- The gaming industry is tipped to maintain its recent rapid growth, and could be worth $321 billion by 2026, a new PwC report says.
- Millions of new players splashed out on games and consoles during COVID-19 lockdowns.
- Some players said gaming during the pandemic helped with their mental health.
- But the switch to working from home created an unexpected challenge for some companies in the industry.
If you’re not gaming already, there’s a chance you might be soon. The video game sector is booming – and it’s tipped to keep on growing.
The expansion is expected to make the global gaming industry worth $321 billion by 2026, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2022-26.
Global gaming industry revenues are expected to exceed $320 billion by 2026. Image: PwC.
The expansion is being driven by social and casual gaming after millions of people picked up their controllers to escape the boredom and isolation of COVID-19 lockdowns.
“People were looking for ways to both entertain themselves and maintain their social connections,” says Bartosz Skwarczek, co-founder and CEO of online gaming marketplace G2A.com. “Gaming has so often been painted with the wrong brush – stereotyped as being isolating and unsociable. However, the pandemic has shown this could not be further from the truth.”
Pandemic positives for gaming
Many players believe gaming helped their mental health during lockdowns. A survey of European gamers suggested 16% felt this way, with those spending time on multiplayer genres feeling especially positive.
So many existing and new gamers splashed out on games, consoles and other kit during the pandemic that the market expanded by 26% between 2019 and 2021. “The game industry’s swimming in cash,” Professor Joost van Dreunen of New York University told The New York Times at the height of the boom. “It’s just raining money on these people, on these companies.”
Some games were boosted by perfectly timed launches. Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out in March 2020 and sold 13.4 million units in its first six weeks. It has gone on to become one of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games of all time.