Global video game by segment 2027

In 2022, the number of video gamers worldwide who bought their games digitally stood at 2.5 billion, a slight decrease from 2.6 billion the previous year. Digital gaming purchases have been increasing in popularity, and the COVID-19 pandemic caused this trend to accelerate in 2020 and 2021 while slowing down in 2022.

Number of video game users worldwide from 2017 to 2027, by segment (in millions)

Characteristic	Digital Video Games	Physically Sold Video Games
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Release date

November 2022

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2017 to 2022

Special properties

all values are estimates

Supplementary notes

*Forecast
The Video Games segment consists of Physically Sold Video Games and Digital Video Games. Physically Sold Video Games comprises revenues associated with in-person purchases of video games in retail stores (e.g., at GameStop, Walmart, and Target) or in online-shops as CDs, DVDs, or other solid storage media Digital Video Games encompasses revenues associated with digital game sales (e.g., Steam, Origin, and Blizzard’s Battle.net for PCs and the Xbox Games Store, PlayStation Store, and Nintendo eShop for consoles). Additional downloadable content (DLC) and subscription services are included. The definition covers subscription-based games, e.g., World of Warcraft, as well as free-to-play games with in-game purchases for additional premium content or functionalities, e.g., Fortnite. Detailed definitions can be found in the individual segments.

In-scope:
In-person purchases of video games
Digital video games

Out-of-scope:
Demo/Trial versions of video games
Free-to-play gaming apps

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