In 2025, global game content sales increased by 5.3% to reach $195.6 billion

The global video gaming sector witnessed a 5.3% increase in content sales, resulting in $195.6 billion revenue in 2025, despite a significant 55% drop in private funding. These insights are part of the most recent State of Video Gaming 2026 report by Epyllion CEO Matthew Ball. Although the industry marked its third consecutive year of upward revenue in 2025, the decline in funding persisted.

By the final quarter of 2025, 40 investment deals were documented, with less than $100 million in pre-seed funding but over $200 million in early-stage financing.

Annually, 9,200 jobs were eliminated within the industry, a 40% reduction compared to 2024. However, over the past four years, layoffs accumulated to almost 44,000, especially impacting California, which accounted for nearly half of the cuts between 2022 and 2025.

Globally, outsourcing formed 35.5% of developers' total investment in content creation in 2025. This is an increase from previous years, indicating a more pronounced dependency on external partners for key creative tasks, including art and game design. Outsourcing reportedly accounted for 60% to 95% of activities like animation and audio.

Utilizing external development services in 2025 was predominantly driven by the need for a "flexible skillset" and the capability to "create more content" and "access scarce skills." Team Cherry's Hollow Knight: Silksong and Pocketpair's Palworld significantly adopted outsourcing methods, with Silksong having three internal and 94 external credits, while Palworld involved 97 internal and 93 external credits, including substantial work from Keywords Studios.

The report also evaluated video game consumer spending across console and PC markets. Console spending reached $41.6 billion, a rise of 2.3% since 2020, fueled by platforms like PlayStation Plus, Xbox Game Pass, and Nintendo Switch Online. However, console sales and transactions fell by approximately 11% over the same period.

PC gaming saw a 30% increase in consumer spending, hitting $40.7 billion from $31.4 billion in 2025. With China contributing 20% to the global game player expenditure, Epyllion's CEO, Matthew Ball, emphasizes the necessity of succeeding in the Chinese market to "match" global growth, suggesting potential expansion by 1.6 times elsewhere.

Since 2019, Chinese publishers have accounted for about half of the growth in worldwide player spending. In 2025, Roblox emerged as a dominant force, contributing 67% to the sector’s net growth. By the end of 2024, its daily active user count surpassed that of PlayStation, Switch, or Xbox, and increased by another 69% in 2025. The engagement hours on Roblox reached over 10 billion monthly, surpassing Steam, PlayStation, and Fortnite combined.

Looking to 2026, Ball predicts that the primary areas for revenue growth in the gaming industry will include non-core markets, advertising, direct-to-consumer channels, alternative payment systems, external development, and platforms like Roblox.