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.

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 2022, video gaming companies in Denmark generated revenues of close to 3.65 billion Danish kroner, a 18 percent increase the 3.07 billion Danish kroner in the previous year. As of the most recently measured period, there were 164 gaming companies in Denmark.

Revenues from Polish video games will increase by nearly 35 million zlotych between 2017 and 2018. It is estimated that by the end of 2018, the incomes of Polish video game producers' revenues will reach over 985 million zlotych.

Home to over 490 million eSports users, China reported a total game sales revenue of 143 billion yuan in its eSports market in 2024. A supply of new high-quality games resulted in a 7.5 percent revenue growth compared to the previous year. Since November 2019, the Chinese government has imposed stricter video game time limits on players under the age of 18. The current regulation prohibits play time over three hours per week, which makes it difficult for eSports clubs to recruit teenage gamers in a fiercely competitive field where most pro players retire in their mid-twenties.

In 2018, the revenue of China's mobile game overseas market reached 42.12 billion yuan, an increase by 30.8 percent compared to the previous year. China's mobile gaming market abroad accounted for more than a quarter of the total market revenue in 2018, a much higher share than in 2017.

The number of companies in the Danish gaming industry increased in the past years. As of 2022, there were 164 video game companies in the country, while the number was only 129 in 2017. Similarly, the number of employees in this market grew to over 1,200 people in 2022. Danish gaming companies That year, Danish gaming enterprises generated a total revenue of roughly 3.16 billion Danish kroner. As of May 2021, the largest company in this industry was by far Tactile Games, with a revenue of over 1.2 mllion Danish kroner. Second came Trophy Games which develops football manager games since 2006.

The game streaming market in China is a multi-billion dollar business. In 2019, the sales revenue from the Chinese game streaming saw an almost 50 percent increase compared to the previous year. Despite a slowdown in the market growth, the live streaming video games still have a huge market potential in China.

During the first half of 2024, the total revenue of browser games in China reduced to about 2.34 billion yuan, accounting for around 1.6 percent of the market sales revenue in the gaming industry in China. Back in 2015 and 2016, the sector reported to have over ten billion yuan in sales revenue.

This statistic presents the annual online game revenue generated by Changyou from 2013 to 2016. Changyou, the Chinese entertainment giant, generated around 2.56 billion yuan of revenue from its online games in 2016, decreased from about 4.12 billion yuan in the previous year.

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.

In 2022, the PC gaming market in South Korea increased by around three percent. That year, the PC gaming market was the second biggest sector in the South Korean gaming market.

In 2024, Shanghai-based gaming giant miHoYo generated approximately 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in IAP revenues. miHoYo's innovation and gaming excellence have solidified its position as a prominent Chinese game developer with a global reach. The company unveiled its global publishing subsidiary Cognosphere in February 2022. The new Chinese gaming star Founded in 2011 with a dedication to quality, miHoYo has been delivering visually stunning gaming experiences, attracting millions of players worldwide. Between 2020 and 2022, the company’s annual revenue increased by four folds. As of the time of writing, the game developer has released two role-playing game (RPG) hits, Genshin Impact (2020) and Honkai: Star Rail (2023). miHoYo's two blockbusters The company's flagship title, Genshin Impact, has not only earned critical acclaim but has also served as a financial juggernaut. Within the first six months of its release in 2020, the title achieved over one billion U.S. dollars in revenue. In April 2023, miHoYo released another cross-platform space fantasy game Honkai: Star Rail, generating over 30 million app downloads worldwide in five months. Intricate storytelling, captivating visual elements, and consistent updates are some of the elements which lead to miHoYo's success. With a track record of innovation and financial prowess, miHoYo's future in the gaming industry remains exceptionally promising.

This graphic displays the monthly growth of the broadcast time of e-sport mobile game videos in China in 2016. In April 2016, e-sport mobile game videos' broadcast time reached its fastest growth rate of the year at 81.6 percent.

In 2023, the video gaming market in France was worth 2.16 billion euros, up 27.7 percent compared to the previous year. French video gaming revenues peaked in 2016, before declining until 2018. However, the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic increased growth significantly before normalizing in 2022.

The sales of the console video game industry in Japan amounted to 377.4 billion Japanese yen in 2022, which was an increase of 5.5 billion yen compared to the previous year. The rebound in 2017 can be explained by the success of the Nintendo Switch, which was released in March of that year. The growth in 2020 was related to the high demand for home entertainment during the COVID pandemic as well as the release of new consoles by Sony and Microsoft.

According to a survey by the Media Activity Guide, people in Germany spend around 37 minutes a day playing video games. This was a slight decrease compared to the previous year. 2021 saw a spike in game playing, probably because people were spending more time inside and alone due to the lockdowns. Video game market The worldwide gaming market is currently valued at around 455.27 billion U.S. dollars and is predicted to continue to grow by over 200 billion U.S. dollars by 2029. In Germany, the gaming market saw some rapid growth from 2016 to 2021, with revenue tripling, and although the increase has slowed in the last few years, it is still going up. This increase is probably due to the fact that it is now easier than ever to play video games because they can be played not just on consoles, but also on smartphones and PCs. Playing on a smartphone was how most Germans preferred to play video games in 2024, however, not all games can be played on all devices, so sometimes a more traditional gaming console is still needed if gamers want to play certain games. Gamers in Germany Although the stereotype suggests that teenagers are the demographic most interested in gaming, figures confirm that it is people aged 30 to 39 and 50 to 59 who are the biggest gamers. But what are gamers playing? The most popular games include EA Sports FC 2024, Hogwarts Legacy, based on the Harry Potter series, and Diablo IV.

In 2023, the market revenue of ACG mobile games in China reached around 32 billion yuan, 31 percent up compared to the previous year. ACG is an abbreviation of "Anime, Comic and Games", used in some subcultures of China. ACG games refer to video games adapted from Japanese anime, manga, and novels.

In 2024, Pokémon GO in-app purchase revenues surpassed 544 million U.S. dollars worldwide. The AR game's most profitable year was 2020, when many gamers discovered the title during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pokémon Go: a global phenomenon Pokémon Go took the world by storm in 2016. Within a week of its release on July 19, the mobile app had been downloaded over ten million times worldwide, indicating the enormous hype surrounding the launch of Nintendo’s first venture into mobile gaming. The location-based augmented reality (AR) game involves catching, training, and battling virtual creatures (Pokémon) in real-world locations via smartphone. While the initial Pokémon craze has slowly faded, the game still enjoys millions of active users around the world and the Asia-Pacific region, in particular. Player spending increases in a quest to catch ’em all Pokémon Go ranks among the leading free-to-play (FTP) gaming titles worldwide, generating over four billion U.S. dollars in lifetime IAP revenue. While both app download and usage are free, the game uses a freemium business model that supports in-app purchases. Users can buy additional Pokéballs or other in-game items to level up and increase their chances of becoming a successful virtual Pokémon trainer. In order to maintain players’ interest and participation, developer Niantic continues to expand the game by introducing new features and characters like popular franchise antagonists Team Rocket..

In the eight-year period between 2016 and 2023, games belonging to Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty franchise claimed the top spot as the highest grossing video game of the year in the United States six times. In 2023, Hogwarts Legacy, developed by Avalanche Software, was the best-selling game in the United States, while two installments in the Call of Duty series made the top ten. Other popular games in 2023 included Madden NFL 24, ranked third, and Marvel's Spiderman 2 in fourth place.