Research from data firm Newzoo shows that the games market generated over $200 billion in revenue during 2025.
For the year, the global games market made $201.6 billion, a massive 9.1% increase year-on-year. This is the first time that video games have made more than $200 billion in a year around the world.
56% of revenue – $113.3 billion – was generated by mobile, on the back of direct-to-consumer spending, China’s mini-game boom and revenue from Tencent. Newzoo also says that while the mobile market exceeded its prior estimates, the number of downloads declined, which the company attributes to growth driven by increased monetisation rather than an expanding audience.
Both PC and console took 22% of the pie – the former was behind $43.6 billion in spending (a 12% increase year-on-year) and delivered its strongest annual growth rate so far in Newzoo’s data. The company says that a spread of titles, including Battlefield 6, Monster Hunter Wilds, Clair Obscur: expedition 33 contributed to PC’s strong performance.
PC game microtransactions rose 9.1% year-on-year, making up 47% of revenue, with Newzoo in part crediting this with Counter-Strike 2’s “rebound” and Roblox. Spending on premium games was responsible for 32% – or $14.1 billion – of PC revenue, with a 25.3% increase year-on-year.
Meanwhile, console was behind $44.7 billion in revenue, a 2.8% increase year-on-year.
Newzoo describes the increase in console spending as ‘modest’, saying that “softer” live-service revenue held the sector back, alongside “weaker-than-expected” performance from Nintendo’s ecosystem. The company expanded, saying that full-game spending and subscription services offset dips in DLC and microtransaction revenue.
Downloadable content dropped 23.4% to $2.1 billion for the year, while in-game spending fell 4.6% to $13.3 billion.
China was the largest market for video games in the world, with Newzoo reporting the country generated $54.6 billion in consumer spending. Second place went to the United States, which was responsible for $50.8 billion. Over half of global games spending in 2025 came from these two countries.
Asia Pacific rose 9.9% year-on-year, while Europe saw a 10.7% increase. North America’s games revenue grew by 5.7%, well below the global average. Finally, the Middle East and Africa’s games revenue rose 15%, and Latin America’s games market rose by 9.6%.
Looking forward, Newzoo forecasts that the global games market will make $234.4 billion in revenue by 2028, a CAGR of 5.1%.
