One in two people play video games

Recently a statistic caught the eye: In 2024, an estimated 189 million people in the US engaged with video games, representing approximately 55% of the population. The distribution of players across platforms shows that mobile gaming is the most prevalent, with 65% of gamers playing on mobile devices. Over a third of gamers use both PC and console. The average player uses different devices, indicating significant multiplatform engagement.

The share of female gamers in the US is 50%, while the trend to mobile is shown by the 35% of US mobile gamers who started gaming 4 to 9 years ago. And while it is a form of young people entertainment, the share of gamers in the US aged 30 to 39 years is a notable 26%. Altogether, 17% of US consumers spent 6 to 10 hours per week playing video games.

Globally there are 2 Billion gamers who contribute to a worldwide revenue of 245 Billion dollars. The US market is estimated to be around 113 Billion dollars.

Best-selling games by sales, July 2025

• EA Sports College Football
• EA Sports MVP Bundle
• Donkey Kong Bananza
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Minecraft
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grounded 2
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Grand Theft Auto 5

Many consider 2025 to be one of the best years for gaming in over a decade,

Mobile gaming

Given the popularity of mobile gaming, it is not surprising that in addition to the game publishers, both Apple and Google gain significant revenue from apps delivered via their app stores as they take a percentage of in-app purchases and app purchases.

For revenue, gaming apps were projected to generate roughly 84 Billion or 60% of the total Apple App Store revenue in 2025 (total app store revenue is estimated at 162 Billion). Around 12% of the available apps being labelled as games.

On the Google Play Store, games accounted for 71% of the total app revenue in 2025 with around 13% of apps labelled as games.

The Roblox phenomenon

In the mobile gaming arena, it is impossible to ignore Roblox. It is favored by a very young audience. Its daily active user count of more than 80 million users surpasses the daily user counts of major gaming hardware platforms like Xbox and PlayStation. According to Roblox, about half of all US teenagers under 16 participate in Roblox games. Its game Grow a Garden, reached a record 47.4 million peak concurrent users in 2025.

The platform hosts a catalog of over 40 million games, all created by independent developers, which differentiates Roblox from traditional mobile game companies that rely on in-house development.

Of note is the mostly critical coverage and legal challenges Roblox has endured over the last few years. In part these focus on child exploitation and the challenges associated with its attempt to automate (using AI) the moderation of communications between its young audience. As of November 2025, more than 20 US federal lawsuits have been filed this year alone, with at least 31 related suits pending across 12 federal districts before 25 different judges. It is banned outright in several countries while other jurisdictions have put limits on the gameplay allowed.

The Roblox blend of gaming, social interaction, and brand integration sets Roblox apart from other mobile game companies, positioning it as a unique hybrid of a game, platform, and virtual world, which includes a virtual currency that can be exchanged for actual real currency.

Despite Roblox being a public company, it is not profitable with a (in 2025) reported operating loss of $1.2 billion on $3.2 billion in revenue over the last four quarters, reflecting a -38% profit margin. The company expects margins to further decline slightly in 2026.

Microsoft’s making waves

With the completion of the Activision Blizzard acquisition in 2023 for $75 billion in cash, Microsoft became one of the largest gaming companies, the third-by revenue and the largest by employment. The company has 500 million monthly active players across all gaming platforms. The top two game companies are Tencent and Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The Microsoft division owns intellectual property for some of the most popular, best-selling, and highest-grossing media franchises of all time, including Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Warcraft, Halo, Minecraft, and The Elder Scrolls

Microsoft Gaming laid off 1,900 staff (approximately 8% of its workforce) in January 2024. This was followed by another 2,000 Microsoft Gaming ‘affiliates’ who were let go in a 2025 restructuring

Microsoft says it wants a more aggressive multiplatform strategy, making exclusive games (for one platform only) the exception rather than the rule. This follows the continuing decline of the Microsoft X-Box console which, while initially competing with the Sony PlayStation, has lost significant market share in recent years.

Microsoft Gaming is selling its consoles at a loss, losing $200 per unit sold. However, Microsoft Gaming is compensating for this loss by taking a 30% cut from sales of third-party games on its platform.

As of 2023 Sony’s PlayStation has a 70% share of the global high-end console market, while Microsoft’s X-Box has a 30% market share.

A Bloomberg News report in October 2025 confirmed the shift towards multiplatform publishing and a series of price increases on Xbox hardware, software and the Game Pass subscription model. The practice of making new games available via the Game Pass subscription on launch day is possibly coming to an end.

These are attributed to demands set by Microsoft CFO for the gaming division to satisfy a 30% profit margin following their acquisition of Activision-Blizzard.

The margins detailed far exceed the expected quota of 17-22% set forth by other publishers in the gaming industry, while the Xbox division was previously operating at a margin of between 10 and 20%.

