In 2025 the European video‑game market produced roughly €30 billion in revenue, with digital sales representing a dominant 91 percent of the total, according to the latest figures released by Video Games Europe (VGE). This milestone underscores the continuing shift toward online purchases and the growing importance of digital distribution channels across the continent.
A notable development this year was the broadening of VGE’s flagship analysis, the All About Games report. Previously limited to the five biggest economies – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy – the study now incorporates data from an additional eleven nations: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland. By covering sixteen countries in total, the report offers a more comprehensive picture of the European gaming landscape and reflects the sector’s expanding geographic reach.
To compile the new dataset, VGE engaged the market‑research firm Ipsos, which pulled information from several industry sources, including GameTrack, the Global Software Distribution (GSD) platform and the freshly released EGDF‑VGE Video Games Industry Insight Report. The survey captured responses from 39,371 participants, providing a solid statistical foundation for the findings. When the numbers are broken down by region, the original five‑country bloc (often referred to as the EU5) showed a modest contraction, with revenue falling 4 percent year‑on‑year to €25.7 billion, down from €26.8 billion in 2024.
Despite the dip, Germany remained the top‑earning market within the EU5, generating €6.5 billion in sales, followed closely by the United Kingdom and France. Employment figures paint an encouraging picture of industry growth. In 2025 there were about 123,000 people working in 8,700 game‑development studios spread across the EU and the UK.
Women accounted for roughly 24 percent of this workforce, indicating gradual progress toward gender balance in a traditionally male‑dominated field. The United Kingdom employed the largest number of staff, with 28,520 workers, while Poland and Germany followed with 14,930 and 12,410 employees respectively. Platform usage trends continued to favour mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets were the primary gaming hardware for 82 percent of European players, making them the most popular entry point for digital entertainment.
Console usage stood at 47 percent and PC at 34 percent, while mobile and tablet platforms alone generated nearly half of the total industry revenue, highlighting the lucrative nature of the mobile market. In the console arena, Electronic Arts retained its leading position in 2025. EA’s sports titles, EA Sports FC26 and FC25, occupied the top two slots on the console charts, with the tactical shooter Battlefield 6 securing the third place. Battlefield 6 also dominated the PC segment, where it was followed by Rockstar Games’ long‑standing hits Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto 5, both of which continue to attract strong sales years after their initial release.
Mobile gaming leaders were similarly clear‑cut. The casual‑strategy game Coin Master claimed the number‑one spot on mobile leaderboards, with Royal Match and the evergreen Candy Crush Saga rounding out the top three. These titles illustrate the continued appeal of free‑to‑play models that rely on in‑app purchases and regular content updates. Overall participation in gaming remained robust, with 199 million Europeans reporting that they played video games during the year.
Women represented 46 percent of this audience, amounting to about 91.5 million female gamers. The United Kingdom emerged as the single largest market in terms of player count, boasting roughly 25 million active gamers. When it comes to playtime, the average European gamer spent 8.39 hours per week on games in 2025, a slight decline from the 9.4 hours recorded in 2024.
Younger demographics still logged the most time: children aged 6‑11 averaged 11.35 hours per week, while teenagers aged 12‑17 spent an average of 14.30 hours weekly engaged with games. Parental involvement in gaming habits also featured prominently in the survey. Three‑quarters (75 percent) of European parents expressed a desire to be actively involved in setting limits on their children’s gaming activities.
Moreover, 79 percent reported using one or more family‑setting tools to monitor or restrict playtime, and 74 percent said they have agreements, monitoring practices, or family‑setting controls in place to manage online interactions and safety. Spending behavior among minors showed a downward trend. Within the EU5 markets, 72 percent of parents indicated that their children did not make in‑game purchases at all. Of the minority who did, a striking 93 percent of parents said they kept a close eye on those transactions.
Average expenditure by children who were permitted to buy in‑game content fell by 13 percent compared with the previous year, suggesting either increased parental oversight or a shift in spending preferences. These findings collectively illustrate a European gaming ecosystem that is both financially robust and increasingly diversified across platforms, demographics, and geographic regions. While revenue growth in the core EU5 markets slowed, the expansion into additional countries, the rise of mobile gaming, and the sustained popularity of flagship titles all point to a dynamic industry poised for continued evolution in the years ahead.