?

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Global-games-market-revenues-in-2024-by-segment.png


The-global-games-market-in-2023-per-segment.png


Newzoo_Global-Games-Market-per-Segment_Nov-2022-2048x1152.png


Newzoo_Global_Games_Market_by_Segment.png
 
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Topher said:
First time I'm seeing PC and Console at the same market share. Not so much that PCs have grown, rather consoles have shrunk.

Why is the 2025 showing YoY growth for console? Where is that 12% PC growth coming from?

image-27-1536x809.png


Global-games-market-revenues-in-2024-by-segment.png


The-global-games-market-in-2023-per-segment.png


Newzoo_Global-Games-Market-per-Segment_Nov-2022-2048x1152.png


Newzoo_Global_Games_Market_by_Segment.png
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Console shrunk -> PC grown. Makes sense.

But you are right, numbers are weird compared to previous years.

Tiago Rodrigues said:
Consoles increasing with Xbox giving up is actually interesting. Also...you expect that to happen the same year GTAVI releases?
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GTA6 will launch on PC 6-12 months later.
 
Anyone posting "video game market crash" threads should feel very silly right now.
Sony and especially MS may have fumbled a good part of this generation, but the show must go on.
 
Bojji said:
Console shrunk -> PC grown. Makes sense.

But you are right, numbers are weird compared to previous years.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing they must have revamped their methodology or something. Would be nice to note that if so, however
 
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Felessan said:
Like half of console and 80% of PC playing the same games as half of mobile market (Fortnite, gachas etc)


In China and other developing countries


If you substract 3% of inflation to get real growth instead of nominal one, and take into account 10% EUR to USD appreciation - you'll see that Europe is slightly down and US barely grew and all growth concentrated in new territories
Those, coincidentally, massively prefer PC (and mostly entry level PC) for gaming
Click to expand...
Fortnite isnt even close in revenue, on mobile, to the big mobile games. Honor of kings is like around $150M per month while fortnite is closer to $2M.

White Out Survival makes a fortune, is that even a game really? Barely
 
Topher said:
First time I'm seeing PC and Console at the same market share. Not so much that PCs have grown, rather consoles have shrunk.

Why is the 2025 showing YoY growth for console? Where is that 12% PC growth coming from?

image-27-1536x809.png


Global-games-market-revenues-in-2024-by-segment.png


The-global-games-market-in-2023-per-segment.png


Newzoo_Global-Games-Market-per-Segment_Nov-2022-2048x1152.png


Newzoo_Global_Games_Market_by_Segment.png
Click to expand...
Console shrinking absolutely from the pictures. PC been growing constantly and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I think the 12% comes from the smaller markets
 
Meaningless to compare AAA budgets when you are factoring in mobile pay-to-play garbage in the revenue.

It's like saying, "why are professional lacrosse players in the US complaining about the difficulty of making enough money to live, when IS professional athletes make billions collectively every year?"
 
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