[ { "market": "DE", "sections": { "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Webedia owns GameStar, GamePro, Mein-MMO and IGN Germany, placing the mainstream games press tier under one group.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GameStar team page, corporate self-disclosure", "link": "https://www.gamestar.de/about/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "GamesWirtschaft is a one person trade outlet, written and edited by founder Petra Froehlich.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesWirtschaft impressum", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/impressum/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "GamesMarket, the second trade outlet, is owned by its three editors following a July 2025 management buy-out from the BG Germany insolvency.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesMarket announcement", "link": "https://www.gamesmarket.global/management-buyout-gamesmarkt-opens-a-new-chapter-and-becomes-independent-d34b7c894f34b4de1bbb38c7d6839064/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The editorial operation of 4Players.de ends on 31 October 2021 after more than 20 years, with the publisher citing economic pressures.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GameStar news report, games outlet", "link": "https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/4players-muss-aufhoeren,3372790.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The crowdfunded games culture magazine Wasted shuts down on 31 March 2023 after about 17 months, citing too few paying subscribers.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesWirtschaft, games trade press", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/marketing-pr/wasted-spiele-magazin-eingestellt/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The volunteer produced games culture print magazine GAIN announces its closure in July 2023, citing sales below expectations and the limits of professional production on unpaid labour.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesWirtschaft, games trade press", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/marketing-pr/gain-magazin-einstellung/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Freaks 4U Gaming shuts its League of Legends portal Summoners Inn at the end of 2023, almost ten years after founding, citing changed broadcasting rights and market conditions.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesWirtschaft, games trade press", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/sport/summoners-inn-einstellung/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Computec ends the print magazine Games Aktuell with issue 01/2024 in December 2023, without a farewell issue, citing rising production and paper costs, stagnating readership, and falling ad revenue.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesWirtschaft, games trade press", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/marketing-pr/games-aktuell-einstellung-computec/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Webedia ends the print edition of GamePro with issue 01/24, on sale 6 December 2023, saying the printed magazine is no longer profitable, while the website and brand continue.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesWirtschaft, games trade press", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/marketing-pr/gamepro-print-einstellung-webedia/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Computec ends the developer trade magazine Making Games with issue 1+2/2022, announced on 10 December 2021, citing the difficult economics of print.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesMarkt, games trade press", "link": "https://www.gamesmarket.global/development/making-games-wird-eingestellt-c15d6bf8450446ed85687cb2c70eb8c8" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "GameStar operates its own reader forum and an official WhatsApp channel.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GameStar site navigation and footer", "link": "https://www.gamestar.de/about/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "GameStar, GamePro and MeinMMO editors answer reader questions in streams that continue afterwards on the shared community Discord.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamePro AMA announcement", "link": "https://www.gamepro.de/artikel/fyng-ama-alle-infos,3366014.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "GamersGlobal editors reply to readers inside comment threads, and the site finances its text content through subscriptions since spring 2026.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesWirtschaft interview with Joerg Langer, Mar 2026", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/marketing-pr/gamersglobal-realunch-joerg-langer-interview-300326/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Independent outlets OK COOL and Debuff run their reader communities through Steady memberships.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Debuff about page on Steady", "link": "https://steady.page/de/debuff/about" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not read German journalists' social profiles as venues. They are largely dormant on X and sparse on Bluesky, so a personal profile is a calling card rather than a place where the conversation happens.", "card_text": "Not on X or Bluesky", "year": "", "source": "GameStar team Bluesky starter pack, Dec 2024", "link": "https://bsky.app/starter-pack/did:plc:tlc5nn3tvwwncohvnjj2uv3u/3lbhyocm72r2b" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not default to X for German games talk. On the audience side, WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook are the most relevant platforms for news in Germany, and X does not register.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Leibniz Institute, Digital News Report 2026 German substudy", "link": "https://leibniz-hbi.de/en/hbi-news/news/news-consumption-through-social-media-is-increasing/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "GameStar forum", "card_text": "GameStar forum", "year": "", "source": "GameStar site navigation", "link": "https://www.gamestar.de/xenforo/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "GamersGlobal comment threads", "card_text": "GamersGlobal comments", "year": "", "source": "GamersGlobal site", "link": "https://www.gamersglobal.de" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "GameStar, GamePro and MeinMMO shared Discord", "card_text": "GameStar, GamePro and MeinMMO", "year": "", "source": "GamePro AMA announcement", "link": "https://www.gamestar.de/discord" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "OK COOL membership community", "card_text": "OK COOL", "year": "", "source": "OK COOL site", "link": "https://okcool.space/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Debuff membership community", "card_text": "Debuff", "year": "", "source": "Debuff site", "link": "https://www.debuff.de/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "GameStar publishes its Discord invite.", "card_text": "Gamestar.com", "year": "", "source": "GameStar redirect, outlet published invite route", "link": "https://www.gamestar.de/discord" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games are a mainstream medium in Germany, with 41.2 million people playing, six in ten of those aged 6 to 69, an average age of 38.3, 79 percent of players adults and 46 percent women, per the game Jahresreport 2026, published on 12 August 2026 and covering 2025. The 2025 report had put it at around 37.5 million with an average age of about 40.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "game Jahresreport der deutschen Games-Branche 2026, industry association annual report, 12 August 2026", "link": "https://www.game.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Jahresreport-der-deutschen-Games-Branche-2026-1-1.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Germany is a consumption market far more than a production one: games developed in Germany account for about 5.5 percent of domestic games spending, per the study Die Games-Branche in Deutschland 2025.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamesWirtschaft reporting the game and Goldmedia study, games trade press", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/politik/games-studie-foerderung-bmftr-baer-150126/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Buying individual games is now a small slice of German games spending: game purchases generated 807 million euros in 2025, down 13 percent, while in-game and in-app purchases held above 4 billion euros.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "game Verband annual market figures, industry association", "link": "https://www.game.de/deutscher-games-markt-waechst-2025-um-4-prozent/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The German headline is not software spend. Of 9.382 billion euros in 2025, games, meaning purchases plus in-game and in-app spending, are 4.948 billion, hardware is 3.403 billion and online gaming services, subscriptions, cloud and network fees, are 1.031 billion.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "game Verband annual market figures, industry association", "link": "https://www.game.de/deutscher-games-markt-waechst-2025-um-4-prozent/" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The German games market generated around 9.4 billion euros in 2025, a 4 percent increase, per the game association annual market figures based on YouGov and Sensor Tower data.", "card_text": "~9.4 billion euros", "year": "2025", "source": "game Verband annual market figures, industry association", "link": "https://www.game.de/deutscher-games-markt-waechst-2025-um-4-prozent/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The association's market figure is not a GfK panel. game builds it from YouGov Shopper, 25,000 representative consumer surveys, NielsenIQ's hardware retail panel and Sensor Tower for mobile, and publishes it each March, the 2025 figure on 26 March 2026, before the August Jahresreport compiles it. The 2025 release restated earlier years after Sensor Tower revised its mobile method and NielsenIQ widened hardware coverage to more physical retail, so take earlier years from the same release.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "game Verband annual market figures, 26 March 2026, industry association", "link": "https://www.game.de/deutscher-games-markt-waechst-2025-um-4-prozent/" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "USK ratings are law. Age ratings on games sold in Germany are statutory, not advisory: state youth authority representatives issue the legal USK age label under the Jugendschutzgesetz, and retailers are bound by it.", "card_text": "Age ratings are statutory, not advisory", "year": "", "source": "elternguide.online, USK information service", "link": "https://www.elternguide.online/die-altersfreigaben-der-usk-bei-games-das-steckt-dahinter/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The largest games event in the world by attendance takes place in Cologne, with around 357,000 visitors and 1,568 exhibitors from 72 countries at gamescom 2025.", "card_text": "Hosts the world largest games event by attendance", "year": "", "source": "ZDF heute, public broadcaster news", "link": "https://www.zdfheute.de/panorama/gamescom-2025-bilanz-rekord-100.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Germany keeps an unusually strong attachment to physical media on console: 56 percent of console games sold on Datentraeger (physical discs and cartridges) in 2024, while 99 percent of PC games sold as downloads.", "card_text": "Console players prefer physical discs", "year": "", "source": "game Verband download share figures, industry association", "link": "https://www.game.de/7-von-10-games-in-deutschland-werden-als-download-gekauft/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The live German regulatory story is the youth-protection reform, not the old bans. Since 1 May 2021 the reformed Jugendschutzgesetz lets interaction risks count in an age rating, open chats, purchase incentives and gambling-like elements such as loot boxes, and the Bundespruefstelle fuer jugendgefaehrdende Medien became the Bundeszentrale fuer Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz (BzKJ).", "card_text": "", "year": "2021", "source": "BzKJ announcement of the reform entering into force, federal agency", "link": "https://www.bzkj.de/bzkj/service/alle-meldungen/reform-des-jugendschutzgesetzes-tritt-in-kraft-178740" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Nazi symbols are no longer an automatic bar to a rating. Since 9 August 2018 the USK applies the social-adequacy clause of section 86a of the criminal code to games case by case, after the state youth authorities dropped the requirement that a submission certify it contains no such symbols. The Germany-bans-violent-games story is older still.", "card_text": "", "year": "2018", "source": "GamesWirtschaft report of the USK and OLJB decision, 9 August 2018, games trade press", "link": "https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/politik/hakenkreuze-in-games-sozialadaequanz-usk-oljb/" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "game Verband market data. Annual and half year revenue figures for the German market, split by software, hardware, and online services, with methodology notes attached to each release. Lets a researcher anchor any German market size claim to a free primary source.", "card_text": "game Verband", "year": "", "source": "game Verband market figures, industry association", "link": "https://www.game.de/deutscher-games-markt-waechst-2025-um-4-prozent/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "GfK Entertainment Games-Charts. Weekly official German games sales charts by platform, published as news posts. Lets a researcher see what actually sells in Germany week by week without buying panel data.", "card_text": "GfK Entertainment", "year": "", "source": "GfK Entertainment, official charts compiler", "link": "https://www.gfk-entertainment.com/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "JIM-Studie. Annual representative survey of 12 to 19 year olds media use in Germany, running since 1998, free PDF, covering devices, platforms, and gaming alongside wider media behaviour. Lets a researcher ground youth behaviour claims in a public dataset.", "card_text": "JIM-Studie", "year": "", "source": "mpfs, publicly funded media research consortium", "link": "https://mpfs.de/app/uploads/2025/11/JIM_2025_PDF_barrierearm.pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "USK statistics. Annual rating statistics plus a searchable title database of age ratings. Lets a researcher see rating volumes, IARC platform coverage, and which large platforms sit outside the system, the 2025 statistics name Apple and Steam as not connected.", "card_text": "USK statistics", "year": "", "source": "USK, ratings self regulation body", "link": "https://usk.de/usk-jahresstatistik-2025-usk-alterskennzeichen-auf-nahezu-allen-grossen-plattformen/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "gamescom figures. Official attendance, exhibitor, floor space, and digital reach numbers for the annual Cologne event, updated each year. Lets a researcher date and size the industry main gathering.", "card_text": "gamescom figures", "year": "", "source": "game Verband gamescom page, event co organizer", "link": "https://www.game.de/events-koops/gamescom/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "USK labels do not cover every store. The USK's 2025 statistics name Apple and Steam as large platforms not connected to its system, so a title sold there may carry no USK label even though the label is statutory at retail.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "USK annual statistics 2025, ratings self-regulation body", "link": "https://usk.de/usk-jahresstatistik-2025-usk-alterskennzeichen-auf-nahezu-allen-grossen-plattformen/" } ], "Standing": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Europe's largest games market and the fifth largest in the world, according to the game Jahresreport der deutschen Games-Branche 2026, published 12 August 2026.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "game Jahresreport der deutschen Games-Branche 2026, industry association annual report, 12 August 2026", "link": "https://www.game.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Jahresreport-der-deutschen-Games-Branche-2026-1-1.pdf" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Sales charts. GfK Entertainment's weekly charts are a profile card, not a source row; the directory's German sales data row is GSD via Sparkers.", "instead": "Open the GfK charts from the profile card and say which panel a chart comes from; the two do not share a method." }, { "gap": "Federal games funding. The rules have changed more than once and no note here states the current ones.", "instead": "GamesWirtschaft is the held beat on funding and politics; check its latest piece before quoting a rate, a freeze or a ministry." }, { "gap": "Where German players talk. The profile says WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook carry news, and the community rows are two subreddits.", "instead": "Use the games-specific subreddit technique, r/zocken not r/de, and the outlets' own forums and Discords the profile names." }, { "gap": "Austria and Switzerland. No Austrian or Swiss rows are held, and the statistics are Germany-only while the German-language conversation is not.", "instead": "Say which country a figure covers when the source is DACH-wide, and do not read a DACH publisher as a German one." }, { "gap": "Adult play behaviour. JIM covers ages 12 to 19; no adult play survey row is held beyond the association's own demographics.", "instead": "Quote the Jahresreport's player figures as the association's, with the year, and use JIM for the young cohort only." