Newzoo 2025 Game Market Report

Newzoo has published its 2025 games market report, offering insights into revenue, player trends, and key developments across platforms and regions. The report, which will be updated as new data becomes available, excludes hardware sales but provides a detailed overview of the overall market state.

Console Gaming Market

In 2025, the total global games market revenue is projected to reach $188.8 billion, representing an increase of 3.4 percent compared to 2024. The console segment is expected to grow the fastest, reaching $45.9 billion with a year-on-year increase of 5.5 percent. Newzoo attributes this growth to the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 and a general rise in console prices. Sports games continue to perform well on consoles, with forecasted revenue of $10.6 billion, a 3.5 percent increase from the previous year.

Mobile Gaming Market

The mobile market is forecasted to reach $103 billion, growing by 2.9 percent year-on-year. Newzoo notes that the segment is undergoing structural changes, with direct-to-consumer payments altering revenue distribution for developers and publishers, though not significantly affecting overall growth. Roblox maintains strong performance in the mobile space, while RPGs, one of the largest mobile genres, are projected to decline to $18.7 billion, down 14.7 percent from 2024.

PC Gaming Market

PC gaming revenue is expected to reach $39.9 billion, an increase of 2.5 percent compared to the previous year. Growth is observed in both player numbers and revenue in China, with a 3.1 percent increase, and in Japan. Newzoo includes handhelds such as the Steam Deck in its PC classification. Strong releases in the first half of 2025, including titles like Monster Hunter Wilds, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, contribute to the growth. Popular releases from 2024, such as Palworld and Helldivers 2, continue to add to PC market revenue. Despite this, PC shooters are projected to generate $9 billion, representing a 5 percent decline year-on-year.

Newzoo 2025 Game Market Report

Regional Revenue Distribution

The Asia-Pacific region continues to be the largest contributor to global revenue, accounting for 46 percent or $87.6 billion. However, the fastest-growing region is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which is expected to reach $7.1 billion in 2025 with a 7.5 percent year-on-year increase. Latin America also shows growth, primarily driven by mobile and PC gaming.

Newzoo 2025 Game Market Report

Global Player Base

The total number of global players is projected to reach 3.578 billion in 2025, representing 61.5 percent of the world’s population and an increase of 4.4 percent compared to 2024. Newzoo anticipates that this figure will approach 4 billion by 2028. Mobile gaming continues to dominate, with an expected 2.985 billion players, a 4.5 percent increase. The PC player base is projected at 936 million, growing by 3.1 percent, while console players are expected to reach 645 million, a 2.5 percent increase.

Mobile player numbers are rising in regions including Canada, Europe, and Oceania. Two trends are shaping this growth: iOS is losing market share in both emerging and developed markets, including the United States, and Chinese smartphone manufacturers, such as Xiaomi and Realme, are rapidly expanding across Europe, MENA, and Southeast Asia.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 53 percent of all players, with MENA showing the fastest growth at 6.8 percent year-on-year. Gen Alpha players, born after 2010, are becoming a larger share of the gaming population, particularly on PC. Steam continues to grow faster than the overall PC player base. In 2025, 1.6 billion people, or 44 percent of all players, spent money on games. The paying player base is increasing at a faster rate than the overall player base, with an average annual spend per payer of $119.7.

Newzoo 2025 Game Market Report

Release Strategies and Player Engagement

Newzoo analyzed single-player game launches from January 2021 to December 2024 to understand the impact of release timing and tactics. Traditional AAA release windows remain concentrated in February–March and September–November, which show the highest release density. February–March launches averaged 34 percent more players in the first three months than August–November releases. Certain exceptions, such as Baldur’s Gate 3 in August and Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy in February, significantly influenced engagement metrics.

Early Access releases on Steam perform best when limited to approximately six months. Longer Early Access periods are associated with weaker engagement in the first three months post-launch, likely because the audience has already experienced the game.

Newzoo 2025 Game Market Report

Simultaneous Multi-Platform Launches

Simultaneous multi-platform launches for indie and AA games show that PC accounts for 61 percent of the audience during the first three months. If console releases are delayed, PC share increases to 89 percent. Conversely, PlayStation titles ported to PC retain 56 percent of the audience on PlayStation during simultaneous launches, while delaying the PC release keeps 87 percent of players on consoles. These observations focus on PC and PlayStation cases, as most Xbox releases launch on PC simultaneously, providing too small a sample for analysis.

Player interest in new single-player games typically lasts one to two weeks, with engagement declining by approximately 60 percent by the fifth week. After twelve weeks, retention decreases at a rate of about 1 percent per week.

Newzoo 2025 Game Market Report

Final Thoughts

Newzoo’s 2025 games market report shows continued growth across the industry, with console and mobile segments leading revenue expansion and PC gaming maintaining steady performance. Regional trends indicate that Asia-Pacific remains dominant, while MENA is the fastest-growing market. Player numbers are increasing globally, and release strategies continue to play a significant role in determining game engagement and revenue. The report provides a detailed view of current market dynamics, highlighting the evolving structure of gaming across platforms and regions. Here is the list of all the games mentioned: