Delightful's Game Research Starter Pack

A free directory of trends, reporting, data, and primary sources behind the video gaming market in 10+ countries. For strategists, researchers, journalists, and incorrigible button mashers. Pew pew pew!

Trends

Start here to understand what the games industry and fans are arguing about these days and what they've been arguing about since, like, forever.

  • Money & business modelSubscriptions are plateauingTests the 'Netflix of games' thesis that drove a decade of acquisitions and strategy. Also a good case of consolidation-era promises meeting reality (no plan survives an encounter with the enemy)Emerging3 markets
  • Money & business modelIndustry layoff eraNearly every business, labor, and creative-risk story of 2023 to 2026 traces back to this contraction. Indispensable for context, as it informs almost everything else. Note that the 2025 dip was widely read at the time as the end of the era; 2026 says it was a trough, so date any “layoffs are slowing” claim before repeating it.DominantGlobal
  • Platform & distributionMetaverse & blockchain gaming hypeYou will hit mountains of 2021 to 2022 coverage presenting the metaverse as the future, but it's dated intel. The surviving ideas migrated to other places, games, and platforms.RecedingGlobal
All trends

Markets

Profiles of gaming in 10+ countries, including market-specific resources for study.

Industry

Platforms

The gaming, streaming, and payment platforms that gamers use, organized by type and market.

  • Steam logoSteamStorefrontThe dominant PC storefront and the best-instrumented platform in games. It is the reason PC research is even possible. Valve publishes concurrents and rankings only. Every unit or revenue number anywhere is a third-party estimate. JP data historically weak, growing.Global
  • Nintendo (Switch ecosystem) logoNintendo (Switch ecosystem)Console ecosystemThe family-play console default and JP market anchor. Hardware install base drives everything downstream. eShop digital charts are not archived publicly, and Nintendo is absent from GSD digital. JP digital share is a blind spot.2 markets
  • Apple App Store logoApple App StoreMobile storeHalf the mobile duopoly. It is where premium mobile spend concentrates. Apple discloses rankings, never numbers. Post-DMA/Epic-ruling third-party payment and web stores erode store-reported revenue completeness, so vendor revenue is increasingly a floor.3 markets
More platforms

Genres

The labels that various platforms use to categorize games.

  • PuzzleMobile, cross-platformLogic and pattern games solved one problem at a time, covering matching, sorting, words, physics and riddles. Short sessions, low commitment.Example gamesCandy Crush Saga, Royal Match, Block Blast!
  • SimulationMobileGames that model a system to build, manage or inhabit, covering creative sandboxes, light tycoon and management, idle loops and life sims.Example gamesHay Day, Township, AdVenture Capitalist
  • ArcadeMobileFast, reflex-driven single-session games with simple controls, covering endless runners, rhythm and casual action.Example gamesSubway Surfers, Geometry Dash, Crossy Road
More genres

Communities

The wikis, boards, forums and subreddits where gamers congregate.

  • Namu Wiki (나무위키)Community wikiKorea's de facto encyclopedia of games, streamer, and fandom culture. Unmatched for context and controversy timelines. Crowd-edited and unreliable for facts.Korean
  • 5ch (５ちゃんねる)ImageboardJP anonymous forum culture, where the game boards show unfiltered player discourse; the substrate the matome ecosystem feeds on. Its current scale, ownership and games-board activity could not be verified from outside Japan as of Sep 2026, so check a board's recent post dates before treating it as a live venue.Japanese
  • Reddit (r/Games, country + game subs)Social platformEN community sentiment, term discovery, and finding niche expertise fast. The US analogue to Naver 카페 / Yahoo!知恵袋. r/parenting, r/lego, r/Games, r/Minecraft, r/roblox = lived practice and parent anxiety in native voice.English
More communities

Media

The video channels, podcasts, books, and newsletters to help you make sense of the industry and trends.

People

Analysts, critics, reporters, and executives who lead the global games conversation.

  • Christopher Dring portraitChristopher DringFounder, The Game Business (ex-GamesIndustry.biz)Publishes UK and EU sales charts and market data commentary nobody else assembles. Interviews platform holders on the recordLinkedin
  • Jason Schreier portraitJason SchreierReporter, BloombergBreaking industry-structure reporting (layoffs, acquisitions, studio mismanagement) with primary sourcing. Also covers the labor angle no analyst touchesBluesky + Bloomberg
  • Joost van Dreunen portraitJoost van DreunenNYU Stern, SuperJoost PlaylistAcademic-grade frameworks applied to current deals and platform strategy. Bridges investor and scholarly views of the industryLinkedIn
All people

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Every door above, served live over MCP. Add one URL to Claude and it can search the sources, open a market profile and read the trends while you are talking to it. Free, no key, no account. Answers arrive carrying their date, their link and the things it is not safe to conclude from them.

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