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "41.2 million", "value": 41.2, "year": "2026", "direction": "", "source": "game Verband der deutschen Games-Branche, Jahresreport der deutschen Games-Branche 2026", "link": "https://www.game.de/publikationen/jahresreport-2026/", "measure": "Play computer and video games", "definition": "The figure counts people in Germany who play computer and video games, stated as \"In Deutschland spielen 41,2 Millionen Menschen Computer- und Videospiele.\" game reports an average player age of 38.3 years, 79 percent aged 18 and over, and a split of 54 percent men and 46 percent women. The data comes from YouGov, with 2026 fieldwork among about 25,000 respondents." } }, { "market": "KR", "sections": { "Venues": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not look for Korean games podcasts by category on Podbbang. The leading Korean podcast platform lists no games or gaming category in its category browser, confirmed August 2026.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Podbbang podcast category browser, platform primary source", "link": "https://www.podbbang.com/podcasts/newest-episode?categoryId=0" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Twitch is dead in Korea, so Twitch data says nothing about Korean streaming. The platform ended its Korean operations on 27 February 2024, about six and a half years after entering, citing network usage fees roughly ten times other countries, a figure Korean network operators dispute.", "card_text": "Twitch is dead here, exited Feb 2024", "year": "", "source": "KISO Journal, internet self governance organisation publication", "link": "https://journal.kiso.or.kr/?p=12597" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Live game streaming runs through three platforms: SOOP, formerly AfreecaTV, Naver 치지직 (Chzzk), launched in December 2023 as the Twitch successor, and YouTube Live.", "card_text": "SOOP, Chzzk (Naver) and YouTube Live", "year": "", "source": "국민일보 games policy column, national daily", "link": "https://www.kmib.co.kr/article/view.asp?arcid=0028840509" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert the scale of the anonymous boards without checking. 디시인사이드 (DC Inside) galleries, 에펨코리아 (FMKorea) and 아카라이브 (Arca.live) are commonly described as major games discussion venues, but their current scale and games activity could not be verified to standard.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" } ], "Standing": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The world's fourth largest games market, according to the 2025 White Paper on Korean Games (대한민국 게임백서), Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and KOCCA, March 2026.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "2025 대한민국 게임백서, government and public agency annual, reported by Digital Today, named tech outlet", "link": "https://www.digitaltoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=645491" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The fourth-place world rank is the white paper's own. It is a 7.2 percent share of a world market the paper estimates at 220.071 billion dollars for 2024, measured against Korean industry sales rather than consumer spend, so it is not the rank a Newzoo or Ball table gives, and the two do not belong in one sentence.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "Digital Today report of the 2025 White Paper on Korean Games, named news outlet", "link": "https://www.digitaltoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=645491" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Domestic games industry revenue is 23.8515 trillion won in 2024, up 3.9 percent year on year, per the 2025 White Paper on Korean Games.", "card_text": "~23.9 trillion won", "year": "2024", "source": "2025 대한민국 게임백서, reported by Digital Today, named tech outlet", "link": "https://www.digitaltoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=645491" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The white paper's revenue is industry sales, not consumer spend. Its 23.8515 trillion won for 2024 is sales by platform, mobile 14.071 trillion, PC 6.0094 trillion, console 1.1836 trillion and arcade 275.9 billion won, with PC bang and arcade venue takings inside the PC and arcade lines. Do not set it beside a Newzoo or Sensor Tower estimate without saying which basis each is on.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "Digital Today report of the 2025 White Paper on Korean Games, named news outlet", "link": "https://www.digitaltoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=645491" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Korea primarily makes and exports games. 2024 exports are 8.503 billion dollars, up 1.3 percent, against imports of 245.6 million dollars. Export destinations are led by China at 29.7 percent, Southeast Asia at 20.6 percent, North America at 19.5 percent and Japan at 8.3 percent.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "2025 대한민국 게임백서, reported by 문화일보, national daily", "link": "https://www.munhwa.com/article/11577442" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games are no longer a majority pastime in Korea. The 2025 game user survey puts the game usage rate at 50.2 percent, down 9.7 percentage points in one year, with a five year annual growth rate of minus 6.8 percent. KOCCA describes the market as reorganising around core users.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "KOCCA 2025 게임이용자 실태조사 press release, government agency survey", "link": "https://welcon.kocca.kr/ko/info/business/1956858" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Korea is turning more PC heavy while shrinking. Among game users in 2025, mobile reaches 89.1 percent but is falling, while PC rises to 58.1 percent and console to 28.6 percent, and daily PC playtime is at its highest level in five years.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "KOCCA 2025 게임이용자 실태조사 press release, government agency survey", "link": "https://welcon.kocca.kr/ko/info/business/1956858" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The industry employs 87,576 people in 2024, up 3.1 percent, with 62 percent in production and distribution rather than retail.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "2025 대한민국 게임백서, reported by Digital Today, named tech outlet", "link": "https://www.digitaltoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=645491" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The user survey's platform rates overlap and do not sum. Its 50.2 percent is the share of people aged 10 to 69 who played in the past year; mobile 89.1, PC 58.1 and console 28.6 percent are shares of those users rather than of Koreans, and a person on two platforms is counted in both, so they are not a device split.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "KOCCA, 2025 Game User Survey (게임이용자 실태조사), government agency", "link": "https://welcon.kocca.kr/ko/info/business/1956858" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "KOCCA's two annuals carry different years, so quote the year with the figure. The 2025 White Paper on Korean Games, published in March 2026, reports 2024 revenue and exports; the 2025 Game User Survey, published on 18 December 2025, reports play in the year to its fieldwork. There is no white-paper revenue figure for 2025 yet.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "KOCCA press release for the 2025 Game User Survey, 22 December 2025, government agency", "link": "https://welcon.kocca.kr/ko/info/business/1956858" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "News distribution in Korea routes through portals. Online portals such as Naver are the most widely used news source, and admission to a portal directly affects an outlet traffic, influence and advertising revenue through Naver partnership evaluation system, which suspended activity in 2023 and was relaunched in February 2026. Portal news use is nonetheless declining each year since 2021 as video and short form use rises.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, South Korea page, academic institute", "link": "https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2026/south-korea" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The largest games site, 인벤 (Inven), is a fused community and webzine, operating forums and an editorial newsroom in one property, and by its own account has supplied esports news to Naver since 2013.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Inven corporate profile, company self description reproduced on the Gamejob recruiting service", "link": "https://www.gamejob.co.kr/Company/Detail?M=11531230" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert Ruliweb's ownership history. 루리웹 (Ruliweb), the largest console-focused community, is widely described as having passed through a series of portal owners before becoming independent in 2016, but that history could not be verified beyond community wikis and the site's own posts.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Korea press structure is community and media fusion plus portal gatekept distribution. The biggest games venues are community boards with newsrooms attached, and an outlet reach depends on admission to a portal. This is an interpretation resting on the rows above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, South Korea page, plus the rows above", "link": "https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2026/south-korea" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Every game distributed in Korea requires a pre release age classification, issued by the Game Rating and Administration Committee (게임물관리위원회, GRAC), the delegated private classification body, or platform self classification, and every rating decision is searchable in a public database.", "card_text": "Every game needs a pre release age rating", "year": "", "source": "GRAC official site, statutory classification body", "link": "https://www.grac.or.kr/Statistics/GameStatistics.aspx" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Loot box odds disclosure is law. From 22 March 2024 the Game Industry Promotion Act requires games to display probability item odds in game and in advertising, with violations punishable by up to two years imprisonment or a 20 million won fine.", "card_text": "Loot box odds disclosure is law", "year": "", "source": "Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism decision, reported by ZDNet Korea, named tech outlet", "link": "https://zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20240102151926" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "HOLD: do not report a GRAC reorganisation as decided. Reports indicate the current administration is moving to abolish or reorganise GRAC and establish a game promotion agency, which if enacted changes the rating system, but this could not be verified beyond a community wiki. Confirm at ministry or Assembly sources first.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Korean mobile spend routes overwhelmingly through Google Play, which Sensor Tower own Korea report projects at 75 percent of an estimated 5.3 billion dollars in 2025 in app purchase revenue.", "card_text": "Mobile spend routes through Google Play, not the App Store", "year": "", "source": "Sensor Tower Korea market report, vendor own free publication", "link": "https://sensortower.com/ko/blog/state-of-gaming-in-korea-2025-report-KR" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "State whether One Store is in scope. Sensor Tower's Korea report says all its data excludes third-party Android markets, so its 5.3 billion dollar projection for 2025 and its 75 percent Google Play share cover the App Store and Google Play only; One Store, Korea's domestic Android store, is outside it and outside any global tracker's default view.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Sensor Tower Korea market report, November 2025, vendor own free publication", "link": "https://sensortower.com/ko/blog/state-of-gaming-in-korea-2025-report-KR" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The shutdown law is gone. The midnight-to-6am ban on under-16s' online play under the Youth Protection Act ended at midnight on 31 December 2021, after the National Assembly repealed it in November 2021, and was replaced by a choice system in which under-18s or their guardians pick their own hours. English coverage still describes Korea as the curfew country.", "card_text": "", "year": "2021", "source": "The Korea Herald, 31 December 2021, national daily", "link": "https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2748203" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Foreign publishers need a domestic agent. Since 23 October 2025, under Article 31-2 of the Game Industry Promotion Act as amended on 22 October 2024, an overseas game company with annual sales of 1 trillion won or more, or 100,000 average domestic users over three months, must designate a domestic agent; the Game Rating and Administration Committee checks, and the fine for failing to is up to 20 million won.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism press release, 24 April 2025, government body", "link": "https://www.mcst.go.kr/english/policy/pressView.jsp?pSeq=515" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "대한민국 게임백서 (White Paper on Korean Games). KOCCA annual gives industry revenue, exports by destination, employment and Korea world share, and the full PDF is free.", "card_text": "대한민국 게임백서 (White Paper on Korean Games)", "year": "", "source": "KOCCA 산업백서 index, government agency", "link": "https://www.kocca.kr/kocca/bbs/list/B0000146.do?menuNo=204154" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "게임이용자 실태조사 (Game User Survey). KOCCA annual survey of 10,000 people aged 10 to 69 gives game usage rates, platform splits, playtime and spending, the standard free source on who plays in Korea.", "card_text": "게임이용자 실태조사 (Game User Survey)", "year": "", "source": "KOCCA press release, government agency survey", "link": "https://welcon.kocca.kr/ko/info/business/1956858" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "GRAC 등급분류 database. The regulator searchable database of every rating decision, including self classified games, lets a researcher confirm any game legal release status, rating and rating history in Korea.", "card_text": "GRAC 등급분류 database", "year": "", "source": "게임물관리위원회 (GRAC), statutory classification body", "link": "https://www.grac.or.kr/Statistics/GameStatistics.aspx" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "KRAFTON investor relations. Quarterly earnings releases and periodic reports give platform level and IP level revenue splits, an example of the disclosure depth available from Korea listed publishers.", "card_text": "KRAFTON investor relations", "year": "", "source": "KRAFTON, primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://www.krafton.com/en/ir/investor-events/periodic-report/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "글로벌 게임산업 트렌드 (Global Game Industry Trends). KOCCA free bimonthly briefing covers overseas market, policy and company developments including emerging markets, written for Korean companies going abroad.", "card_text": "글로벌 게임산업 트렌드 (Global Game Industry Trends)", "year": "", "source": "KOCCA, government agency bimonthly", "link": "https://www.kocca.kr/global/2025_5+6/download/%EA%B8%80%EB%A1%9C%EB%B2%8C%20%EA%B2%8C%EC%9E%84%EC%82%B0%EC%97%85%20%ED%8A%B8%EB%A0%8C%EB%93%9C%20(2025%EB%85%84%205+6%EC%9B%94%ED%98%B8).pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "PC bang share. No PC bang tracker is held, and the ones that exist publish share of usage hours, not revenue.", "instead": "Read a PC bang share as what is played in public, not what is paid for. Venue takings sit inside the white paper's PC line." }, { "gap": "What players think. No Korean user-review venue is held, and the community boards are unverified for scale.", "instead": "Use the Naver-not-Google and translate-the-SERP techniques for reaction; read Inven and ThisIsGame as press with communities attached; treat a board thread as temperature, never as size." }, { "gap": "Sell-side research. The directory holds one analyst's public Telegram digest, not the brokerage sector notes themselves.", "instead": "Follow the Telegram technique to the analysts, then ask each for the note; the digests say which house wrote what." }, { "gap": "Arca.live has no source row. The profile names it beside DC Inside and FMKorea as unverified.", "instead": "Check a gallery's recent post dates before naming it as a venue." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "About 20 million", "value": 20, "year": "2025", "direction": "down", "source": "한국콘텐츠진흥원 KOCCA and 문화체육관광부, 2025 게임이용자 실태조사", "link": "https://welcon.kocca.kr/ko/info/business/1956858", "measure": "Played in past 12 months", "definition": "KOCCA reports a game usage rate of 50.2 percent among people in Korea aged 10 to 69 who played in the previous twelve months. It publishes no headcount. The figure here approximates that rate against the population of that age group. The population base is not yet recorded, so the rate is the sourced part and the headcount is indicative." } }, { "market": "JP", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not look for Japan's world rank in a Japanese source, because none states one. CESA and the Famitsu Game White Paper 2026 publish a domestic market size and a global total, 32.1024 trillion yen or 214.56 billion dollars for 2025, in regional tables rather than a country ranking. A rank for Japan has to come from an analyst outside Japan, on that analyst's basis.