It appears that these goals correlate with the Xbox division beginning to abandon cultivating niche titles, and instead favor cheaper or higher-profile games over those with more risk as well as a potential realignment of the hardware divisions.

Electronic Arts (EA) goes private

Meanwhile, EA, another power house in game development, has pursued a private buyout. It has agreed to a $55 billion leveraged buyout (LBO), making it the largest such transaction in history, with the deal expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. The acquisition is being led by a consortium comprising Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), private equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, with $36 billion in cash and equity contributions and $20 billion in debt financing from JPMorgan Chase.

The transaction has raised industry concerns about likely job losses and other cost-cutting and reduced investment in new games. That is combined with the pressure to service the $20 billion debt to the JPMorgan Chase bank the private EA will carry, which could impact long-term creative development.

EA has been a public company since 1990. Analysts identify mobile revenue as an area where the company has room to grow.

Proponents of the buyout point to the disadvantages of being a public company, particularly for consumers in creative and entertainment industries. Shareholder primacy, the theory that delivering value to shareholders should be the singular principle guiding corporate strategy, is the era’s prevailing economic philosophy.

That relentless pursuit of profit maximization, however, often prioritizes short-term returns over quality, creative output, and worker security, manifesting in video games as risk-averse release strategy, predatory monetization schemes, and storms of layoffs and studio closures, all of which have marked EA’s controversial history.

Private equity firms have gained a sinister reputation thanks to a counter-intuitive strategy in which firms can cannibalize their own acquisitions, extracting profits at the expense of the company and its workforce.

As an aside: the leverage in the leveraged buyout is debt and crucially, the collateral for that debt are the assets of the acquired company, not of the private equity firm itself.

Steam power

For many years the Valve company has provided an online game store. It predates the Google and Apple app stores. Under the name Steam it is the most popular source of getting games.

Thanks to a smart strategic choice, Valve’s Steam Store applications run on a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, with the service occasionally expanding its reach to new hardware and operating systems

They also produced various hardware products, such as a controller and the Steam Deck, which competes in the handheld console market.

One peculiar aspect is the ability, thanks to a translation software layer, to run PC games designed for Windows on hardware that doesn’t actually run the Window operating system and thus for which Microsoft receives no revenue. In most cases this doesn’t require the game developers to make any changes to their games as all the translation work is done by Valve engineering.

Recently they announced that in 2026 Valve will release a second generation Steam Machine. This is a PC-like mini desktop computer that will be able to run almost all the 12,750 Steam Games at a medium to high quality level. It is aimed to be easy to use, hooked up to your TV and supports the Steam Controller.

Perhaps the Steam Machine is designed to take on the space that is created by the reduced hardware activity from Microsoft with their X-Box line. It could be a third entry in the desktop console market, or fourth if you include the Nintendo offering.

And to top it off, they also announced the Steam Frame. A Virtual Reality headset that can play most of the Steam Store games and allows up to two game controllers. It’s slightly more powerful than the Meta Quest, which is the current front-runner in VR headsets for gamers and is far more suitable for gaming than Apple’s Vision headset.

Steam power is going places, so it seems, which might be related to Valve being a private company.

Indie games have played a crucial role in defining the year’s success

2025, so far, is a good year for gamers

Despite all these movements in the game industry, for gamers 2025 is a good year in terms of released new titles. In fact, 2025 has been widely regarded as a likely exceptional year for video gamers, with numerous critically acclaimed titles across various genres and platforms.

The year has delivered a strong mix of major AAA releases and standout indie games, contributing to a vibrant and diverse gaming landscape. Notable titles include the highly praised Hades 2 and Donkey Kong Bananza, both earning IGN 10 scores. Hollow Knight: Silksong, has been celebrated as a significant evolution of its acclaimed predecessor.

Other standout games include Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which reimagines the series with refined combat and a compelling setting in Sengoku-period Japan, and Ghost of Yōtei, a visually stunning and narratively rich follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima that features a dynamic protagonist and a unique blend of action and storytelling.

The year has also seen the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, a portable gaming handheld. It has brought with it several exclusive titles that have been well-received, such as Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza.

Indie games have played a crucial role in defining the year’s success, with titles like Baby Steps, a challenging and quirky physics-based platformer, and The Alters, a deeply atmospheric sci-fi character study, earning significant acclaim for their innovation and emotional depth. Additionally, the return of long-awaited franchises like Silent Hill f has been met with enthusiasm, praised for its haunting atmosphere and compelling narrative.

While critics note that the industry has faced internal challenges, including widespread layoffs and concerns over game quality and monetization practices, the overall sentiment among gamers and reviewers is overwhelmingly positive.

Many consider 2025 to be one of the best years for gaming in over a decade, with a remarkable variety of high-quality experiences that cater to a broad range of tastes that may be difficult to surpass in the coming years.