Analyst firm says the games market is expected to reach a record-breaking $197 billion by the end of 2025, ‘driven primarily by stronger-than-expected performance on PC and mobile’

I think we can all agree that 2025 has been a year of events and occurrences. Sure, many of those have contributed to a general sense that we’re trapped in a whirling vortex of societal dysfunction and existential horror. But at least some of our favorite lines are going up! According to the analysts at Newzoo, the games industry is expected to outpace expectations to reach record-breaking revenue growth by the year’s end.

“The global games market is expected to reach $197 billion in 2025, growing +7.5% year on year,” said Newzoo’s Tianyi Gu in a press release detailing the firm’s preemptive analysis of January-November 2025 trends ahead of its full end of year global games market report. “This represents an upward revision to earlier forecasts, driven primarily by stronger-than-expected performance on PC and mobile.”

(Image credit: Newzoo)

While PC gaming is only expected to generate about half of the $108 billion revenue produced by the quiet, unfathomable churn of mobile games, Newzoo predicts the PC gaming market will have grown an impressive 10.4% by the end of the year.

“PC gaming is expected to generate $43 billion (+10.4 percent YoY),” Newzoo said. “A strong slate of premium releases outperformed last year’s standout hits, reinforcing that high-quality premium content can still break through on PC despite increasing competition for attention.”

“Premium releases” in this context means games that you pay for up front, like how buying things used to work when we were allowed to own things. Newzoo’s report also included the 10 of those premium releases that sold best in 2025 according to its data. Here’s the rundown:

Top 10 2025 PC releases by revenue according to Newzoo

Battlefield 6Schedule 1Arc RaidersMonster Hunter WildsBorderlands 4EA FC 26REPOThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion RemasteredSid Meier’s Civilization 7Dune: Awakening

(Image credit: Newzoo)

“All titles in the top 10 were premium games, reinforcing the role of full-price launches in PC performance this year,” Newzoo said, also noting that AA and indie games have strong representation with Schedule 1, Arc Raiders, REPO, and Dune: Awakening.

Notably absent from the lineup, however, is Call of Duty—an absence that Activision and Microsoft seem keenly aware of, considering the recent announcement that Call of Duty will no longer be releasing back-to-back Modern Warfares or Black Opses. While Black Ops 7 might have been the weakest Call of Duty launch in a while, Circana—another games market analyst firm—still shows BO7 at 7th in its ranking of total sales for the year across consoles and PC.

Meanwhile, Monster Hunter Wilds maintains a surprisingly high placement, despite its sales steadily collapsing amidst post-release woes. Seeing Civilization 7 make the list is similarly unexpected, but it’s refreshing to see after its mixed launch reactions. Meddling in history apparently has as strong an allure as ever.

In terms of what we’re spending most of our time playing, Newzoo’s ranking of monthly active users is less remarkable: Live service forever games like Counter-Strike 2, Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, and Valorant still dominate the list. But rounding out the ranking is Peak, proving that—at the end of the day—a lot of us are just looking for an excuse to spend pleasant time with friends. Assuming you count falling off a cliff at pleasant, I guess.

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