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute release for Famitsu Game White Paper 2026, 6 August 2026, publisher release", "link": "https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000257.000017610.html" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The domestic game content market is 2.5885 trillion yen in 2025, up 8.0 percent year on year, per the Famitsu Game White Paper 2026, announced 6 August 2026. The 2024 figure was 2.3961 trillion yen.", "card_text": "~2.6 trillion yen", "year": "2025", "source": "Famitsu Game White Paper 2026, Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute, publisher release", "link": "https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000257.000017610.html" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Japan game population is 54.75 million in 2024, a slight decline from 55.53 million the previous year, with 42.78 million on mobile, 29.51 million on console and 14.52 million on PC. Console players roughly double PC players.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "CESA Game Industry Report 2025, industry association annual", "link": "https://www.cesa.or.jp/action/industry-research/2025/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Multi device play is near half the player base. 24.78 million people play on two or more of console, PC and mobile in 2024, which the publisher highlights as a marked increase.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Famitsu Game White Paper 2025, Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute, publisher release", "link": "https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000197.000017610.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Japan makes and exports games as well as buying them. Content industry exports reach 5.8 trillion yen in 2023, of which games are 62 percent, a total CESA states already exceeds Japan semiconductor and steel exports.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "CESA Game Industry Report 2025, industry association", "link": "https://www.cesa.or.jp/action/industry-research/2025/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The two annuals carry different years for the same series, so quote the year with the figure. Famitsu's white paper lands in August with the previous calendar year: the 2026 edition gives 56.39 million players for 2025, up 3.0 percent on 54.75 million for 2024. CESA's report lands in December with the year before that: the 2025 edition still carries 2024. The gap between them is the calendar, not the method.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Famitsu Game White Paper 2026, Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute, publisher release", "link": "https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000257.000017610.html" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The two flagship legacy games media brands, Famitsu and Dengeki, are operated by a single company, KADOKAWA Game Linkage, inside the KADOKAWA group.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "KADOKAWA Game Linkage company site (出資比率 株式会社KADOKAWA 100%), primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://kadokawagamelinkage.jp/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "One research house sits behind both national annuals. Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute publishes the Famitsu Game White Paper and produces and sells the CESA Game Industry Report under commission from CESA. Treat the two as one methodology family rather than two independent measurements, and credit the institute, not an older producer name.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "KADOKAWA group release for CESA Game Industry Report 2025, primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://group.kadokawa.co.jp/information/promotional_topics/article-13820.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "4Gamer.net, one of the largest games news sites, is operated by Aetas, a subsidiary of Digital Hearts Holdings, a debugging and QA vendor whose clients are the game publishers the site covers. Digital Hearts acquired Aetas for 800 million yen in 2012.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ITmedia NEWS report, named tech news outlet", "link": "https://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/1211/21/news064.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "AUTOMATON, a leading independent voice games site, is operated by Active Gaming Media, an Osaka localization, debugging and promotion vendor that also runs the indie games publisher PLAYISM.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Game Creators interview with Active Gaming Media, trade careers media", "link": "https://game-creators.jp/media/interview/654/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The defining pattern of the Japanese games press is vendor ownership rather than closure. The largest outlets sit inside companies that sell services to the publishers they cover, media and data publishing at KADOKAWA, QA at Digital Hearts, localization at Active Gaming Media. This is an interpretation resting on the three ownership claims above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "KADOKAWA group release, primary corporate disclosure, plus the ownership rows above", "link": "https://group.kadokawa.co.jp/information/promotional_topics/article-13820.html" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "YouTube reaches 81.5 percent of Japanese people aged 13 to 79 and is the default open video venue. TikTok reaches 36.7 percent.", "card_text": "YouTube, the default open video venue", "year": "", "source": "Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications media usage survey, government survey", "link": "https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01iicp01_02000130.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not default to Facebook for Japanese games talk. X reaches 44.7 percent of people aged 13 to 79 and is the main open text venue; Facebook reaches 27.0 percent, the lowest of the platforms measured. The guidance rests on reach, not on a games-specific measure.", "card_text": "X, the main open text venue. Facebook is marginal", "year": "", "source": "Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications media usage survey, government survey", "link": "https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01iicp01_02000130.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "LINE conversations are private. It reaches 92.9 percent of people aged 13 to 79, more than any other service, and none of its conversation is publicly searchable, so it is not a listening venue. That LINE is private is a reading of the product type, not a survey finding.", "card_text": "LINE, private messaging, not publicly searchable", "year": "", "source": "Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications media usage survey, government survey", "link": "https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01iicp01_02000130.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Niconico, historically a central Japanese video venue, is owned by Dwango, a KADOKAWA subsidiary. A ransomware attack on 8 June 2024 took the service offline for about two months, with full relaunch on 5 August 2024.", "card_text": "Niconico, KADOKAWA owned", "year": "", "source": "KADOKAWA group system failure disclosure, primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://group.kadokawa.co.jp/system_failure/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not name 5channel as a live games venue without checking it yourself. The anonymous boards under 5ちゃんねる (formerly 2channel) are commonly described as one, but their current scale, ownership and games-board activity could not be verified to standard from outside Japan.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The MIC survey measures reach, not games use. Its percentages say how many people aged 13 to 79 use each platform at all, so use them to choose which venues to read and not to size a games audience on any of them.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications media usage survey, government survey", "link": "https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01iicp01_02000130.html" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Japan publishes free weekly estimated unit sales for packaged console software and hardware. Famitsu releases a top 10 with unit counts every week, with fuller rankings following days later.", "card_text": "Free weekly console sales rankings", "year": "", "source": "Famitsu.com weekly sales report, games trade media", "link": "https://www.famitsu.com/article/202607/82960" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The national annuals are paid, and only their headlines are free. The CESA Game Industry Report is 55,000 yen; the Famitsu Game White Paper 2026 is 48,400 yen as a PDF, 57,200 as a book and 99,000 as the set. What circulates free is each publisher's press release.", "card_text": "National data annuals are paid, 48,000 to 99,000 yen", "year": "", "source": "CESA official report page, industry association", "link": "https://www.cesa.or.jp/action/industry-research/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Platform player counts overlap and do not sum. A person who plays on two platforms is counted on both, so the mobile, console and PC figures add up to far more than the game population; 24.78 million people were counted on two or more platforms in 2024.", "card_text": "Platform player counts overlap and do not sum", "year": "", "source": "Famitsu Game White Paper 2025, Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute", "link": "https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000197.000017610.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The Famitsu weekly chart is not total sales. It estimates units of packaged software, download cards and pre-installed copies; purchases made directly on a digital store are outside it, and so are mobile and PC. A chart position understates a digital-heavy release.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Famitsu.com weekly sales report, games trade media", "link": "https://www.famitsu.com/article/202607/82960" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "CESA ゲーム産業レポート (Game Industry Report). The industry association annual gives national game population by platform, a global market estimate, user survey results and industry data, with headline figures free in each December release.", "card_text": "CESA ゲーム産業レポート (Game Industry Report)", "year": "", "source": "CESA, industry association", "link": "https://www.cesa.or.jp/action/industry-research/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ファミ通ゲーム白書 (Famitsu Game White Paper). The annual gives domestic and global market sizing, platform breakdowns and user survey data, with headline figures free in each August release. The mobile edition global data is supervised by Sensor Tower.", "card_text": "ファミ通ゲーム白書 (Famitsu Game White Paper)", "year": "", "source": "Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute, publisher release", "link": "https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000257.000017610.html" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ファミ通 weekly sales rankings. Weekly estimated unit sales for packaged console software and hardware in Japan, free, published every week.", "card_text": "ファミ通 weekly sales rankings", "year": "", "source": "Famitsu.com, games trade media", "link": "https://www.famitsu.com/article/202607/82960" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "任天堂 IR (Nintendo investor relations). Primary corporate disclosure with regional sales splits, hardware and software unit sales by quarter, cumulative top title sales and long run historical data.", "card_text": "任天堂 IR (Nintendo investor relations)", "year": "", "source": "Nintendo Co., Ltd., primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/index.html" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "経済産業省 (METI) entertainment and creative industries strategy. The June 2025 government action plan analyses the games business segment by segment, console, PC, mobile and esports, with export policy context.", "card_text": "経済産業省 (METI) creative industries strategy", "year": "", "source": "METI, government body", "link": "https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/mono_info_service/entertainment_creative/pdf/20250624_1.pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "総務省 (MIC) media usage survey. The annual government survey gives platform usage rates by age band for LINE, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, the standard free source for venue triage in Japan.", "card_text": "総務省 (MIC) media usage survey", "year": "", "source": "Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, government body", "link": "https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01iicp01_02000130.html" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "There is no CESA white paper any more. The CESA ゲーム白書 ran to 2023 and was replaced in 2024 by the CESA ゲーム産業レポート (Game Industry Report), out each December; the 2025 edition was released on 15 December 2025 at 55,000 yen. Anything that cites the white paper is citing a pre-2024 source.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "CESA industry research page, industry association", "link": "https://www.cesa.or.jp/action/industry-research/" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "How people play. Spend per head, session length, solo against social play and the device mix by age are not held: the profile counts players and the directory holds no consumer-survey rows for Japan.", "instead": "The user-survey chapters of the CESA report and the Famitsu white paper are behind the paywall. Japanese research houses publish free consumer surveys as PDFs; use the filetype:pdf technique on ゲーム 利用実態 調査 and treat each as that house's sample." }, { "gap": "What players think. No Japanese user-review or reader-review venue is held, and nothing here measures sentiment.", "instead": "For reaction to a launch use the Yahoo! Japan realtime and lang:ja techniques; for reviews open the store page or the outlet's own review section directly." }, { "gap": "Who spends. Payer demographics, the share of spend from heavy payers and gacha spend by age are not held. Publisher IR gives revenue without demographics.", "instead": "The Famitsu white paper's user survey is the paid source. Read any free figure on payers as one vendor's panel." }, { "gap": "Mobile revenue tracking is not tagged to Japan. Sensor Tower and AppMagic are Global rows, so a JP-filtered search does not return them.", "instead": "Search the Data group without a market filter. The Famitsu white paper's mobile chapter is Sensor Tower-supervised, which is one house's estimate, not a second one." }, { "gap": "Arcades and amusement. No source for arcade revenue is held.", "instead": "Sega Sammy and Bandai Namco report amusement segments in their IR, each on its own definition; the directory holds both IR rows." }, { "gap": "Video channels carry no market tag by design, so a JP-filtered search returns none.", "instead": "Search channels by language Japanese instead." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "54.75 million", "value": 54.75, "year": "2024", "direction": "down", "source": "一般社団法人コンピュータエンターテインメント協会 CESA, CESAゲーム産業レポート2025 (CESA Game Industry Report 2025)", "link": "https://www.cesa.or.jp/action/industry-research/2025/", "measure": "Game population", "definition": "The figure is the game population, ゲーム人口, stated as 5,475万人, against 5,553万人 the previous year, which CESA calls a slight decline, 微減. The platform split is 4,278万 mobile, 2,951万 home console and 1,452万 PC, which sum well above the total, so a person playing on more than one platform is counted in each. The page does not state the age range surveyed or the fieldwork method." } }, { "market": "CN", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not look for a Chinese world rank in the in-market source, because it states none. The 2025 China Game Industry Report summary presents domestic revenue and user figures without a ranking claim. A rank comes from an analyst outside China, on that analyst's basis.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "2025年中国游戏产业报告 summary as distributed by Xinhua, state news agency", "link": "https://www.news.cn/20251219/71b9f7db89c84eee968cddeeeb86baf1/c.html" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Domestic games market actual sales revenue is 350.789 billion yuan in 2025, up 7.68 percent, with a user base of 683 million, both record highs, per the 2025 China Game Industry Report.", "card_text": "~350.8 billion yuan", "year": "2025", "source": "CGIGC annual report via Xinhua, state news agency", "link": "https://www.news.cn/20251219/71b9f7db89c84eee968cddeeeb86baf1/c.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The 350.789 billion yuan is the committee's actual sales revenue, published before the year it describes had ended. The report calls the figure 实际销售收入, and the 2025 report was released on 19 December 2025 with the full-year 2025 figure; it does not say how the remaining days are counted. It is not a consumer-spend estimate from Newzoo or Niko and not a publisher's net revenue after channel fees, so name the basis with the number.