This article is part of Bain's 2025 Gaming Report
The video game industry is rebounding from post-pandemic consolidation. The market grew 5% last year, to around $219 billion in revenue, excluding hardware, advertising, and esports, according to Bain analysis. We forecast about 4% annual growth through 2028, a normalization after the pandemic boom.
But industry growth remains concentrated. It’s well-established that the most successful titles in any year tend to be those that were successful in prior years. This ossification has reached new levels: The top 10 games on each platform now capture approximately 50% to 60% of total revenue for active titles on their respective platforms, according to Bain analysis.
There are multiple successful archetypes within these top games—including “games as a platform” (e.g., Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft); traditional AAA games (e.g., annual Call of Duty releases, EA Sports FC); and top mobile titles (e.g., Honor of Kings, Candy Crush).
We unpacked the success of the top games in our 2025 gaming survey, which covered more than 5,000 people across six countries (the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, the UK, and the UAE). Our fourth annual gaming survey explored gamers’ preferences, motivations, and spending habits, each with different implications for companies across the value chain. Here are the top takeaways.
Young gamers continue to fuel the growth of top games
Young gamers are one of the biggest contributors to top games’ success. Video games are the most popular form of media for those younger than 18 years old and represent a higher share of their total media consumption than in any other age group. Their always-online presence and social tendencies tend to make successful titles contagious.
The net effect is that young people’s favorite games are more heavily clustered around a few top titles than in other age groups. Those aged between 2 and 17 are 20 percentage points more likely than gamers aged 35 and older to prefer playing the short list of games that are most popular among their peers (see Figure 1).
Notes: Gamer behavior within age groups is assessed across the full sample and includes an oversampling of gamers; includes only gamers within a representative sample that was calculated by weighting the number of respondents per age group to balance proportions for each surveyed country (the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, the UK, and the UAE)
Source: Bain Video Game Consumption Survey, May 2025 (n=3,783; total N=5,243)The younger generation’s heavy gaming time boosts these top titles, potentially making their position atop the charts more durable. There’s compelling evidence that preferences for games carry forward: The percentage of Roblox users aged 13 and older increased from about 50% in 2021 to around 60% in 2024, as a significant portion of younger users stuck with the game as they aged. If young gamers sustain their habits over the long term, new games may find it harder to break through.
Games as a platform aren’t playing by the same rules as traditional AAA games
The traditional AAA franchise model—release sequels with better graphics, more playable content, and a few gameplay tweaks to keep things fresh—has worked year after year for successful franchises such as Ultimate Team, Call of Duty, and Madden. But now, the most successful platform-style games, Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft, are upending these competitive dynamics.
There are notable differences in the motivations of players who favor platform-style games compared with other gamers. For those who prefer platform-style games, the ability to modify and personalize the experience and the fact that their friends also play it ranked as highly as the gameplay itself. Graphics were a distant second (see Figure 2).
Note: Includes only gamers who named a most played game and who were within a representative sample that was calculated by weighting the number of respondents per age group to balance proportions for each surveyed country (the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, the UK, and the UAE)
Source: Bain Video Game Consumption Survey, May 2025 (n=1,251; total N=5,243)The final dynamic at play: Platform-style game developers don’t solely rely on internal teams for new in-game content—users, indie developers, and even brand partners contribute. This has allowed these game developers to decouple themselves from the typical development cycle and free up resources to reinvest in their platforms while simultaneously delivering a key feature that their players demand.
Recognizing these shifts, some developers and publishers have invested heavily in games’ social and creative elements. Yet at the same time, many continue to pour significant funds into areas that no longer appear to move the needle for many gamers, such as higher-fidelity graphics. This has contributed to game budgets ballooning to hundreds of millions of dollars for the most expensive titles, even as consumer spending has remained flat. For traditional AAA game developers, this puts a premium on understanding their niches, conducting early gamer playtests, and carefully aligning budgets with demand.
The increase in user-generated content gives platform-style games an advantage
Across media, user-generated content (UGC) is capturing a growing share of engagement time from professionally developed content. YouTube led all media companies in TV viewing time in May, the number of musical artists on Spotify earning more than $100,000 annually has roughly tripled since 2017, and Substack increased its paid subscriptions from 3 million in early 2024 to 5 million about a year later. In short, a proliferation of platform business models are rapidly taking share from incumbents across media industries.
Gaming is no different. Once a niche community of players making fan art and game mods, UGC-focused games are now mainstream, and players are spending more time than ever creating. About 80% of gamers in our 2024 survey said they had played a game featuring player-made levels, modes, or items. In this year’s survey, almost half of game content creators reported spending more time creating than they did last year. That share was even higher among the youngest cohort, but even those aged 35 and older reported a significant net increase (see Figure 3).
Notes: Includes only gamers within a representative sample who indicated that they created user-generated content or mods; representative sample calculated by weighting the number of respondents per age group to balance proportions for each surveyed country (the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, the UK, and the UAE)
Source: Bain Video Game Consumption Survey, May 2025 (n=2,739; total survey N=5,243)Very similar to other industries, this increase in UGC is benefiting platform-style games at the expense of incumbents. Whereas AAA developers must manage large budgets, employee training, and strict timelines, games-as-a-platform developers instead can focus on R&D for the tools and platform itself (such as Epic Games advancing its real-time 3D graphics development software, Unreal Engine) while benefiting from UGC’s social amplification effects on their platforms. At scale, the collective creation efforts of the community can surpass the size of AAA game budgets: In 2024, Roblox paid nearly $1 billion to its player creators while Fortnite paid more than $350 million.
Many developers are exploring ways to compete more effectively. Nintendo has embraced course-sharing in its Super Mario Maker series, and Sony’s Dreams showcased console-native UGC pipelines.
The success stories make it clear that UGC can’t be an afterthought or a gimmick. Developers must choose early in the development cycle whether to embrace UGC as a core part of the game mechanics and business model.
Companies are searching for new monetization models, but players remain hesitant
Gamers play more but pay less—a persistent contradiction in gaming economics challenging the industry. Game sticker prices have stayed static around $60 to $70 per title for two decades, even as development budgets have soared. Today’s $70 marquee release costs gamers roughly 30% to 40% less in real terms than a mid-1990s cartridge. At the same time, many games have become free to play, with hundreds of hours of content available at no cost, funded by a smaller core of users more willing to pay for content.
To offset capped sticker pricing, publishers added small in-game purchases to unlock features or content. However, leaning on this lever too hard risks backlash from players. Publishers exploring subscription revenue models have yet to prove that large titles can make that transition successfully. Many industry executives are waiting with bated breath for the next Grand Theft Auto release to see if it will push the sticker price cap higher, benefiting the broader industry. Meanwhile, mobile gaming has successfully leveraged advertising, but ads have yet to take hold on other gaming platforms.
Gamers’ feelings toward ads are paradoxical: They dislike the friction, but targeted ads are converting into purchases at higher rates than ever. In our 2025 survey, 64% of players reported that ads interrupt their gaming experience, up 5 percentage points from last year. Yet in the same breath, 46% say that they often make in-game purchases triggered by those ads, a 6-percentage-point increase year over year (see Figure 4).
Note: Includes only gamers older than 13 within a representative sample that was calculated by weighting the number of respondents per age group to balance proportions for each surveyed country (the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, the UK, and the UAE)
Sources: Bain Video Game Consumption Survey, May 2025 (n=1,008; total N=5,243); Bain Video Game Consumption Survey, May 2024 (total N=5,192)Non-mobile games are forging ahead, led by the games as a platform. Roblox moved from bespoke brand activations to a full programmatic video-ad marketplace in 2024, partnering with PubMatic to give advertisers self-serve access to its more than 97 million daily users. A Google partnership announced this year introduced rewarded-video formats that give Roblox players in-game benefits in exchange for watching 30-second ads. Brands ranging from iHeartMedia to 7-Eleven are also getting in the game, creating branded playable experiences within platform-style games.
The critical question for companies remains how to balance potential brand revenue with the quality of the player experience.
Implications for gaming executives
Top executives know the game has changed—traditional success factors alone won’t cut it. Today’s users don’t just want to play; they want a hand in shaping the experience. The developers and publishers who empower user creativity, build real communities, and evolve monetization to meet rising expectations will lead the industry into its next era.