The global revenue in the 'Video Games' segment of the digital media market was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2027 by in total 80.9 billion U.S. dollars (+28.65 percent). After the fifth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 363.19 billion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2027. Find more information concerning Vietnam and the Philippines. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

In January 2025, the retail gaming revenue in the United States amounted to 7.54 billion U.S. dollars. When looking at particular segment revenues, accessories were the lowest-performing segment at retail overall, while video gaming content accounted for the gross of consumer spending. Video game spending habits in the United States More than four in ten U.S. gamers across all platforms were willing to spend a maximum of 41 to 60 U.S. dollars on a video game. A November 2022 survey found that more than four in ten PC and console gamers stated so, while over three in ten mobile-only gamers said they only played free games. Console gamers were most comfortable spending money on their hobby at this price point. In 2023, total U.S. consumer spending on video game content amounted to 57.2 billion U.S. dollars, a one percent increase from 56.6 billion U.S. dollars in the preceding year. Game releases are planned around the holiday season What is very specific to the industry at large is that the highest monthly revenues occur around the holiday season in November and December of each year. The entire market revolves around maximizing sales during the season, and most new game releases of high-budget, high-profile titles (so-called AAA games) are planned shortly before the winter holidays. Many of these annual blockbuster releases see releases from late Q3 onwards: EA Sports FC usually releases in late September, and new games in Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty series are launched between late October and early November.For the holiday season 2023, blockbusters Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield had already started the season of major video game releases. Other AAA titles that are also taking advantage of the Christmas shopping release window are the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 as well as the Nintendo Switch release of Hogwarts Legacy and the PS5 port of mobile gaming title Honkai Star Rail by Genshin Impact publisher MiHoYo.

In January 2025, total video games sales in the United States amounted to 4.5billion U.S. dollars, representing a 15 percent year-over-year decrease. Generally speaking, the video game industry has its most important months in November and December, as video game software and hardware make very popular Christmas gifts. In December 2024, total U.S. video game sales surpassed 7.54 billion U.S. dollars. Birth of the video game industry Although the largest regional market in terms of sales, as well as number of gamers, is Asia Pacific, the United States is also an important player within the global video games industry. In fact, many consider the United States as the birthplace of gaming as we know it today, fueled by the arcade game fever in the ’60s and the introduction of the first personal computers and home gaming consoles in the ‘70s. Furthermore, the children of those eras are the game developers and game players of today, the ones who have driven the movement for better software solutions, better graphics, better sound and more advanced interaction not only for video games, but also for computers and communication technologies of today. An ever-changing market However, the video game industry in the United States is not only growing, it is also changing in many ways. Due to increased internet accessibility and development of technologies, more and more players are switching from single-player console or PC video games towards multiplayer games, as well as social networking games and last, but not least, mobile games, which are gaining tremendous popularity around the world. This can be evidenced in the fact that mobile games accounted for 51 percent of the revenue of the games market worldwide, ahead of both console games and downloaded or boxed PC games.

In 2023, the Big 3 gaming companies — Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony — accounted for 29 percent of the global gaming market. The three gaming giants made a total of 52.6 billion U.S. dollars in gaming revenues, compared to 131.4 billion U.S. dollars generated by the rest of the global gaming industry.

In 2024, mobile remained the biggest gaming segment worldwide with approximately 92.6 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenues. The console segment ranked second with 51.9 billion U.S. dollars and PC gaming ranked last. Gaming revenue Revenues in the gaming industry are based on three major sources. Hardware, such as consoles, processors, screens, controllers, and other accessories; software, the actual games, as well as in-game purchases and live services. Some of the most important players in the computer and video games publishing market are Sony Computer Entertainment (Japan), Tencent Holdings Limited (China), Microsoft (United States) and Nintendo Company Ltd. (Japan). Traditional console and PC gaming companies may have worldwide name recognition but mobile gaming publishers are no slouches either: Shenzhen Tencent Tianyou Technology Ltd (formerly known as Tencent Mobile Games) generated more than 95 million U.S. dollars in monthly app revenues in September, and the top-ranked mobile game publishers generate revenues worth millions in the double-digits every month. Several mobile gaming publisher have gone from being an indie company to an IPO in just a few years, with Rovio Entertainment, King, and Zynga just being a few examples of the mobile gaming boom in the mid-2010s. Mobile gaming monetization The majority of mobile gaming revenues are generated via smartphones, with tablet devices only accounting for a small share of mobile gaming gross. The average number of in-app purchases per paying user increased across all gaming genres in 2020-2021 as user engagement with gaming soared during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Another survey of mobile gaming developers found that platformers are the highest-monetizing free-to-play genre.