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "2025 China Game Industry Report as distributed by Xinhua, 19 December 2025, state news agency", "link": "https://www.news.cn/20251219/71b9f7db89c84eee968cddeeeb86baf1/c.html" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Play is mobile dominated with a fast shifting periphery. Mobile takes 257.076 billion yuan of the 2025 domestic total, roughly 73 percent, client PC games take 78.16 billion yuan, console games take 8.362 billion yuan growing 86.33 percent in a third straight year of rapid growth, and web games decline for a tenth consecutive year.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "CGIGC annual report via 证券时报, securities daily", "link": "https://stcn.com/article/detail/3549442.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "China primarily makes what it plays and exports at scale. Self developed games earn 291.095 billion yuan domestically in 2025, up 11.64 percent, and 20.455 billion dollars overseas, up 10.23 percent, a sixth consecutive year above 100 billion yuan, with the United States, Japan and Korea taking over half of overseas revenue.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "CGIGC annual report via 蓝鲸新闻 on 东方财富, financial news service", "link": "https://finance.eastmoney.com/a/202512193596890238.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The internet base behind the market is 1.125 billion netizens at 80.1 percent penetration as of December 2025, with 573 million online game users, 50.9 percent of netizens, per the CNNIC 57th statistical report of 5 February 2026.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "CNNIC 第57次中国互联网络发展状况统计报告 (5 February 2026), state body", "link": "https://www.cnnic.cn/NMediaFile/2026/0304/MAIN1772588317069TUXN3827X8.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not add overseas revenue to the domestic market. The 20.455 billion dollars self-developed games earn overseas is reported separately from the 350.789 billion yuan domestic figure; a chart that folds a Chinese publisher's overseas earnings into the Chinese market is measuring Chinese companies, not Chinese players.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "CGIGC annual report via Xinhua, state news agency", "link": "https://www.news.cn/20251219/71b9f7db89c84eee968cddeeeb86baf1/c.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Mini-program games are their own line. The report gives 53.535 billion yuan for mini-program games beside 257.076 billion yuan for mobile games, and the summary does not say whether one sits inside the other, so do not add the two and do not read the mini-game growth as extra to mobile.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "CGIGC annual report via 证券时报, securities daily", "link": "https://stcn.com/article/detail/3549442.html" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Every online game requires prior approval and a publication number, the 版号 (banhao), from the National Press and Publication Administration before commercial release. Approvals are published in monthly public lists, domestic and imported games listed separately.", "card_text": "Every game needs a state licence (版号)", "year": "", "source": "国家新闻出版署 (NPPA) game approval results index, state regulator", "link": "https://www.nppa.gov.cn/bsfw/jggs/yxspjg/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Minors may be served online games only from 20:00 to 21:00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, one hour per day, and every game must connect to the national real name anti addiction verification system, under NPPA notice 国新出发〔2021〕14号, in force since 1 September 2021.", "card_text": "Minors: one hour, Fridays, weekends and holidays only", "year": "", "source": "国家新闻出版署 notice text on the State Council portal, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-09/01/content_5634661.htm" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Minor spending is capped by age band under the 2019 anti addiction notice, no paid services under age 8, single top ups capped at 50 yuan and monthly at 200 yuan for ages 8 to 15, and 100 yuan and 400 yuan for ages 16 and 17.", "card_text": "Minor spending capped by age band", "year": "", "source": "21世纪经济报道 compliance testing of 20 mobile games, business daily", "link": "https://www.21jingji.com/article/20250530/herald/ea775bca2c7ad3e6b9afcc47b3299cf1.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Cyberspace (未成年人网络保护条例), in force since 1 January 2024, prohibit providing game account rental and sale services to minors, with fines and suspension penalties for violations.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Xinhua reporting citing the regulation, state news agency", "link": "https://www.news.cn/gongyi/20250529/1e4c95ad52734f8b944a0d0662547809/c.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Foreign games reach the market through a separate imported game approval track with a domestic publishing unit of record on each approval, and imported approvals run far below domestic ones, 977 domestic against 98 imported in 2023.", "card_text": "Foreign games need a domestic publisher", "year": "", "source": "NPPA approval data via 证券时报, securities daily", "link": "https://www.stcn.com/article/detail/1073800.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Sensor Tower's China figures are App Store only. Google Play is not available in China and Sensor Tower's rankings exclude third-party Android stores, which its own charts label China (App Store only), so an iOS-derived China figure covers one store in a market where Android spend runs through domestic stores.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Sensor Tower blog, worldwide revenue ranking with its China footnote, September 2022, vendor publication", "link": "https://sensortower.com/blog/top-mobile-games-by-worldwide-revenue-august-2022" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The minors rules matter for compliance, not for the revenue model. Tencent says minors were 0.2 percent of its domestic game time in 2024, a record low, so read the play-hour and spending caps as regulatory exposure and enforcement cost rather than as a driver of revenue.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "Yicai report of Tencent Games' announcement, 24 February 2025, financial news outlet", "link": "https://www.yicai.com/brief/102484267.html" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Read every mainland Chinese source as operating under censorship. Independent games journalism in the sense used elsewhere in this directory does not exist in mainland China; all domestic media and platforms operate under government censorship requirements.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Freedom House, Freedom on the Net 2024 China report, US research NGO", "link": "https://freedomhouse.org/country/china/freedom-net/2024" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The authoritative market data layer is fused with the industry body and the state. The annual industry report is produced by CGIGC, a committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, launched at the industry annual conference and distributed by the state news agency Xinhua.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Xinhua distribution of the 2025 report, state news agency", "link": "https://www.news.cn/20251219/71b9f7db89c84eee968cddeeeb86baf1/c.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "A business to business trade media layer covers the market for practitioners. GameLook, an industry trade site, republishes official report texts in full alongside commercial and product coverage.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GameLook, industry trade media", "link": "https://www.gamelook.com.cn/2025/12/584413/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "An enthusiast and community layer serves consumer audiences, including 机核 (GCores), a games media and community site, and portal era sites such as 17173.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "机核 GCores article page, games media and community site", "link": "https://www.gcores.com/articles/141026" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The space that independent journalism occupies elsewhere is filled by industry service trade media, platform native channels, and official association publishing. This is an interpretation resting on the rows above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Freedom House country assessment plus the rows above", "link": "https://freedomhouse.org/country/china/freedom-net/2024" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not reach for the international platforms when researching Chinese games discourse. Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp and Telegram are blocked, Reddit since August 2018, all languages of Wikipedia since April 2019, and Google search since 2012.", "card_text": "Most international platforms are blocked", "year": "", "source": "Freedom House, Freedom on the Net 2024 China report, US research NGO", "link": "https://freedomhouse.org/country/china/freedom-net/2024" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Domestic platforms fill the space the blocks created. Freedom House attributes the growth of local products such as WeChat (微信) and Sina Weibo (新浪微博) directly to the long standing blocks on international platforms, and both operate under government censorship demands.", "card_text": "WeChat and Weibo fill the space", "year": "", "source": "Freedom House, Freedom on the Net 2024 China report, US research NGO", "link": "https://freedomhouse.org/country/china/freedom-net/2024" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Mini program games running inside super app ecosystems are a venue and a market at once, earning 53.535 billion yuan in 2025, up 34.39 percent.", "card_text": "Mini-program games, 53.5 billion yuan", "year": "", "source": "CGIGC annual report via 证券时报, securities daily", "link": "https://stcn.com/article/detail/3549442.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Disclose bilibili's dual role wherever you cite it as a venue. bilibili operates as a major video community and simultaneously holds game publication approvals as a licensed publisher, with both imported and domestic titles on 2025 approval lists.", "card_text": "bilibili, also a licensed publisher", "year": "", "source": "证券时报 coverage of August 2025 approval lists, securities daily", "link": "https://www.stcn.com/article/detail/3260312.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert the Chinese streaming and forum layer without verification. Huya, Douyu and Douyin live, and the forums NGA, TapTap and Baidu Tieba, are widely described as core games venues, but their current scale and games activity could not be verified to standard from outside the country.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "NPPA game approval lists. The regulator monthly public lists let a researcher confirm whether any game is licensed for the Chinese market, when it was approved, and which domestic publisher holds the approval, with domestic and imported tracks listed separately.", "card_text": "NPPA game approval lists", "year": "", "source": "国家新闻出版署 (NPPA), state regulator", "link": "https://www.nppa.gov.cn/bsfw/jggs/yxspjg/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "中国游戏产业报告 (China Game Industry Report). CGIGC annual gives domestic revenue, user scale, platform splits, self developed and overseas revenue, released each December with the headline summary free through state media and trade press.", "card_text": "中国游戏产业报告 (China Game Industry Report)", "year": "", "source": "CGIGC via Xinhua, state news agency", "link": "https://www.news.cn/20251219/71b9f7db89c84eee968cddeeeb86baf1/c.html" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "CNNIC 中国互联网络发展状况统计报告 (Statistical Report on Internet Development in China). The twice yearly state statistical report gives netizen scale, penetration, and user counts for major application categories including online games.", "card_text": "CNNIC 统计报告 (Internet Development Statistical Report)", "year": "", "source": "CNNIC, state body", "link": "https://www.cnnic.cn/6/86/88/index.html" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Tencent investor relations. Quarterly results and annual reports from the market largest publisher give games revenue split domestic and international, deferred revenue, and title level commentary, in English and Chinese.", "card_text": "Tencent investor relations", "year": "", "source": "Tencent Holdings, primary corporate disclosure, HKEX 700", "link": "https://www.tencent.com/en-us/investors/quarter-result.html" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "中国政府网 policy library (zhengce). Primary regulatory texts governing games, including the minors play time notice, are hosted in full in the central government policy database, the citation of record for any regulatory claim.", "card_text": "中国政府网 policy library", "year": "", "source": "中国政府网, State Council portal, primary legal texts", "link": "https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-09/01/content_5634661.htm" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Freedom House, Freedom on the Net, China report. The annual assessment documents which international platforms are blocked and how content control operates, the standard free reference for platform accessibility when planning China research.", "card_text": "Freedom House, Freedom on the Net", "year": "", "source": "Freedom House, US research NGO, annual", "link": "https://freedomhouse.org/country/china/freedom-net/2024" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Communities. One community row, Heybox, whose audience figures are the operator's own, and the forum and streaming layer named in the profile is unverified for scale.", "instead": "TapTap is held as a data row and store; treat any board or streaming figure as that platform's own claim." }, { "gap": "Android store data. No held source covers third-party Android stores or direct distribution, and Sensor Tower is App Store only.", "instead": "Niko Partners, held and paid, and Gamma Data, the report's own partner, are the routes beyond iOS; say which store set a mobile figure covers." }, { "gap": "Private publishers. The private giants file nothing, and the directory holds Tencent and NetEase investor relations only.", "instead": "Read any figure for a private Chinese publisher as an estimate, however precise it looks, and name whose." }, { "gap": "Approval history. The NPPA monthly lists are held; no note summarises the pauses between them.", "instead": "Count the gaps from the lists themselves rather than quoting a freeze from memory." }, { "gap": "Trade press. GameLook is cited in the profile and has no source row; the CN press rows are nine.", "instead": "Open it from the profile's press-structure row, and read the B2B trade layer as republishing official texts alongside its own coverage." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "683 million", "value": 683, "year": "2025", "direction": "up", "source": "中国音像与数字出版协会 China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, 2025年中国游戏产业报告 2025 China Game Industry Report", "link": "https://www.cadpa.org.cn/3277/202512/41770.html", "measure": "User base", "definition": "The figure is the game user base, 用户规模, stated as 6.83亿. The report does not define what counts as a user, over what period, or for what age range. It is a headline total published without a stated methodology." } }, { "market": "US", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not look for a US world rank in the industry body's data, because the ESA states none. Its 2026 Essential Facts report and its February 2026 spending release call video games the country's most popular form of entertainment and quantify spending, but neither ranks the US among markets. A rank comes from an analyst, on that analyst's basis.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ESA annual consumer spending release, industry association", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/2025-u-s-consumer-spending-on-video-games-nears-pandemic-level-peak-at-60-7-billion-second-highest-on-record/" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Consumer spending on video games in the United States totals 60.8 billion dollars in 2025, comprising 52.4 billion on content, 5.4 billion on hardware and 2.9 billion on accessories, per the ESA with Circana and Sensor Tower.", "card_text": "$60.8 billion", "year": "2025", "source": "ESA annual consumer spending release, industry association", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/2025-u-s-consumer-spending-on-video-games-nears-pandemic-level-peak-at-60-7-billion-second-highest-on-record/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The 60.8 billion dollar figure is consumer spend on one stated basis. The ESA compiles it from Circana and Sensor Tower: 52.4 billion of content, covering physical and digital full games, DLC and microtransactions and subscriptions across console, cloud, mobile, portable, PC and VR, with mobile at 26.7 billion from Sensor Tower, plus 5.4 billion of hardware and 2.9 billion of accessories. The release lists what is counted and advertising is not on the list, so a figure that includes mobile ad revenue is on a different basis.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "ESA annual consumer spending release, 11 February 2026, corrected March 2026, industry association", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/2025-u-s-consumer-spending-on-video-games-nears-pandemic-level-peak-at-60-7-billion-second-highest-on-record/" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "212.3 million Americans play video games every week in 2026, up 3 percent or 7.2 million year on year, with the gender split near even at 53 percent men and 46 percent women.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ESA 2026 Essential Facts report, industry association survey with YouGov", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/two-thirds-of-americans-play-video-games-every-week-according-tonew-report-from-the-entertainment-software-association/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The player base is middle aged and long tenured. The average player is 37 years old, 71 percent of millennials, 56 percent of Gen X and 50 percent of boomers play weekly, and play persists into late life with 32 percent of the Silent Generation, aged 81 to 90, playing weekly, per the ESA 2026 Essential Facts report, surveyed by YouGov among 13,545 people in February 2026.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "ESA 2026 Essential Facts report, industry association survey with YouGov, 3 June 2026", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/two-thirds-of-americans-play-video-games-every-week-according-tonew-report-from-the-entertainment-software-association/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Spending concentrates in content rather than devices. Content takes about 86 percent of 2025 consumer spending, subscription spending grows 20 percent in the year, and mobile is the most used platform with 82 percent of players age 8 and older playing on a mobile device.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ESA annual consumer spending release, industry association", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/2025-u-s-consumer-spending-on-video-games-nears-pandemic-level-peak-at-60-7-billion-second-highest-on-record/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Video games outpace American consumer spending on movies, television and music combined, per the ESA 2026 Essential Facts report.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ESA 2026 Essential Facts as reported by Game Developer, trade press", "link": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/total-consumer-spending-on-games-topped-60b-in-the-us-in-2025" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The player count is the industry association's own survey. 212.3 million Americans playing weekly comes from the ESA's 2026 Essential Facts with YouGov, and each edition is that year's survey rather than a series, so quote the edition with the count and use Pew's independent teen research as the check.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "ESA 2026 Essential Facts report, industry association survey with YouGov", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/two-thirds-of-americans-play-video-games-every-week-according-tonew-report-from-the-entertainment-software-association/" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "ESRB ratings are not law. Age ratings are self-regulatory: the ESRB is an industry-established body founded in 1994, and the Supreme Court held in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, 564 U.S. 786, decided 2011, that video games are protected speech under the First Amendment, striking down a state law restricting sales of violent games to minors. Enforcement runs through retailer and platform policy rather than law.", "card_text": "Age ratings are self-regulatory, not statutory", "year": "", "source": "Supreme Court opinion via Justia, primary legal text", "link": "https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/564/786/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Federal consumer protection enforcement reaches games through the FTC. Epic Games agreed in December 2022 to pay 520 million dollars, a 275 million dollar penalty for children privacy violations under COPPA and 245 million dollars in refunds for dark pattern billing in Fortnite, and by June 2025 the FTC has returned nearly 200 million dollars to players.", "card_text": "Federal enforcement runs through the FTC", "year": "", "source": "Federal Trade Commission press release, federal regulator", "link": "https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/06/ftc-sends-126-million-refunds-fortnite-players-who-were-charged-unwanted-items-reopens-claims" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Rules for minors are being made at state level and contested in federal court. Utah enacts the first App Store Accountability Act in March 2025 requiring app stores to verify ages and obtain parental consent, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama follow with California passing a variant, a federal court enjoins the Texas law on First Amendment grounds in December 2025, and Utah amends its law in 2026 to private enforcement only with key provisions delayed to May 2027.", "card_text": "Rules for minors are being made state by state", "year": "", "source": "Frankfurt Kurnit technology law analysis, law firm client alert", "link": "https://technologylaw.fkks.com/post/102mpap/utah-first-state-to-amend-its-app-store-accountability-act" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games media ownership has consolidated into a small set of owners. Fandom acquires GameSpot and Giant Bomb in 2022, Ziff Davis IGN Entertainment acquires the Gamer Network brands including Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, Rock Paper Shotgun and VG247 in 2024, and Valnet acquires Polygon in 2025.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Game Developer reporting on the Polygon sale, trade press", "link": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/polygon-sold-to-valnet-many-staff-laid-off" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Vox Media sells Polygon to Valnet on 1 May 2025 and the majority of its staff is laid off in the sale, including the co founder and editor in chief. Valnet is a Montreal company operating high volume aggregation sites including Screen Rant and Game Rant.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Kotaku reporting, games press", "link": "https://kotaku.com/polygon-sold-vox-media-valnet-layoffs-digital-gaming-1851778655" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Institutional homes for games journalism keep closing. The Washington Post shuts its games section Launcher and Vice shuts Waypoint in 2023, and GameStop, a games retailer, shuts Game Informer in August 2024 after 33 years before the brand is relaunched in 2025 under Gunzilla Games, a game developer.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Axios reporting on the Polygon sale with sector context, national news outlet", "link": "https://www.axios.com/2025/05/01/vox-media-polygon-sells" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Laid off journalists are rebuilding as owners. Aftermath launches in November 2023 as a worker owned subscription site founded by former Kotaku writers, and Fandom sells Giant Bomb to its own staff in May 2025, who run it as an independent subscriber backed operation.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Game Developer reporting on the Aftermath launch, trade press", "link": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/former-kotaku-staffers-launch-independent-game-and-culture-website-aftermath" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The defining pattern is ownership churn at the top and worker ownership at the edge. Legacy mastheads change hands repeatedly while subscriber funded journalist owned outlets absorb the displaced reporting capacity. This is an interpretation resting on the rows above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Game Developer and Kotaku reporting plus the rows above", "link": "https://kotaku.com/giant-bomb-fandom-dan-ryckert-jeff-grubb-gerstmann-1851778728" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not default to X for younger American players' games talk. Among US teens the most widely used platforms are YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, and use of Facebook and X sits far below its level of a decade ago.", "card_text": "YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram lead among teens", "year": "", "source": "Pew Research Center, Teens and Tech topic page, independent research organisation", "link": "https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/internet-technology/user-demographics/age-generations-tech/teens-tech/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Discord and Twitch function as the gaming community platforms for young players. Among teen gamers, 44 percent use Discord and 30 percent use Twitch, against 28 percent and 17 percent of all teens.", "card_text": "Discord and Twitch are the gaming-community platforms", "year": "", "source": "Pew Research Center, Teens and Video Games Today report, independent research organisation", "link": "https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/05/09/teens-and-video-games-today/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert that Reddit, YouTube creators and podcasts are the centre of adult US games conversation without evidence. They are widely treated as such, but no citable current source establishing their scale or share was found.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ESA Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry. The industry association free annual gives player counts, demographics, platform use and attitudes, the standard first stop for who plays in America.", "card_text": "ESA Essential Facts", "year": "", "source": "Entertainment Software Association, industry association annual", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/resources/essential-facts-about-the-us-video-game-industry/2025-data/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ESA annual consumer spending release. The February release each year gives the headline US spending total with content, hardware and accessories splits, compiled with Circana and Sensor Tower, free at the top line.", "card_text": "ESA annual spending release", "year": "", "source": "Entertainment Software Association with Circana and Sensor Tower, industry association release", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/2025-u-s-consumer-spending-on-video-games-nears-pandemic-level-peak-at-60-7-billion-second-highest-on-record/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Circana video games industry page. The vendor publishes free monthly top line US spending commentary, including monthly totals and hardware and software highlights, with the full dataset behind subscription.", "card_text": "Circana video games", "year": "", "source": "Circana, commercial data vendor, monthly", "link": "https://www.circana.com/industries/video-games" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ESRB ratings database. The self regulator free searchable database gives any rated game age category, content descriptors, interactive elements and rating summary, and confirms whether and how a title was rated for the US market.", "card_text": "ESRB ratings database", "year": "", "source": "Entertainment Software Rating Board, industry self regulatory body", "link": "https://www.esrb.org/search/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "FTC enforcement materials on games. The regulator case pages, refund trackers and press releases document federal action on games monetisation and children privacy, with the Epic Games matter as the anchor case.", "card_text": "FTC enforcement materials", "year": "", "source": "Federal Trade Commission, federal regulator", "link": "https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds/fortnite-refunds" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Pew Research Center teens and technology research. Free independent survey research on teen platform use and gaming habits, the corrective to industry funded demographics and the standard citation for youth venue triage.", "card_text": "Pew Research Center, teens and tech", "year": "", "source": "Pew Research Center, independent research organisation", "link": "https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/internet-technology/user-demographics/age-generations-tech/teens-tech/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Who spends. Payer demographics and the share of spend from heavy payers are not held; the ESA gives player counts and totals, not who pays.", "instead": "Publisher filings give revenue without demographics; read any free payer figure as one vendor's panel." }, { "gap": "Advertising revenue. The spending figure counts content, hardware and accessories, and no source held measures mobile ad revenue.", "instead": "Say the basis with every mobile figure: in-app purchases from Sensor Tower are not the same as a total that adds advertising." }, { "gap": "Independent adult play surveys. The player count is the industry association's; Pew's rows are the teen series.", "instead": "Quote the ESA count as the ESA's, with the edition, and use Pew for teens only." }, { "gap": "Communities. The community rows for the largest market are almost all subreddits, and the profile could not verify the centrality of creator channels and podcasts.", "instead": "Use the subreddit rows for player and parent sentiment, the official-Discord technique for a title, and confirm activity by recent post dates." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "212.3 million", "value": 212.3, "year": "2026", "direction": "up", "source": "Entertainment Software Association, 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry", "link": "https://www.theesa.com/two-thirds-of-americans-play-video-games-every-week-according-tonew-report-from-the-entertainment-software-association/", "measure": "Play games weekly", "definition": "The figure counts Americans aged 5 to 90 who play video games for one or more hours per week, which the ESA states is 67 percent of the US population. It comes from a survey of 13,545 respondents fielded 11 to 25 February 2026." } }, { "market": "MENA", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not size the Gulf or MENA games market from a free figure, because none meets this directory's standard. Regional revenue and player figures in circulation trace to paid vendor estimates or to promotional material produced by parties invested in the region's growth, and no free figure naming its methodology was found.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "State the border before quoting a MENA figure. Niko Partners models MENA-3, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, and other vendors draw the region differently, with or without Turkey, Iran and Israel; this profile's sourced claims cover Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Two MENA totals that differ by billions usually differ by border, not by measurement.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Niko Partners MENA market page, data vendor", "link": "https://nikopartners.com/middle-east-north-africa-games-market/" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The 23.5 million Saudi players is the strategy's own figure. Saudi Arabia, the largest national market in scope, stated a base of 23.5 million game enthusiasts, 67 percent of the population, at the launch of its National Gaming and Esports Strategy in September 2022, with no published definition of an enthusiast; ask players or payers before quoting it. No free revenue figure meeting sourcing standards exists for the market.", "card_text": "23.5m Saudi game enthusiasts", "year": "2022", "source": "Saudi National Gaming and Esports Strategy launch coverage, Sabq, Saudi news outlet", "link": "https://sabq.org/saudia/h2961a5bqy" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The defining structural layer is sovereign investment. Savvy Games Group, wholly owned by Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, completed its largest investment to date in July 2023, the 4.9 billion dollar acquisition of the mobile publisher Scopely.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Public Investment Fund newswire, sovereign primary disclosure", "link": "https://www.pif.gov.sa/en/news-and-insights/newswire/2023/savvy-games-group-completes-acquisition-of-scopely-for-fourty-nine-billion/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Savvy Games Group also carries an announced commitment of 38 billion dollars to games from September 2022 and owns ESL FACEIT Group, and Scopely acquired the Niantic games business including Pokemon GO in 2025.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Naavik analysis of the Savvy portfolio, specialist games analyst", "link": "https://naavik.co/digest/inside-saudi-arabias-38-billion-gaming-empire/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The state has a published national plan for the sector. Saudi Arabia National Gaming and Esports Strategy, launched September 2022, targets 250 games companies, 39,000 jobs, a GDP contribution above 50 billion riyals, and more than 30 locally made games in the global top 300, all by 2030.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Government of Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030 strategy page, state primary source", "link": "https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/explore/strategies/national-gaming-and-esports-strategy" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The demographic base is young. Saudi citizens under 35 comprise 69.4 percent of the Saudi population per 2024 data from the General Authority for Statistics, and the 2022 census puts the national median age at 29.