The worldwide market for gaming software has been expanding at a steady compound annual growth rate of roughly three percent over the last four years, and analysts expect that momentum to continue for the next four-year period. Despite this overall growth, player behavior remains heavily skewed toward familiar experiences. In fact, two‑thirds of gamers say they gravitate toward titles they already know—sequels, franchises, or games that feel familiar—while only one in five actively looks for brand‑new releases.
These findings come from Bain & Company’s annual Gaming Report, which collected responses from more than 5,300 players across the globe. The survey revealed a widespread sense of disappointment with what the firm calls the "unfocused middle" of the market: games that are overly generic, safe, and shallow, and therefore fail to capture attention.
To illustrate this point, Bain compared the reception of two very different launches. Baldur’s Gate 3 succeeded by honing in on a narrowly defined, highly engaged audience, whereas the hero‑shooter Concord entered a saturated market and struggled to persuade players already committed to free‑to‑play ecosystems to spend $40 on a new product. When Bain examined public data on 100 titles released since 2023, the numbers reinforced the importance of focus. Eighty‑three percent of games that targeted a specific player segment achieved commercial success, compared with just fifty percent of titles that pursued a broader, less defined audience.
The data suggests that precision in audience definition is a stronger predictor of revenue than sheer marketing spend. Player preferences for game genres are also fragmented. When respondents were asked whether they favored story‑driven experiences, open‑world sandbox or user‑generated content, or multiplayer competition, no single category attracted more than 26 % of the vote. About one‑fifth of gamers indicated that their preference shifts depending on mood or that they treat the categories as roughly equal, while 17 % selected "none of the above" or mentioned other types of games.
The report also highlighted two major forces reshaping the industry: rising player demand for deeper engagement and the rapid adoption of generative AI in development pipelines. Younger gamers, in particular, are concentrating their playtime on a smaller set of platforms, with Roblox cited as a focal point that has become "the centre of gravity for the entire gaming ecosystem" over the past five years. On the AI front, Bain observed that developers are leveraging generative tools to accelerate production, but the technology does not automatically mitigate risk. Without a well‑defined target audience, AI can simply help studios scale a misguided concept faster.
As the report puts it, "the developers that come out ahead over the next several years won’t be the ones with the biggest budgets or the most sophisticated AI capabilities. They’ll be the ones that commit – earlier than their competitors – to building for a player they can describe in a single sentence." Player sentiment toward AI in game creation has softened over the last year. Forty‑two percent of respondents said they feel more comfortable with AI’s role in the industry than they did twelve months ago, another 44 % said their view remained unchanged, and fewer than one in seven expressed increased discomfort.
The shift is most pronounced among teenagers: 59 % of players aged 13‑17 reported greater comfort with AI, while 33 % said their opinion stayed the same. Bain’s analysts interpret these numbers as a signal that the window for studios to adopt AI responsibly is open, especially for the younger audiences who will shape the market for the next decade. They also note that AI can deepen developers’ understanding of their players.
A growing suite of analytical tools can parse engagement patterns, surface what resonates with a target cohort, and create tighter feedback loops between creators and communities. Personalisation, powered by AI, is already influencing spending behaviour. Tailored communications, ads, and in‑game offers that speak directly to an individual’s preferences tend to boost monetary contributions, particularly among teenage gamers.
In fact, 86 % of teenagers reported spending money on gaming‑related activities each month, compared with just over half of players in their 50s, 36 % of those in their 60s, and 27 % of players in their 70s. These activities encompass buying new titles, downloadable content, subscriptions, and even tips for streamers, but they exclude hardware purchases such as consoles or VR headsets. Direct purchases from developers’ own web stores are also on the rise.
Nearly half of all gamers said they buy directly from a developer at least once a year, and 27 % do so repeatedly. The trend is strongest among the youngest cohort: 40 % of 13‑ to 17‑year‑olds reported making multiple direct purchases in the past twelve months. "The question for gaming executives is no longer solely about reaching more players. It’s about reaching the right players, in the right way, and gaining greater ownership over that relationship," said Anders Christofferson, global lead of Bain’s Video Game sector and partner in the Media & Entertainment practice.
He added, "The studios pulling ahead are the ones that have made a deliberate choice about who they are building for and are aligning every resource behind that answer; AI, distribution, and personalisation alike."