In 2022, mobile games generated approximately 91.8 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenue, accounting for 50 percent of the global gaming market during the measured period. Console games were ranked second with 52.2 billion U.S. dollars in global revenue.

Game monetization strategies The day were the actual purchase of a game was only money-related transaction in the process are long gone - today, digital gaming platforms are brimming with subscription services, downloadable content (DLC) and add-ons, as well as in-app or in-game purchase options for virtual items or game-enhancing experiences. A 2020 survey of game developers found that the most common gaming business models in the gaming industry were paid downloads, followed by free to download titles.

Premium titles Paid gaming titles are usually refers to as premium titles, a further distinction from free-to-play (F2P) games. In 2020, the top-grossing premium gaming title on console and PC was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The sixteenth installment in the CoD series was released in 2019 and generated over 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in revenues in 2020. FIFA 20, published by Electronic Arts, was ranked second with just over 1.08 billion U.S. dollars in global revenues. Overall, premium console gaming revenues are projected to reach 16.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.

In 2023, the free-to-play (F2P) game market generated an estimated 111.37 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, and this figure is expected to increase to 117.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. PC is the second-largest platform for F2P gaming, ranking behind mobile and ahead of the console gaming segment in this regard.

With the almost universal adoption of smartphones and mobile internet worldwide, it is hardly a surprise that this platform is also the highest-grossing gaming platform. In 2023, the global mobile gaming segment generated about 196 billion U.S. dollars in revenues. Console gaming was ranked second with close to 105 billion U.S. dollars in revenue during the measured period.

Video gaming content, including mobile gaming apps, accounts for the bulk of the annual video gaming industry revenue in the United States. In 2023, the total revenue of the U.S. video game industry amounted to 57.19 billion U.S. dollars, up from the 56.6 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier. Overall, the monthly revenue of the video gaming industry sees some fluctuation throughout the year, with lows in the summer months, and higher sales during the holiday season.

Going digital and not turning back Over the last few years, digital gaming sales have been growing slowly but steadily and exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many consumers switched to digital game downloads instead of visiting brick-and-mortar retail locations and did not return to their previous shopping patterns after the normalization of the health emergency. Coupled with the ever-growing availability of high-speed internet connections and the release of the new flagship gaming console generation by Microsoft (Xbox) and Sony (PlayStation), comfort and convenience won over in-store browsing. Additionally, digital game storefronts across all gaming platforms frequently run sales and special offers that physical retailers rarely match. In 2022, the average revenue per user of physical video game sales in the United States amounted to 60.52 U.S. dollars, whereas the ARPU of game downloads only came to 35.72 U.S. dollars, reflecting the higher price of physical video game copies and the lower average price of digital games. Overall, the average monthly video game expenditure of U.S. gamers decreased to 19.56 U.S. dollars in 2023, down from 23.87 U.S. dollars in 2022. The struggles of the gaming hardware segment In contrast to the booming digital gaming content sales, the gaming hardware segment did not have an easy time in 2020 and 2021. What was supposed to be a year of triumph with the long-announced release of the ninth generation of video game consoles with the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S in November 2020 quickly turned into a tale of woe. The ongoing global chip shortage, which started in early 2020 due to COVID-19 -related disruptions in global supply chains and logistics, strongly constrained the availability of chips to produce video gaming consoles. Additional factors such as trade wars, increased demand for hardware due to crypto mining, severe weather, and war impacting raw material exports continue to plague the global chip industry to this day. The lack of availability of the new consoles also led to scalpers taking advantage of the situation, leaving a sour taste for consumers. Console makers managed to turn things around, and while sales of the new consoles were not as good as they could have been, 2022 saw some recovery, and 2023 managed to get console sales back on track, despite global economic worries. In the first eleven months of 2023, Sony managed to sell close to 18 million PlayStation 5 consoles, with Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S selling about 5.6 million units.