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GASTAT via Saudi Press Agency, state statistics agency", "link": "https://www.spa.gov.sa/en/N2377439" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The region is primarily a buyer and investor rather than a producer. Domestic development capacity is an explicit build objective of the Saudi strategy rather than an existing base. The buyer and investor characterisation is an interpretation resting on the strategy targets and holdings sourced above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Naavik analysis of the Savvy portfolio, specialist games analyst", "link": "https://naavik.co/digest/inside-saudi-arabias-38-billion-gaming-empire/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not read sovereign investment as domestic market size. Savvy Games Group's 38 billion dollar commitment and its purchases, Scopely for 4.9 billion dollars and ESL FACEIT Group, are outbound investment by the Public Investment Fund, and no free figure sizes Saudi domestic consumer spend to standard; the investment vehicle is tens of billions and the consumption market is not.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "PIF corporate newswire, sovereign fund press releases, primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://www.pif.gov.sa/en/news-and-insights/press-releases/" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Game age classification in Saudi Arabia is statutory and regulator operated. The General Commission for Audiovisual Media (الهيئة العامة للإعلام المرئي والمسموع, GCAM) runs a mandatory age classification system for games in force since 15 August 2016, and the classification service is carried on the national government services portal.", "card_text": "Saudi ratings are statutory (GCAM)", "year": "", "source": "Saudi national services portal, government primary source", "link": "https://my.gov.sa/ar/services/688992" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The United Arab Emirates operates a separate statutory classification system. Age classification covering video games is binding since February 2018, introduced by the National Media Council, with games classified into age groups 3, 7, 12, 16, 18 and 21.", "card_text": "UAE ratings are statutory", "year": "", "source": "UAE National Media Council announcement, government primary source", "link": "https://nmc.gov.ae/en-us/Media-Center/Events/Pages/Age-Classification-System.aspx" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "There is no single Gulf-wide games rating scheme. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates each run their own regulator-operated binding classification, and no operating GCC-wide games rating scheme was verified, so a rating in one is not a rating in the other.", "card_text": "No GCC-wide rating scheme", "year": "", "source": "Saudi and UAE regulator sources cited in the rows above, government primary sources", "link": "https://my.gov.sa/ar/services/688992" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Government entities operate the region flagship events directly. The Esports World Cup in Riyadh carries a prize pool above 70 million dollars in 2025 across 25 tournaments, is funded by a grant from the Public Investment Fund, and is operated through ESL FACEIT Group with the Saudi Esports Federation chairing the event.", "card_text": "The state runs the flagship events", "year": "", "source": "Esports World Cup Foundation press release, event operator", "link": "https://esportsworldcup.com/en/news/ewc-2025-kicks-off-in-riyadh-with-70-million-prize-pool-international-superstars-and-global-broadcast" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Regulation here moves in both directions, so date every regulatory claim. The General Commission for Audiovisual Media announced a ban on 47 games in July 2018, the cause reported at the time disputed by people in the regional industry, and the same commission now runs the statutory age classification while the state funds the Esports World Cup; anything older than a couple of years on Gulf games regulation needs checking.", "card_text": "", "year": "2018", "source": "Game Developer report of the GCAM announcement, July 2018, trade press", "link": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/saudi-arabia-appears-to-ban-47-video-games-after-deaths-of-children" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Treat glossy English-language coverage of the Gulf games market as promotional until its funding is checked. A meaningful share of it is paid or partner content produced for state entities, including sponsored editorial hubs for the Public Investment Fund carried on international business media.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Bloomberg sponsored content hub for PIF, paid partner content", "link": "https://sponsored.bloomberg.com/quicksight/pif/how-pif-is-supercharging-the-new-golden-age-of-gaming" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Sustained analytical coverage of the Gulf games sector is produced largely from outside the region, by international esports trade press and games industry analysts.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "The Esports Advocate coverage of Gulf esports funding, trade press", "link": "https://esportsadvocate.net/2025/04/esports-world-cup-to-feature-70-million-total-prize-pool/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not characterise the Arabic-language games press without verification. Long-running Arabic games sites exist, including سعودي جيمر (Saudi Gamer) and ترو جيمنج (True Gaming), and both show recent output, but their scale, ownership and funding could not be verified from citable sources.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Saudi Arabia is a platform saturated venue environment. Social media ad audiences approach the total population in early 2025, YouTube ad audience is 27.2 million, about four fifths of the population, and social media user identities skew 61.3 percent male.", "card_text": "Near-total platform saturation in Saudi Arabia", "year": "", "source": "DataReportal Digital 2025 Saudi Arabia, research compilation with published methodology", "link": "https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-saudi-arabia" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert a games venue hierarchy for the Gulf. Which platforms carry Arabic-language games discourse, and the balance between Arabic and English in it, could not be established from citable sources.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "PIF corporate newswire. The sovereign fund own press releases are the primary record of Savvy Games Group deals and games commitments, the source of record for what has actually been announced.", "card_text": "PIF newswire", "year": "", "source": "Public Investment Fund, sovereign primary disclosure", "link": "https://www.pif.gov.sa/en/news-and-insights/newswire/2023/savvy-games-group-completes-acquisition-of-scopely-for-fourty-nine-billion/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Vision 2030 strategy library, National Gaming and Esports Strategy page. The official statement of Saudi Arabia sector targets, the reference for what the state has committed to build and by when.", "card_text": "Vision 2030 strategy library", "year": "", "source": "Government of Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030 portal, state primary source", "link": "https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/explore/strategies/national-gaming-and-esports-strategy" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "GASTAT, the Saudi General Authority for Statistics. Census, population and youth statistics for the region largest market, including the age structure behind every demographic claim about Saudi players.", "card_text": "GASTAT, Saudi statistics authority", "year": "", "source": "General Authority for Statistics, state statistics agency", "link": "https://www.stats.gov.sa/documents/d/guest/saudi-youth-statistics-en-pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Saudi game classification service. The government services entry for GCAM game age classification lets a researcher confirm the statutory rating regime and its administering regulator for Saudi Arabia.", "card_text": "Saudi game classification service", "year": "", "source": "Saudi national services portal, government primary source", "link": "https://my.gov.sa/ar/services/688992" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Esports World Cup Foundation press room. The operator releases give official prize pools, formats, participating clubs and titles for the region flagship event, with self reported audience figures that require independent treatment.", "card_text": "Esports World Cup press room", "year": "", "source": "Esports World Cup Foundation, state affiliated event operator", "link": "https://esportsworldcup.com/en/press-releases/ewc-2025-prizepool" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "DataReportal country reports for Gulf states. Free annual compilations of internet and platform ad audience data with published methodology, the least interested source available for venue planning in this region.", "card_text": "DataReportal Gulf country reports", "year": "", "source": "DataReportal, Kepios with We Are Social, research compilation, annual", "link": "https://datareportal.com/digital-in-saudi-arabia" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Egypt, the Levant and the Maghreb. The profile's sourced claims cover Saudi Arabia and the UAE; the rest of the region has community rows and no claims.", "instead": "Use Niko's MENA-3 framing for Egypt with its basis named, and say the profile does not reach the Levant or North Africa." }, { "gap": "Market size. No free figure is held; the two data rows are Niko Partners, paid, and Power League Gaming.", "instead": "Quote a MENA figure only with its vendor, its border and its year, and treat a free number as promotional until its method is found." }, { "gap": "Arabic-language discourse. The Arabic press rows are unverified for scale, no Arabic channels, podcasts or newsletters are held as MENA rows, and the venue hierarchy could not be established.", "instead": "Search channels by language Arabic; read DataReportal's platform audiences from the profile card as reach, not games use." }, { "gap": "Turkey, Iran and Israel. Turkey is its own market tag here and Iran and Israel are not tagged, so a vendor's MENA that includes any of them will not match this profile.", "instead": "State the border with every figure and check which countries the vendor folds in." } ] }, { "market": "UK", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The sixth largest games market in the world by game revenue in 2023, according to a business case report prepared by Nordicity for Ukie, published 2025.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Nordicity report commissioned by Ukie, trade body commissioned research", "link": "https://cms.ukie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/VGEC-Business-Case-Nordicity-Final-Report-to-Ukie.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The world rank is a trade body's. Sixth largest by game revenue comes from a Nordicity report commissioned by Ukie, for 2023, published in 2025; quote it as Ukie's, with the year, and do not set it beside another ranker's table.", "card_text": "", "year": "2023", "source": "Nordicity report commissioned by Ukie, trade body commissioned research", "link": "https://cms.ukie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/VGEC-Business-Case-Nordicity-Final-Report-to-Ukie.pdf" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "UK consumers spent 8.76 billion pounds on video games in 2025, up 7.4 percent year on year, per Ukie annual Consumer Games Market Valuation released in April 2026.", "card_text": "£8.76 billion", "year": "2025", "source": "Ukie market valuation announcement, trade body annual", "link": "https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-video-games-market-reaches-8-76-billion-growing-7-4-in-2025/" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Spending in 2025 splits into 6.03 billion pounds of software, up 7 percent, 2.17 billion pounds of hardware, up 3 percent, and 566 million pounds of game culture, up 42 percent, with digital console at 2.49 billion pounds, mobile at 2.07 billion pounds and digital PC at 1.15 billion pounds.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Ukie market valuation announcement, trade body annual", "link": "https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-video-games-market-reaches-8-76-billion-growing-7-4-in-2025/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The development workforce reached 25,419 full time equivalents in 2024, up 4.8 percent year on year.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "TIGA data cited in the Nordicity report for Ukie, trade body sourced research", "link": "https://cms.ukie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/VGEC-Business-Case-Nordicity-Final-Report-to-Ukie.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The wider sector supports over 73,000 jobs and contributes 6 billion pounds in gross value added annually, and has more than doubled in size over the last decade.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Ukie market valuation announcement, trade body annual", "link": "https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-video-games-market-reaches-8-76-billion-growing-7-4-in-2025/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not characterise the ownership of the UK development base. Whether the largest UK studios are domestically or foreign owned could not be verified from a reliable single source.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The Ukie headline is not software spend. Of the 8.76 billion pounds for 2025, software is 6.03 billion, hardware 2.17 billion and the game culture line 566 million. Quote the software line when you mean games and the total when you mean the valuation.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Ukie market valuation announcement, trade body annual", "link": "https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-video-games-market-reaches-8-76-billion-growing-7-4-in-2025/" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Age classification has statutory force. Since 30 July 2012, video games suitable only for those aged 12 and over require statutory classification before UK supply, under provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2010 brought into force with the Video Recordings (Labelling) Regulations 2012, making it an offence to supply against the labelling regime.", "card_text": "Age ratings have statutory force", "year": "", "source": "Explanatory memorandum to SI 2012/1767, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1767/pdfs/uksiem_20121767_en.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The Games Rating Authority, formerly the Video Standards Council, is the statutory body that rates video games in the UK using the PEGI system.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Games Rating Authority official site, statutory classification body", "link": "https://gamesratingauthority.org.uk/RatingBoard/about" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games development carries a statutory tax credit. The Video Games Expenditure Credit applies to expenditure from 1 January 2024 at a 34 percent rate, replacing Video Games Tax Relief, and qualification requires certification as British through the cultural test administered by the BFI.", "card_text": "34% tax credit for British-certified games", "year": "", "source": "BFI expenditure credits guidance, arm length public body administrator", "link": "https://www.bfi.org.uk/apply-british-certification-expenditure-credits/about-uk-creative-industry-expenditure-credits" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Loot boxes are not regulated by law in the UK. The government's July 2022 response to its call for evidence found an association between loot boxes and harms, declined to legislate, and set an industry-led approach with a technical working group convened by DCMS, holding legislation in reserve.", "card_text": "Loot boxes are not regulated in law", "year": "", "source": "UK government response, primary policy document", "link": "https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/loot-boxes-in-video-games-call-for-evidence/outcome/government-response-to-the-call-for-evidence-on-loot-boxes-in-video-games" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The industry answer to the loot box decision is a published code. Ukie issued 11 industry principles on loot boxes in July 2023, developed by the DCMS convened technical working group, covering parental consent expectations, spending controls and transparency.