Gaming Report
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At a Glance
This article is part of Bain's 2026 Gaming Report. A decade ago, a player’s choice of games was bound by what a handful of platforms could stock and what a few dozen studios could ship. That ceiling has been torn off. Tens of thousands of new titles reach digital storefronts every year from indies through AAA studios. Live-service games captivate players for years rather than weeks. User-generated platforms turn every player into a potential supplier, their content creation now turbocharged by AI. The game shelf has become effectively infinite, and choices are multiplying faster than any player’s attention can grow. When supply is scarce, a broadly appealing product can win. When supply is basically unlimited, personal fit is everything. That’s the new reality, and it explains why “there is no average gamer” has become a board-level strategic issue. The demand is there to capture. Three out of four gamers are actively hunting for their next title, according to Bain & Company’s latest annual survey of more than 5,300 gamers worldwide. Most are looking in categories they already love, not seeking something unfamiliar. The losing move in 2026 is trying to serve all of them. The question every gaming CEO should be asking themselves has morphed from “How do we reach more players?” to “Which players do we choose, how do we best engage them, and how do we own the relationship completely?” Demand has fragmentedWhen we asked gamers to describe the experience they want most, the field split five ways. No single experience type surpassed 26% (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
The top-line split is the mild version of the story. The sharp divergence shows up when comparing different cohorts. For example, a third of 13-to-17-year-olds have an appetite for open, user-generated worlds; that share collapses to 15% or lower among players 50 and older. Preferences diverge widely by geography as well (see Figure 2).
Figure 2
Spending has concentratedAs demand has fragmented, playing time and spending have become heavily concentrated. The most active players account for almost 60% of all gamers’ total playing time, and the highest-spending group accounts for about three-quarters of total spending, according to our survey (see Figure 3).
Figure 3
Notes: Most engaged defined as the 20% of gamers who spend the most hours playing, moderately engaged includes the 50th to 80th percentile of gamers ranked by hours spent playing, and least engaged includes the rest; top spenders defined as the highest 20% of spenders, middle includes the 50th to 80th percentile of spenders, and bottom includes the rest; values are rounded Source: Bain Media Consumption Survey, June 2026 (gamers n=5,339)Player fragmentation reads as bad news until you look at where the spending concentrates: among an identifiable, deeply engaged chunk of the market. Although not the only identifier, demographics are a critical one. The willingness to spend declines with age, according to our survey. Approximately 86% of teenagers spend money on gaming-related activities in a typical month, compared with just over half of players in their 50s, 36% of those in their 60s, and 27% of those in their 70s (see Figure 4).
Figure 4
Notes: Excludes those who answered “I do not spend any amount” or “I do not know”; gaming-related activities include purchasing new games, in-game content, subscriptions, and streamer tips; excludes purchasing hardware such as consoles or virtual reality headsets Source: Bain Media Consumption Survey, June 2026 (gamers n=5,339)The high-spending players are even more recognizable by behavior. Those who create game content for public use are twice as likely to spend money, our survey found. Together, splintering demand and concentrated spending flip the math for studios. Designing mass-appeal games is no longer a safe bet, in part because those titles reach the low spenders first. The harder target is where the growth is: players who spend more and are more engaged. Implications for gaming executivesThe average gamer was always a convenient fiction. In 2026, it’s an expensive one. Adapting your strategy to the changing landscape starts with two things. Size the market by fragment, not by average. No single number describes this market, and the mean sits between players who want opposite things. The winning companies will size demand by the characteristics that actually split it (age, geography, taste, spending tier, creative identity), understanding players by what they do, not just who they are. Aim where spending is growing. Headcount and spending have decoupled. The broadest cohorts spend the least, while a narrower, identifiable set spends more. This chapter explains how to start identifying those players. Committing to the target player—focusing the portfolio and the capital behind that choice—is where the report goes next. Read our 2026 Gaming ReportExplore more
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