According to Newzoo’s upcoming Global Games Market Report, slated for full release on September 10, the worldwide video‑game sector is expected to expand by 6.1 percent over the next year, pushing total revenue to roughly $213.9 billion. More than half of that spending will continue to be driven by two of the world’s biggest markets—China and the United States—underscoring the continued dominance of these regions in shaping industry trends. When the numbers are broken down by platform, console gaming is forecast to represent about 22 percent of the overall market, equating to $46.9 billion in sales. This figure reflects a modest 5.1 percent year‑over‑year increase, suggesting that traditional hardware‑based play remains a solid, if not rapidly accelerating, pillar of the ecosystem.
A key catalyst for this uptick is the highly anticipated release of Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI in November. Newzoo predicts that the launch will lift full‑game spending by an impressive 17.5 percent, making it the strongest growth driver among all business models currently tracked. Mobile gaming, however, retains its position as the largest revenue generator, accounting for roughly 57 percent of the total market and delivering $121.1 billion in sales. The mobile segment is projected to grow 6.8 percent year‑on‑year, a rise powered by two primary forces: higher average spend per player and the expanding influence of direct‑to‑consumer (D2C) distribution channels.
Recent research from FastSpring and Omdia indicates that 96 percent of game studios either already run or intend to launch their own D2C web stores. Studios cite enhanced brand visibility, stronger player loyalty, and richer first‑party data as the main incentives for moving sales in‑house, a shift that is likely to reinforce mobile’s revenue momentum. In contrast, the PC platform is expected to hold the smallest slice of the market at 21 percent, translating to $45.9 billion in revenue. Growth on PC is forecast at 5.3 percent year‑over‑year, a slowdown compared with the 12 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) that Newzoo had projected for 2025.
Despite the lower share, PC growth is anticipated to be geographically broad, with strong performance coming from the Asia‑Pacific region, Latin America, and the Middle East‑Africa (MEA) markets. This regional diversification suggests that PC gaming will continue to benefit from emerging economies where broadband penetration and disposable income are on the rise.
From a business‑model perspective, premium and mid‑tier titles are expected to keep sustaining revenue from full‑game purchases, while microtransactions are poised to reclaim their status as the largest source of income across all platforms. The resurgence of microtransactions reflects a maturing market where players are increasingly comfortable spending on cosmetic items, battle passes, and other in‑game enhancements, especially when these purchases are tied to live‑service titles that receive regular content updates.
Player numbers are also a focal point of Newzoo’s outlook. The total global gaming audience is projected to reach 4.07 billion by 2029, growing at a compound annual rate of 3.2 percent after a 4.4 percent increase in 2026.
This slower growth trajectory indicates that the industry will rely more heavily on retaining existing players and extracting additional value from them, rather than simply adding new users to the base. In 2026, mobile gamers are expected to number about 3.10 billion, representing roughly 84 percent of all players.
PC gamers are forecast at 977 million (about 26 percent of the total), while console players are projected to reach 651 million, or 18 percent of the global audience. Penetration rates—defined as the proportion of the online population that engages in gaming—are set to edge upward from 61.5 percent to 62 percent in 2026. Newzoo notes that there is limited headroom for dramatic increases in penetration; instead, growth will stem from the overall expansion of the online population, which is expected to rise by about 3.5 percent to reach 5.97 billion people. This subtle shift underscores a maturing market where the challenge lies in deepening engagement and monetisation among existing gamers rather than tapping untapped demographics.
Geographically, growth remains concentrated in emerging markets. The Asia‑Pacific region continues to be the largest contributor to overall market expansion, while the Middle East and Africa are the fastest‑growing sub‑regions, driven by improving internet infrastructure, rising smartphone adoption, and increasing disposable incomes. These trends suggest that developers and publishers will need to tailor their strategies—such as localisation, regional pricing, and culturally relevant content—to capture the nuanced preferences of players in these fast‑evolving markets. In summary, Newzoo’s forecast paints a picture of a robust yet increasingly nuanced gaming landscape in 2026.
While total revenues are set to climb to $213.9 billion, the composition of that growth will be shaped by platform dynamics, the resurgence of full‑game spending spurred by blockbuster releases like Grand Theft Auto VI, the continued dominance of mobile, and a strategic pivot toward deeper monetisation of existing player bases across diverse regions. Studios that can successfully navigate these shifts—leveraging D2C channels, embracing microtransaction models, and delivering compelling content tailored to emerging markets—are likely to capture the lion’s share of the expanding pie.