With new devices like the Xbox ROG Ally X selling extremely well, and major sports games being dominant as ever, the gaming industry is on a continuous rise. A new report from Newzoo suggests that the global games market will reach $197 billion in 2025, a 7.5% year-over-year growth. PC Gaming shows the most growth, with a 10.4% year-on-year increase.
This is in stark contrast to the current state of console gaming, where November 2025 was a terrible month for sales. The Nintendo Switch 2 has proven to be dominant since its release, but the PS5 took home the crown for the best-selling console in November. Newzoo previously forecasted overall industry revenue at $108 billion, but new insights show that $197 billion is the more likely number.
More Options Than Ever Before
One of the biggest reasons why we’re seeing this explosive growth is likely due to the release of new hardware across the board. Just this year, we got the Nintendo Switch 2 and PC handhelds like the Xbox ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go S. On the PC side, we saw the release of Nvidia’s RTX 50-series graphics cards and AMD’s surprise hit with the Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU. As people bought various new hardware, they also bought a lot of new games to go with it.
With that said, new hardware isn’t always a direct correlation to more game sales. The mobile gaming market is proof of that. Newzoo estimates that mobile will generate up to $108 billion (up 7.7% year-on-year), thanks to massive titles like Honor of Kings bringing in insane revenue. The company’s Principal Market Analyst, Michiel Buijsman, also highlights how in-app purchases play a vital role:
“The 2025 outcome 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.”
PC Was A Major Platform In 2025
While mobile gaming continues to rely on in-app purchases for driving revenue, PC gaming is different. Premium games are still the main revenue drivers, with Battlefield 6 leading the charge. Surprisingly, EA Sports FC 26 was the 6th premium game by revenue in 2025, despite all the performance issues and bugs that PC players have been facing since launch.
It’s also great to see that the PC gaming community is the biggest supporter of new IPs, indie games, and AA games. Games Schedule I and R.E.P.O sold particularly well on PC, landing in the 2nd and 7th spots, respectively. On consoles, the top games by revenue in order were: EA Sports FC 26, NBA 2K26, Battlefield 6, Madden NFL 26, and MLB The Show 25.
