The games business has crossed a line it was not expected to reach quite so soon. Newzoo's latest Global Games Market Report update puts 2025 global game revenue at $201.6 billion, taking the market past $200 billion for the first time.

The milestone lands during a strange stretch for the industry. Players spent more across games last year, but the same period was shaped by layoffs, studio pressure, higher hardware prices and a console market that did not grow as quickly as PC or mobile.

PC had the fastest platform growth

PC was the standout segment in Newzoo's 2025 figures. According to reporting from PC Gamer and GamesBeat on the report, PC game revenue rose 12% year over year to $43.6 billion, helped by a broad slate of releases across price points. Newzoo cited big premium games such as Battlefield 6 and Monster Hunter Wilds alongside smaller-priced hits such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Console revenue still came in slightly higher at $44.7 billion, but its growth was much softer at 2.8%. The Switch 2 launch helped the segment, while Newzoo also described Nintendo ecosystem revenue and live-service performance as weaker than expected.

Mobile remained the largest part of the market by far. PC Gamer's write-up of the report puts mobile revenue at $113.3 billion, while GamesBeat notes that mobile grew 10.7% year over year. That keeps phones well ahead of both console and PC spending, even as PC had the sharper jump.

One split in the data says a lot about how players spent money in 2025. GamesBeat reports that full-game spending across console and PC rose 25%, while microtransactions fell 4.6% year over year, partly due to lower engagement in games such as Fortnite.

2026 growth depends on big releases and expensive hardware

Newzoo's forecast is less clean from here. The report points to DRAM and NAND supply pressure, driven by AI infrastructure demand, as a cost problem for game hardware. That affects PC builders most directly, but rising component prices can also feed into console, handheld and mobile device costs.

The biggest release-side swing factor is Grand Theft Auto 6. GamesBeat quotes Newzoo calling Rockstar's next game "the year's defining commercial catalyst" for 2026, with the report saying a slip would likely hurt console performance and that the game should drive current-generation console adoption.

That leaves the market in an unusual position. Game spending is at a record high, PC just delivered its strongest growth in Newzoo's data and mobile is still the largest revenue engine. At the same time, the cost of getting into new hardware is climbing, and the next year leans heavily on a few giant releases to keep momentum going.