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Ukie principles announcement, trade body", "link": "https://ukie.org.uk/news/new-loot-box-principles-agreed-by-industry" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The rater changed its name. The Video Standards Council became the Games Rating Authority on 2 June 2023, so a source naming the VSC Rating Board is describing the same statutory body under its old name. Its statutory role covers boxed games; digital storefronts use IARC.", "card_text": "", "year": "2023", "source": "VSC announcement of the renaming, via Games Press, industry press-release wire", "link": "https://www.gamespress.com/VSC-RENAMED-AS-GAMES-RATING-AUTHORITY" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The UK legacy specialist publishing stable changed hands to an American buyer. IGN Entertainment acquired Gamer Network, whose brands include Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, Rock Paper Shotgun and VG247, from ReedPop in 2024, and the period since has included multiple rounds of redundancies and the departure of key editorial staff.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "The Game Business reporting, specialist trade outlet", "link": "https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/digital-foundry-leaves-ign" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Digital Foundry, the technical analysis brand part owned by IGN through the Gamer Network acquisition, bought its way to full independence in August 2025, with its owner citing the volatile games media landscape and a belief in independent specialists.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "The Game Business reporting, specialist trade outlet", "link": "https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/digital-foundry-leaves-ign" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The largest remaining UK owned games media brands sit inside one listed company. PC Gamer, Edge and GamesRadar+ are Future brands, and Future is listed on the London Stock Exchange.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Future plc corporate site, primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://futureplc.com/about/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "A subscriber funded independent trade layer has formed around displaced senior journalists. The Game Business is an independent outlet covering the business of games founded by Christopher Dring, previously head of GamesIndustry.biz.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "The Game Business, the outlet own reporting with author disclosure", "link": "https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/digital-foundry-leaves-ign-and-guitar" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The UK pattern is absorption of the legacy stable by an overseas consolidator, one large domestic listed owner holding the remaining major brands, and senior veterans rebuilding as independents. This is an interpretation resting on the rows above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "The Game Business reporting plus the rows above, specialist trade outlet", "link": "https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/digital-foundry-leaves-ign" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The audience base for venue planning is broad. Ofcom research found 60 percent of UK adults, and 88 percent of those aged 16 to 24, played games on an electronic device in 2021.", "card_text": "60% of UK adults play (Ofcom, 2021)", "year": "", "source": "Ofcom research as cited in the DCMS government response, government document", "link": "https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/loot-boxes-in-video-games-call-for-evidence/outcome/government-response-to-the-call-for-evidence-on-loot-boxes-in-video-games" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert a UK venue hierarchy. Which platforms carry UK games conversation, and in what proportion, could not be established from a citable UK-specific source.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Ukie Consumer Games Market Valuation. The trade body annual valuation gives total UK consumer spend with software, hardware and game culture splits, released free each spring, the standard headline sizing for the UK market.", "card_text": "Ukie market valuation", "year": "", "source": "Ukie, trade body annual", "link": "https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-video-games-market-reaches-8-76-billion-growing-7-4-in-2025/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Ukiepedia. The trade body open wiki of UK industry statistics collects valuation history, headline industry facts and global market context in one navigable place, with revision methodology stated.", "card_text": "Ukiepedia", "year": "", "source": "Ukie, trade body reference wiki", "link": "https://ukiepedia.ukie.org.uk/index.php/Ukie_UK_Consumer_Games_Market_Valuation" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Games Rating Authority ratings search. The statutory classifier searchable database confirms any game UK age rating and content information, and carries annual reports on classification activity.", "card_text": "Games Rating Authority ratings search", "year": "", "source": "Games Rating Authority, statutory classification body", "link": "https://gamesratingauthority.org.uk/RatingBoard/games" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "BFI certification and expenditure credit guidance. The administrator pages give the rules, rates and cultural test criteria for the Video Games Expenditure Credit, the reference for how UK games production is subsidised.", "card_text": "BFI certification guidance", "year": "", "source": "British Film Institute, arm length public body", "link": "https://www.bfi.org.uk/apply-british-certification-expenditure-credits" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "DCMS Economic Estimates. Accredited official statistics on gross value added for DCMS sectors, including computer games subsector estimates, the independent government check on trade body economic claims.", "card_text": "DCMS Economic Estimates", "year": "", "source": "Department for Culture, Media and Sport, accredited official statistics", "link": "https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dcms-economic-estimates-gva-2024-provisional" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "legislation.gov.uk. The official statute database holds the primary texts of the games classification regime and every other UK law a games researcher needs to cite, the citation of record over any summary.", "card_text": "legislation.gov.uk", "year": "", "source": "The National Archives, official legislation database", "link": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1767/pdfs/uksiem_20121767_en.pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The weekly UK chart is not the UK market. GSD, run by Sparkers, covers physical sales plus the digital sales of participating publishers, and Nintendo does not participate in digital, so Switch digital is a hole; mobile is outside the chart altogether.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Sparkers GSD, per the directory's Sparkers row, data vendor", "link": "https://www.sparkers.com/" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Communities. No UK community row is held, and the profile could not establish which platforms carry UK games conversation.", "instead": "Use the games-specific subreddit and official-Discord techniques; the UK's English-language discourse mixes with the US's, so a venue found is rarely UK-only." }, { "gap": "Current play participation. The profile's 60 percent of adults is Ofcom's 2021 figure, and no later UK play figure is held.", "instead": "Ofcom's Online Nation and children's media series are the rows to check for a newer edition; quote the year with the figure." }, { "gap": "Workforce reconciliation. Headcount comes from TIGA, Ukie's census and DCMS on three definitions, and no reconciliation is held.", "instead": "Cite one series with its definition and year, and record the spread between them as a finding rather than an error." }, { "gap": "Boxed retail chart. The weekly physical chart is not held as a row; the directory's UK sales data is GSD via Sparkers and Ampere.", "instead": "Treat the trade-press weekly chart as GSD's, with its participating-publisher digital coverage, and say so." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "38 million", "value": 38, "year": "2025", "direction": "", "source": "Statista", "link": "", "measure": "Population", "definition": "38 million is a rough estimate derived from Statista, a paid data aggregator. No UK body publishes a player headcount on a stated method. Ofcom last measured participation in 2021, at 60 percent of adults aged 16 and over, and gives no headcount. Ukie publishes the consumer market value rather than player numbers." } }, { "market": "FR", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not look for a French world rank in the trade body's data, because SELL states none. It describes video games as the country's first cultural and creative industry by revenue, a standing among French cultural industries rather than a rank among games markets. A rank comes from an analyst, on that analyst's basis.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "SELL market results as reported by AFJV, trade press", "link": "https://afjv.com/news/11956_chiffres-marche-francais-jeux-video-sell.htm" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The French games market reaches 5.856 billion euros in 2025, up 2.9 percent year on year and its second highest level on record, per SELL annual market report.", "card_text": "€5.856 billion", "year": "2025", "source": "SELL market results as reported by AFJV, trade press", "link": "https://afjv.com/news/11956_chiffres-marche-francais-jeux-video-sell.htm" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The 5.856 billion euros is the publishers' body's assembly from named panels. SELL uses GSD for physical sales, GSD and Ipsos GameTrack for digital, Sensor Tower and GameTrack for mobile and IDC for hardware. In 2025 a GameTrack methodology change moved the perimeter of on-demand services, MMO subscriptions, free-to-play MMO, social and browser games and subscriptions, and 2024 hardware history was revised, so take earlier years from the April 2026 edition rather than from an older one.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "SELL, L'Essentiel du Jeu Video, Bilan du marche francais 2025, April 2026, trade body publication", "link": "https://www.sell.fr/sites/default/files/essentiel-jeu-video/ejv_avril_2026_final_.pdf" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Consumer spending splits across three ecosystems in 2025. Console leads with 44 percent of the market at 2.552 billion euros, mobile takes 30 percent at 1.792 billion euros growing 11 percent, and PC gaming holds 26 percent at 1.512 billion euros.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "SELL market results as reported by AFJV, trade press", "link": "https://afjv.com/news/11956_chiffres-marche-francais-jeux-video-sell.htm" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "40.2 million French people play video games in 2025, more than seven in ten, with adults making up 88 percent of players, an average age of 40, and a near even split of 51 percent men and 49 percent women.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "SELL and Mediametrie, Les Francais et le Jeu Video 2025, as reported by AFJV, trade press", "link": "https://afjv.com/news/11790_etude-mediametrie-sell-francais-jeux-video-2025.htm" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Play is regular rather than occasional. 76 percent of players play at least weekly in 2025, and regular players average 7 hours 55 minutes per week, 38 minutes more than in 2024.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "SELL and Mediametrie study as reported by ConsoleFun, games site", "link": "https://www.consolefun.fr/actualites/detail/33726/24-09-2025-les-fran-ccedil-ais-jeu-vid-eacute-millions-joueurs-2025-par-sell" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The development sector is surveyed annually on a verified base. The SNJV 2024 barometer covers 575 verified development companies, and reports women at 20 percent of studio staff, down four points from 2022, and 14.2 percent of leadership roles.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "SNJV Barometre annuel du jeu video 2024, trade body sector census", "link": "https://veille-travail.anact.fr/osiros/result/notice.php?queryosiros=id%3A103475" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The player count is the publishers' body's own study. 40.2 million players comes from the SELL and Mediametrie survey of 4,001 people aged 10 to 80, run online from 19 June to 13 July 2025; quote it as SELL's with Mediametrie, with the year, and do not set it beside another country's count, which will define a player differently.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "SELL and Mediametrie, Les Francais et le Jeu Video 2025, as printed in the April 2026 Bilan, trade body survey", "link": "https://www.sell.fr/sites/default/files/essentiel-jeu-video/ejv_avril_2026_final_.pdf" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games production carries a cultural tax credit. The credit d impot jeu video covers 30 percent of eligible production spending, capped at 6 million euros per company per financial year, with eligibility resting on a cultural scale called the bareme Contribution au developpement de la creation.", "card_text": "30% production tax credit", "year": "", "source": "Ministry of the Economy guidance, government primary source", "link": "https://www.economie.gouv.fr/entreprises/credit-impot-jeux-video" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The credit is gated by the CNC. A provisional agrement is granted by the Centre national du cinema et de l image animee after selection by an expert committee, and a definitive agrement after completion confirms the game met the required conditions.", "card_text": "The film institution gates games funding", "year": "", "source": "Centre national du cinema et de l image animee, public cultural agency", "link": "https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/aides-et-financements/jeu-video/credit-dimpot-jeu-video_121078" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The official French games terminology binds officials, not you. Terms published through the language enrichment process, including jeu video de competition for e-sport and joueur-animateur en direct for streamer, are required of government bodies and officials, not of the public, the press or companies, so their force is narrower than commonly reported.", "card_text": "Official games terminology binds the state only", "year": "", "source": "BBC reporting on the official terminology, international news outlet", "link": "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology-61647192" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "France runs a live experiment regulating web3 games. Articles 40 and 41 of law 2024-449 of 21 May 2024, the loi SREN, create a three year experimental framework for jeux a objets numeriques monetisables (JONUM, games with monetisable digital objects), regulated by the Autorite nationale des jeux, with the implementing decree in force since 7 February 2026.", "card_text": "JONUM, a three year web3 games experiment", "year": "", "source": "Autorite nationale des jeux, regulator JONUM page, state authority", "link": "https://anj.fr/jeux-objets-numeriques-monetisables-jonum" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Physical game sales hold up better in France than in neighbouring markets. Physical console game sales fell 12 percent in 2025, or 4 percent counting games bundled with consoles, and SELL attributes the resilience to a strong and unique retail network and a durable consumer attachment to physical media.", "card_text": "Physical retail is unusually resilient", "year": "", "source": "SELL market results as reported by AFJV, trade press", "link": "https://afjv.com/news/11956_chiffres-marche-francais-jeux-video-sell.htm" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "PEGI is not voluntary in France. Homologated by the Ministry of the Interior since 2015, the PEGI classification is required for any game distributed in France, and PEGI in France is administered by SELL's delegue general, so the publishers' body runs the rating it reports on.", "card_text": "", "year": "2015", "source": "AFJV report on PEGI classification in France, 10 December 2018, trade press", "link": "https://afjv.com/news/9412_pegi-dans-les-coulisses-de-la-classification-des-jeux-video.htm" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The consumer games media market is led by Webedia through jeuxvideo.com, with Reworld Media building the number two position through serial acquisitions including the Melty gaming brands, Eclypsia, JeuVideo-Live and the Unify portfolio.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "AFP reporting via Frenchweb, business news outlet", "link": "https://www.frenchweb.fr/la-redaction-de-gamekult-annonce-son-depart-apres-le-rachat-par-reworld-media/437002" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The scale of the leading group is measured independently. Webedia properties reach 28.6 million monthly unique visitors in France in May 2025, per Mediametrie internet audience ranking.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Mediametrie audience data as reported by La Reclame, advertising trade press", "link": "https://lareclame.fr/mediametrie-etudemai2025-318196" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The defining press event is a newsroom exodus. TF1 sold its Unify digital division including Gamekult to Reworld Media in 2022, and nearly the entire Gamekult editorial team resigned in November 2022 through the clause de cession, citing a hostile context for press independence.