Global games revenue in 2025 is expected to grow 7.5% compared to last year, analysis suggests
A strong year for PC gaming in particular will see expected global gaming revenue of $197 billion
Global video games revenue is expected to reach $197 billion this year, marking a 7.5% increase on last year.
That’s according to a new report from video game market data, research and insights firm Newzoo.
Although the official sales figures for 2025 have obviously not yet been confirmed given that the year isn’t over yet, Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report and Forecasts uses data from January to November 2025 to identify sales patterns and forecast the total figures for the year.
According to Newzoo’s forecasts, console gaming is expected to generate global revenue of $45 billion this year, up 4.2% compared to 2024, while mobile gaming is forecast to reach $108 billion, up 7.7% year-on-year.
The biggest growth is expected to be in PC gaming, however, which is expected to generate revenue of $43 billion by the end of 2025 – a 10.4% increase on last year’s figures.
Principal market analyst Michiel Buijsman noted that the 2025 forecast reflects “players spending more deeply within games and ecosystems they already value, rather than growth being driven by a sudden expansion of the player base”.
Newzoo also tracked the top 10 PC game releases, in terms of revenue, across six Western markets (USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) from January to November 2025.
Its figures found that Battlefield 6 generated the most revenue on PC this year so far, followed by Schedule I, ARC Raiders, Monster Hunter Wilds, Borderlands 4, EA Sports FC 26, REPO, Oblivion Remastered, Civilization 7 and Dune: Awakening.
Meanwhile, on console, the highest revenue was earned by EA Sports FC 26, followed by NBA 2K26, Battlefield 6, EA Sports Madden NFL 26, MLB The Show 25, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, EA Sports College Football 26, Ghost of Yotei, Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Borderlands 4.
The figures suggest that sports games are still large money spinners on console – five of the top 10 console games are sports titles – whereas the PC top 10’s numerous AA titles and new IP highlight the format’s “relative openness to new IP and system-driven design”.
Newzoo’s report will bring a positive contrast to Wednesday’s news that hardware sales and physical game spending in the US had the worst November in 30 years.
Market research company Circana reported that 1.6 million units of video game hardware were sold in the US in November 2025 – the lowest November total since 1.4 million back in 1995 – while hardware spending for the month was $695 million, a 27% year-on-year drop and the lowest November hardware spend in the US since 2005.
In terms of physical software in the US, spending fell 14% in November 2025 compared to November 2024, making it an all-time low for a November since tracking started in 1995.
