Video gaming is no longer a hobby exclusively enjoyed by the young. As generations have grown up with video games a normal part of life, the age of the average gamer also increases. During a 2023 survey, 25 percent of video game players still come from the 27 to 42 years age demographic, and 19 percent are 59 years and older. Time spent gaming In 2023, Americans aged between 15 to 19 years spent 98.4 minutes on gaming or leisurely computer use during an average day. The age demographic which devoted the least amount of time to gaming was the 55 to 64 years category. Members of this age demographic spent an average of just 17.4 minutes playing on the computer during an average day.

In 2024, total U.S. consumer spending on video game content amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars, a significant increase from ***** billion U.S. dollars in the preceding year. Video game spending surged in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, the overall video game industry accounted for a total of 5,684 establishments and about 104,080 employees across the United States. Of these figures, 2,756 establishments were gaming software developers employing approximately 35,954 gaming industry workers.

In April 2025, total video games sales in the United States amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars, representing a one percent year-over-year increase. 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 **** 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 ** percent of the revenue of the games market worldwide, ahead of both console games and downloaded or boxed PC games.

The number of video game adaptations has grown over the years, especially when it comes to the small screen, with a total of 16 shows based on video games as of 2023. Streaming platforms are jumping on the trend as some video game series, like Amazon's adaptation of the post-apocalyptic gaming franchise "Fallout", receive both public and critics acclaim.

In 2022, social and casual gaming sector without advertising generated more revenue than the video game advertising sector. The mobile-heavy segment saw approximately 86 billion U.S. dollars in annual global revenues, while traditional gaming generated 56 billion U.S. dollars in annual sales. Digital revenue is dominating the gaming segment, as physical gaming sales are declining for a variety of reasons.

Video gaming is no longer just a hobby of teenagers - thanks to developments in gaming technology and the accessibility of many games, the activity has become very popular among both genders and young and old alike. During a June 2021 survey in the United States, 93 percent of respondents who played Minecraft stated that they had positive social experiences in the game. Positive in-game experiences include helping other players, making friends, and feeling the belonging to a community.

A July 2022 survey of U.S. gamers aged 50-plus found that puzzle and logic games were the most popular video game genre among respondents in that age bracket. Card and tile games ranked second, with 69 percent of respondents stating that they typically played video games like that.

Video gaming is a popular way for gamers to connect with friends and family, and many gamers have formed relationships through video games. During a February 2025 survey, 78 percent of responding gamers in the United States agreed that playing games can introduce people to new friends.

In 2025, women accounted for 47 percent of gamers in the United States, up from 46 percent of U.S. gamers identifying as women during the previous year.

What percentage gamers are female? Almost half of gaming audiences in the United States are female. This development has been ongoing for years, and whereas women are under-represented in games media and the industry, they make up a sizable chunk of gamers and spending power. There are some differences in terms of genre preferences but as a whole, female gaming audiences in the United States are just as engaged as their male counterparts.

When asked about "Video game purchases", ** percent of U.S. respondents answer "Yes, on in-game purchases". This online survey was conducted in 2024, among ****** consumers.

As of the third quarter of 2024, ******* and ****** adventure games were the two most popular video game genres across the globe. ******* games ranked as the most-played gaming genre for age groups 16 to 54 years old. **************** were the second-most popular game genre, ranking second across the majority of age groups. Online users aged 16 to 24 years were the only age group to have ************* games in their top gaming genres, whereas older age groups also played ************ games. Shooter games – most-played across all age groups Shooter video games are a type of action video game where the goal is almost entirely on defeating the character's enemies using firearms or other long-range weapons given to the player. Players can usually find in-game items such as ammunition and health packs or weapon upgrades during their session. Shooters are available on virtually all gaming platforms and can be played individually as a single-player, or in a multiplayer environment. Many shooter games are played competitively. A very popular type of shooter game are first-person shooters (FPS), where players experience everything through their character’s eyes in a first-person perspective while moving through a 3D space. Popular first-person shooters include the best-selling Call of Duty series, as well as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Doom, Quake, Team Fortress 2, and Halo. Action adventures – a wide-ranging genre Action adventures are also one of the most popular game genres, and players have a large variety of games to choose from. An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from action games (real-time interactions with the environment, physical and conceptual challenges) and adventure games (puzzles). The story that the player experiences is enacted rather than narrated. Popular action adventure games include The Legend of Zelda series, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, God of War, the Tom Raider series, as well as survival horror games like the Resident Evil series, or Metroidvania games.

As well as being one of the leading gaming market in terms of revenue in 2020, the United States is also considered by many as the birthplace of gaming as we know it today. In 2023, the number of employees in the video gaming industry in the United States reached over *** thousand.

The graph shows the distribution of U.S. video game sales by genre. In 2018, 11.1 percent of all video games sold in the United States were sports games.

In 2024, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, published by Activision Blizzard, was the top-selling video game in the United States based on dollar sales. EA Sports College Football 25 was in second place, followed by the shooter Helldivers II. The dominance of AAA gaming productions In the video-game industry, AAA (pronounced Triple-A) is a classification that is used when describing or talking about video games that are produced and distributed by major or mid-tier video game developers. These game productions typically have a large development and marketing budget. When looking at the top-selling video games in the United States in 2023, the majority of the best-selling titles were produced by the biggest gaming companies worldwide. In addition to several publicly listed video game companies, gaming platform owners Sony and Nintendo also produce top-selling games with Sony's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also reaching rank four and five, respectively. Spotlight: Call of Duty series Activision Blizzard’s long-running Call of Duty franchise usually features in many end-of-the-year lists as it is one of the top-grossing and best-selling gaming franchises worldwide. As of April 2021, the Call of Duty (CoD) series has generated more than 400 million lifetime unit sales and the most recent entry in the series is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, which was released in November 2023. The annual releases of the game series are rotated between several game development studios which are subsidiaries of Activision Blizzard: Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, Treyarch, and Raven Software.

Global video game purchase revenue is projected to amount to **** billion U.S. dollars in 2021. The market size of video game purchases is set to decline to **** billion U.S. dollars per year by 2025 as free-to-play titles and in-game purchases are set to account for the majority of market revenues. Many major game publishers have started to include mobile and F2P titles in their content lineups, with Activision's Call of Duty Mobile being a current, commercially successful example.

The COVID-19 pandemic that spread across the world at the beginning of 2020 was not only a big threat to public health, but also to the entire entertainment industry. While cinemas and theaters closed their doors to try to stem the spread of the disease, many people turned to home entertainment during periods of self-isolation. In April 2020, during the height of the lockdown, sales of video gaming hardware in the United States increased by 163 percent compared to the previous year.

Over the last two observations, the number of users is forecast to significantly increase in all segments. Particularly striking is the exceptionally strong increase of the segment Video Games towards the end of the forecast period. The value amounting to 27.8 million users stands out significantly from the average changes, which are estimated at 12.5 million users. Find other insights concerning similar markets and segments, such as a comparison of number of users in Russia and a comparison of revenue in the United Kingdom. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Significant fluctuations are estimated for all segments over the forecast period for the revenue. Overall, the revenue appears to follow a positive trend, as there are more increasing values than decreasing values expected in the individual segments until 2030. Among them, the segment Gaming Hardware achieves the relatively highest value throughout the entire period, reaching **** billion U.S. dollars. Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the number of users in Canada and a comparison of the penetration rate in Sweden. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

In March 2025, Assassin's Creed Shadows was the top-selling video game in the United States based on dollar sales. MLB: The Show 25 ranked second. The video game sales charts that month were dominated by blockbuster franchise games.