Video Game Statistics 2026

Today, more than 212.3 million Americans play video games regularly

There are players from every generation, and the average player is now 37 years old.

199 million players – 51% of Europe’s population aged 6-75

46% of players are women, 77% are adults, and the average age is 34

Global players are forecast to reach 3.7 billion in 2026, up 4.4% year on year.

Individuals spent more time playing games or using a computer on an average day in 2025 than they did in 2015 (37 minutes compared with 25 minutes).

Individuals ages 15 to 19 spent 1.5 hours playing games or using a computer for leisure on an average day in 2025, more than any other age group.

According to Circana’s latest Games Market Dynamics report, total U.S. consumer spending on video game hardware, content, and accessories reached $60.7 billion in 2025, marking a +1.4% increase over 2024.

Circana projects U.S. video game industry spending to rise +3% to $62.8 billion in 2026, surpassing the current all‑time high of $61.7 billion set in 2021.

$60.7 billion $52.3 billion on content $5.4 billion on hardware $2.95 billion on accessories

When considering potential cost increases due to tariffs and/or other factors, more than one-third of consumers would purchase fewer full-price games at launch (38%) or would wait longer for video games to be on sale (34%), according to the latest findings from Circana’s Future of™ Video Games report.

Furthermore, 27% would spend more time playing free-to-play games.

Grand Theft Auto VI currently holds a 29% purchase intent among U.S. console and PC gamers, according to Circana, LLC 's PlayerPulse.

Ukie, the trade body for the UK’s video games and interactive entertainment industry, today announces that UK consumers spent £8.76 billion on video games in 2025, a 7.4% increase on the previous year.

Spending on software rose 7% to reach £6.03 billion, Game Hardware grew 3% to £2.17 billion, and Game Culture (video games related film and TV) has grown 42% to reach £566 million.

The global games market is forecast to reach $213.9 billion in 2026, up 6.1% year over year, with growth across all three platforms and every major region.

Mobile remains the largest at $121.1 billion (+6.8% YoY), ahead of console at $46.9 billion (+5.1% YoY) and PC at $45.9 billion (+5.3% YoY).

While, 52% of all consumer spending on games in 2026 is expected to come from China and the US.

Games were downloaded 52 billion times in 2025, with the vast majority of those downloads coming from mobile devices.

Mobile IAP stayed inside the $38–42B half-year range that has defined the market since 2024, landing at $39.8B versus $40.6B in H1 2025.

Revenue is €29.7 billion 3 , split by device is 91% digital and 9% physical

For example, in the three months ended September 30, 2026, of our 138 million average daily active users (“DAUs”), only approximately 1.8 million represented our average daily unique paying users.

Grand Theft Auto series, which is the interactive entertainment industry's most iconic and critically acclaimed brand and has sold-in over 470 million units worldwide. Our most recent installment, Grand Theft Auto V , which was released in 2013, has sold-in over 230 million units worldwide

XBOX revenue decreased $129 million or 2% driven by declines in XBOX content and services and XBOX hardware.

The March release ofPokémon Pokopia (see note) was a factor in driving further hardware sales toward the end of the fiscal year, helping sales volume reach 19.86 million units for the full term.

Looking at software,Mario Kart World, which was released on the same day as the hardware, sold 14.70 million units, including bundle sales

Nintendo Switch 2 hardware maintained strong sales momentum, with sales totaling 3.82 million units.

Turning to the digital business for our dedicated video game platforms, digital sales totaled 132.7 billion yen, up 90.0% year-on- year, mainly due to an increase in sales of downloadable versions of packaged software.

PlayStation 5 More than 95 million (As of June 30, 2026)

XBOX hardware revenue declined 14% driven by lower volume of consoles sold.

PC/console copies sold reached about 1.0B (+1%), even as Steam premium revenue slipped 5% to $5.4B amid a 19% jump in Steam releases to roughly 12,000 titles, indicating an increase in development accessibility and speed.

85% of U.S. teens report playing video games, and 41% say they play them at least once a day.

Over half of teens who play video games say it has helped their problem-solving skills, but 41% also say it has hurt their sleep.

Overall, just over half of tweens and teens (56%) play games on a given day for about two hours (one hour and 49 minutes for tweens and two hours for teens).

Personal ownership overall is highest for cellphones (71%), gaming consoles (62%), and tablets (59%).

teens are more likely than tweens to have riskier practices, such as playing with people they've met through games (29% vs. 20% of tweens)

Three-quarters of American parents play video games, and 81% of parent players say they play video games with their kids.

73% of parents prefer their children spend time playing video games instead of on social media

In 2025, 90% of the 6,761 ESRB ratings assigned were E, E10+, or T.

93% of parents of children who play video games monitor their purchases of in-game content

The U.S. video game industry creates and supports more than 250,000 jobs across the country, while generating $95.8 billion in total economic impact.

Additionally, the industry contributed more than $65 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2025.

California is home to over 36,000 jobs, accounting for 44% of industry employment.

In 2025, these remote and fully remote workers accounted for 14,461 jobs, or 17% of total U.S. video game industry employment.

123,000 people are employed in the EU and the UK, 24% of whom are women

Over one in four (28%) survey respondents were laid off in the past two years, increasing to one-third (33%) for those in the United States, and half said their current (or most recent) employer has conducted layoffs in the past 12 months.

Three-fourths (74%) of surveyed students said they are concerned about their future job prospects in the game industry.

Survey results indicate that over one-third (36%) of game industry professionals are using generative AI tools as part of their job.

According to this year’s survey, over half (52%) of game industry professionals think generative AI is having a negative impact on the game industry, up from 30% last year and 18% the year prior.

42% of developers reported that it is their primary engine for game development, ahead of the next-most-popular engine, Unity, at 30%.