Mobile Gaming Leads Globally, While Cloud Gaming Surges

Mobile gaming is set to dominate the gaming market in 2025 and is expected to maintain its lead in the coming years. According to Statista Market Insights, the subsector's global revenue is projected to reach $126 billion in 2025 and to surpass $160 billion by 2030 - an increase of 30 percent. This surge is largely driven by the widespread accessibility and affordability of smartphones and tablets, with mobile gaming particularly popular in Asia and the Pacific.

The mobile gaming segment is far ahead of the next biggest group: Video games. As the following chart shows, physical and downloadable games (such as from Steam) are projected to have a joint revenue of $34 billion in 2025, rising to $41 billion in 2030. Physical games make up the smaller and diminishing share of this, at just $11.3 billion in 2025 (33 percent of the combined video games segment) and $11.6 billion by 2030 (28 percent).

While cloud gaming is a smaller segment overall, it stands out compared to the other segments in terms of growth. Combined with networks (systems that allow multiple players to interact online), its revenue is expected to more than double over the next five years. The technology allows players to stream high-quality games without having to buy expensive hardware. This growth is being fuelled by recent investments from companies such as Google and Amazon into data centers and cloud infrastructure.

Gaming hardware and in-game advertising are also huge money-makers. Worldwide, gaming hardware is expected to have a revenue of $178 billion in 2025, while in-game advertising is expected to reach $125 billion this year.