The revenue in the 'Games' segment of the media market in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 59.9 billion U.S. dollars (+46.76 percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the revenue is estimated to reach 187.95 billion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the revenue of the 'Games' segment of the media market was continuously increasing over the past years.Find other key market indicators concerning the average revenue per user (ARPU) and number of users. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Between July 2023 and June 2024, the Big 3 gaming brands — Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation — generated the majority of their gaming revenues via software and other sales, with hardware accounting for a smaller share of the total. The PlayStation brand made over 21.4 billion U.S. dollars via software and gaming service sales, which amounted to 73 percent of the total.

In the first nine months of 2024, independent (indie) games accumulated four billion U.S. dollars in full game revenues on PC gaming platform Steam, with projections estimating full-year sales at 4.9 billion U.S. dollars. This represents a 82 percent growth from the 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in indie game revenues on Steam in 2023. The strong increase in indie game revenue in 2024 was mainly driven by hit titles Back Myth: Wukong and Palworld.

As the name suggests, free-to-play video games give players access to content free of charge, although sometimes payment is required to enhance in-game features. The global free-to-play mobile gaming market is estimated to reach 83.21 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, up from 83.21 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

In 2025, mobile games are projected to account for 54 percent of global gaming market revenues worldwide. Console gaming is set to be the second-strongest segment, with a 24 percent market share.

The global revenue in the 'Games' segment of the media market was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 216.3 billion U.S. dollars (+45.53 percent). After the seventh consecutive increasing year, the revenue is estimated to reach 691.31 billion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029. Find more information concerning Canada and the United States. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Over the past decade, the Chinese technology group Tencent Holdings has invested heavily in developing its gaming business. In 2023, its online games grossed 179.86 billion yuan – a slight increase compared to 2022. This made up 26 percent of the Chinese tech giant’s annual revenue.

Tencent’s gaming empire The entertainment giant has remained as the world’s top game publisher by revenue, leading the industry with 14 million U.S. dollars more than the second placeholder, Sony. Tencent's mobile games Peacekeeper Elite and Honor of Kings have been well-received in the Chinese market. In fact, the Chinese conglomerate controls stakes in some of the world’s popular games, such as League of Legends, Fortnite, and Clash of Clans. Its battle-royale game PUBG Mobile has gained immense popularity in overseas markets.

The goldmine of online gaming in China In a country with over 660 million gamers, the gaming market in China is massive and lucrative. Since 2017, the revenue of China’s video game industry has surpassed 200 billion yuan and continued to grow steadily. Undoubtedly, Chinese consumers are highly engaged in mobile gaming. Role-playing, real-time strategy, shooter, and fighting games are the most popular genres. Besides mobile games, eSports is another booming game sector in China with role-playing games (RPG) and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) being the major revenue powerhouse. Having scoped out the market potentials of eSports, Tencent invested in the eSports streaming platform Douyu and acquired Douyu’s biggest domestic rival Huya in April 2020. It is quite unlikely for other market players to shake Tencent’s dominating status in the next few years.

The revenue is forecast to experience significant growth in all segments in 2027. Especially notable is the remarkably robust growth observed in the In-game Advertising segment as we approach the end of the forecast period. This value, reaching 12 billion U.S. dollars, stands out significantly compared to the average changes, which are estimated at 3.8 billion U.S. dollars. Find other insights concerning similar markets and segments, such as a comparison of revenue in Italy and a comparison of revenue worldwide. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

It is estimated that the North American gaming market will amount to 205.31 billion U.S. dollars annually in 2028, up from 114.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. The Asia Pacific region is set to remain the top-grossing gaming market worldwide.

From the selected regions, the ranking by revenue in the 'Games' segment of the media market is led by the United Kingdom with 14.6 billion U.S. dollars and is followed by Germany (10.9 billion U.S. dollars). In contrast, the ranking is trailed by Denmark with 935.56 million U.S. dollars, recording a difference of 13.7 billion U.S. dollars to the United Kingdom. Find more statistics on other topics: a comparison of countries or regions regarding the revenue and a comparison of countries or regions regarding the penetration rate. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

In contrast to free-to-play games, premium games require consumers to spend money upfront to buy the title. The global premium console games market was estimated at 22.77 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, and is expected to increase to 23.26 billion U.S. dollars by 2024.