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Jeuxvideo.com news reporting, games press", "link": "https://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/1671977/la-redaction-de-gamekult-demissionne-une-reflexion-que-l-on-conduit-depuis-plusieurs-mois.htm" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not characterise the independent French games press. Whether a significant independent or subscriber-funded layer remains at scale, around titles such as Canard PC, could not be verified from citable sources.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The French pattern is concentration under two horizontal digital media groups, with newsroom exodus as the recurring response. This is an interpretation resting on the ownership rows above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "AFP reporting via Frenchweb plus the rows above, business news outlet", "link": "https://www.frenchweb.fr/la-redaction-de-gamekult-annonce-son-depart-apres-le-rachat-par-reworld-media/437002" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Play runs through a smartphone and console pairing. Players combine 2.2 platforms on average in 2025, with the smartphone used by 59 percent of players and the console by 58 percent, and the console used by three quarters of players aged 10 to 30.", "card_text": "Smartphone and console, 2.2 platforms per player", "year": "", "source": "SELL and Mediametrie study as reported by AFJV, trade press", "link": "https://afjv.com/news/11790_etude-mediametrie-sell-francais-jeux-video-2025.htm" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Live streaming reaches mass audience scale in France. Mediametrie annual internet review records a Twitch peak of 2.5 million unique visitors on 5 October 2025 during GP Explorer, an event organised by the content creator Squeezie.", "card_text": "Twitch peaked at 2.5m visitors (Médiamétrie, 2025)", "year": "", "source": "Mediametrie, The Internet Year 2025, audience measurement body", "link": "https://www.mediametrie.fr/en/internet-year-2025" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert a French venue hierarchy. The relative weight of YouTube games content, Discord, jeuxvideo.com forums and other spaces could not be sourced: the SELL and Mediametrie 2025 study covers play practice, devices and motivations but publishes no venue shares, and Mediametrie's Internet Year 2025 ranks sites and groups without splitting games conversation by platform.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Sources checked and found not to contain the needed data, documented gap", "link": "" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "SELL, L Essentiel du Jeu Video. The trade body twice yearly publication gives market sizing with named data panels in spring and the player study in autumn, free, the standard reference for the French consumer market.", "card_text": "SELL, L'Essentiel du Jeu Vidéo", "year": "", "source": "SELL, trade body publication series", "link": "https://www.sell.fr/news/le-bilan-marche-2025" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Les Francais et le Jeu Video, SELL with Mediametrie. The annual player study gives player counts, demographics, devices, frequency and spending with a documented representative methodology, the reference for who plays in France.", "card_text": "Les Français et le Jeu Vidéo", "year": "", "source": "SELL and Mediametrie, annual survey publication", "link": "https://www.sell.fr/sites/default/files/essentiel-jeu-video/ejv_septembre_2025_vdefpdf_0.pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "SNJV sector publications. The development trade body publishes the annual Barometre du jeu video, a census of French development companies, and monthly employment data, the production side complement to SELL consumer data.", "card_text": "SNJV sector publications", "year": "", "source": "SNJV, trade body sector census and employment series", "link": "https://www.snjv.org/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "CNC games funding pages. The public cultural agency pages give the rules and process for the credit d impot jeu video and its selective games aid, the reference for how French games production is publicly financed.", "card_text": "CNC games funding", "year": "", "source": "Centre national du cinema et de l image animee, public cultural agency", "link": "https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/aides-et-financements/jeu-video/credit-dimpot-jeu-video_121078" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ANJ JONUM pages. The gambling regulator pages carry the legal framework, decrees and the list of declared operators for the experimental web3 games regime, the primary record of the fastest moving regulation in this market.", "card_text": "ANJ JONUM pages", "year": "", "source": "Autorite nationale des jeux, state regulator", "link": "https://anj.fr/jeux-objets-numeriques-monetisables-jonum" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Mediametrie internet audience publications. The audience measurement body free releases give monthly and annual internet audience for France at site and group level with documented methodology, the independent check on any French platform or media scale claim.", "card_text": "Médiamétrie internet audience", "year": "", "source": "Mediametrie, audience measurement body", "link": "https://www.mediametrie.fr/en/internet-year-2025" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Media. No French video channels, podcasts or newsletters are held as FR rows.", "instead": "Channels are found by language French rather than by market; podcasts and newsletters are not held at all." }, { "gap": "Mobile publishers. The French mobile publishing layer, hypercasual and browser-era publishers included, has no rows.", "instead": "Publisher filings for the listed ones and the Global Sensor Tower rows are the route; say the directory does not hold the layer." }, { "gap": "Streaming and esports. The profile carries Twitch's French peak from Mediametrie but no French streamer, esports organisation or event rows.", "instead": "Treat the Mediametrie figure as the only sourced scale here, and open an organisation's own site for anything else." }, { "gap": "Communities and people. One community row, r/jeuxvideo, and one people row for the whole market, and the profile could not rank venues.", "instead": "Use the games-specific subreddit technique and the outlets' own forums; treat any venue share as unsourced." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "40.2 million", "value": 40.2, "year": "2025", "direction": "", "source": "SELL and Médiamétrie, L'Essentiel du Jeu Vidéo, April 2026", "link": "https://www.sell.fr/sites/default/files/essentiel-jeu-video/ejv_avril_2026_final_.pdf", "measure": "Played in past 12 months", "definition": "The figure counts people in France aged 10 to 80 who played a video game at least once in the year. SELL states 76 percent of them play at least weekly and 24 percent play occasionally. The data comes from Médiamétrie, an online survey of 4,001 individuals representative of the French population aged 10 to 80, with fieldwork from 19 June to 13 July 2025." } }, { "market": "IT", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not look for an Italian world rank in the trade body's data, because IIDEA states none. Its annual report describes video games as among the most loved entertainment forms of Italians and presents domestic figures without ranking Italy among games markets. A rank comes from an analyst, on that analyst's basis.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-nel-2024-consumi-per-quasi-24-miliardi-di-euro-e-14-milioni-di-appassionati-cresce-il-made-in-italy-con-un-25-di-imprese-17-di-occupati-e-36-di-fatturato/" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Italian consumer spending on video games is about 2.4 billion euros in 2025, down 1 percent year on year, per IIDEA's annual report I videogiochi in Italia nel 2025, produced by Ipsos for the association and presented at the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy in Rome on 13 May 2026. The 2024 edition had put it at nearly 2.4 billion, up 3 percent.", "card_text": "~2.4 billion euros", "year": "2025", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, 13 May 2026, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-in-italia-mercato-stabile-a-24-miliardi-cresce-il-tempo-di-gioco-digitale-e-abbonamenti-in-espansione-fisico-ancora-rilevante/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The Italian market figure is the trade body's research, run by Ipsos. IIDEA commissions its annual I videogiochi in Italia from Ipsos and presents it at a ministry each spring; quote it as IIDEA's with Ipsos, with the year, and do not set its 2.4 billion euros beside a vendor's Italy estimate without naming both bases.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, 13 May 2026, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-in-italia-mercato-stabile-a-24-miliardi-cresce-il-tempo-di-gioco-digitale-e-abbonamenti-in-espansione-fisico-ancora-rilevante/" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Spending concentrates in software. Software is about 1.8 billion euros in 2025, down 1 percent and 77 percent of the total; smartphone games take 929 million euros, and among console and PC games digital is 59 percent at 328 million euros against 41 percent physical at 231 million; consoles grow 3 percent to about 400 million euros and accessories fall 5 percent to 152 million.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, 13 May 2026, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-in-italia-mercato-stabile-a-24-miliardi-cresce-il-tempo-di-gioco-digitale-e-abbonamenti-in-espansione-fisico-ancora-rilevante/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "14.2 million people in Italy play video games in 2025, stable on the previous year, 60 percent men and 40 percent women, about 60 percent under 35, playing 7 hours 53 minutes a week on average and up to 15 hours among 12 to 17 year olds.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, 13 May 2026, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-in-italia-mercato-stabile-a-24-miliardi-cresce-il-tempo-di-gioco-digitale-e-abbonamenti-in-espansione-fisico-ancora-rilevante/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The production sector is small relative to consumption. Italian games companies number 200, up 25 percent over two years, employ 2,800 people, up 17 percent, and generate estimated revenue between 180 and 200 million euros, up 36 percent since 2022.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-nel-2024-consumi-per-quasi-24-miliardi-di-euro-e-14-milioni-di-appassionati-cresce-il-made-in-italy-con-un-25-di-imprese-17-di-occupati-e-36-di-fatturato/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Italian studios build for export and fund themselves. Europe takes 42 percent of the destination market for Italian published games and North America 37 percent, while Italy takes 12 percent, and 88 percent of studios rely on self financing.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-nel-2024-consumi-per-quasi-24-miliardi-di-euro-e-14-milioni-di-appassionati-cresce-il-made-in-italy-con-un-25-di-imprese-17-di-occupati-e-36-di-fatturato/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "IIDEA's report lands each spring for the previous year, so quote the edition with the figure. The edition for 2025 was presented on 13 May 2026, and this profile's 2025 figures are that edition's; the studio census figures still carry the earlier edition, which the 2025 release does not restate.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, 13 May 2026, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-in-italia-mercato-stabile-a-24-miliardi-cresce-il-tempo-di-gioco-digitale-e-abbonamenti-in-espansione-fisico-ancora-rilevante/" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games production carries a statutory cultural tax credit. The credito d imposta for the production of video games of Italian nationality with cultural value rests on article 15 of law 220 of 2016, the cinema law, and ministerial decree 187 of 12 May 2021, and is administered by the Direzione generale Cinema e audiovisivo of the Ministry of Culture, which publishes beneficiary decrees.", "card_text": "Games funding runs through the cinema law", "year": "", "source": "Ministry of Culture, DGCA tax credit notices index, government primary source", "link": "https://cinema.cultura.gov.it/comunicazione/avvisi/avvisi-tax-credit/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Italian classification is mandatory, but sale is not restricted. An AGCOM regulation from 2019 introduced for the first time an obligation to classify video games distributed in Italy, recognising PEGI with an AGCOM scheme for unrated titles, and selling an 18-rated game to a minor is not an offence, because the obligation is to classify, not to restrict sale.", "card_text": "Ratings are mandatory, sales are not restricted", "year": "", "source": "AESVI clarification as reported by Tom s Hardware Italia, tech outlet", "link": "https://www.tomshw.it/videogioco/giochi-pegi-18-no-proibiti-minori" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The largest games outlet is domestically owned and founder led. Multiplayer.it is operated by NetAddiction srl of Terni, founded by Andrea Pucci, and the publisher reports over 3 million monthly unique users for the site.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "NetAddiction corporate news page, company self description", "link": "https://www.netaddiction.it/news/multiplayer_estate2023/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "NetAddiction is a diversified domestic digital publisher rather than a games only company, controlling Multiplayer.it, Movieplayer.it, Dissapore.com and LegaNerd.com among others, and sold its Multiplayer.com ecommerce operation to the distributor Cidiverte to refocus on editorial and advertising services.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Engage, advertising trade press", "link": "https://www.engage.it/media-industry/netaddiction-vende-il-sito-multiplayercom-a-cidiverte.aspx" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "International brands have retreated. Eurogamer Italia suspended publication on 4 November 2022, with its farewell note citing changed times and financial constraints.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "GamerClick reporting quoting the farewell note, games site", "link": "https://www.gamerclick.it/news/96921-eurogamer-chiude-in-italia-la-fine-di-un-pilastro-della-stampa-agoraclick-198" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not call the Italian consumer games press unusually healthy, or unusually weak. One large domestically owned outlet with a self-reported multi-million audience and named editorial staff is verified, as is the closure of an international brand's Italian edition in 2022, but the wider picture could not be established either way.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Assessment against the sourced rows above, no single source", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Search under the old name for anything before 2020. The trade body was AESVI until February 2020, when it became IIDEA, Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association, so earlier market reports, censuses and coverage sit under AESVI and a search on IIDEA alone cuts the history off.", "card_text": "", "year": "2020", "source": "Everyeye report of the renaming, games press", "link": "https://www.everyeye.it/notizie/aesvi-cambia-nome-nasce-iidea-italian-interactive-digital-entertainment-association-428942.html" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Mobile leads device use. 11.1 million Italian players use a smartphone in 2025, followed by 6.5 million on console and 3.7 million on PC.", "card_text": "Mobile leads, then console, then PC", "year": "2025", "source": "IIDEA annual report press release, 13 May 2026, trade body", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/videogiochi-in-italia-mercato-stabile-a-24-miliardi-cresce-il-tempo-di-gioco-digitale-e-abbonamenti-in-espansione-fisico-ancora-rilevante/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The venue planning base is broad. Italy total digital audience is 43.99 million monthly users in September 2025, 75.4 percent of the population aged 2 to 74, measured across smartphone, tablet and computer by the Audiweb system distributed by Audicom.", "card_text": "43.99m monthly digital audience (Audicom)", "year": "", "source": "Audicom, Audiweb total digital audience release, industry measurement body", "link": "https://www.audiweb.it/news/comunicati-stampa/Comunicato-Stampa-total-digital-audience-Settembre2025.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The one venue hierarchy datum available places Twitch first. The publisher of Multiplayer.it cites Comscore data ranking gaming information sites in Italy with Twitch first and Multiplayer.it second in the category in 2023.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "NetAddiction corporate news page citing Comscore, company self description", "link": "https://www.netaddiction.it/news/multiplayer_estate2023/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert an Italian venue hierarchy beyond one datum. Audicom's free monthly communiques for May, June and September 2025 publish category audiences for news, sport, government and broadcasters and break out no games category, with per-brand data behind registration, and IIDEA's report publishes no venue shares; the one available figure is a publisher-cited Comscore ranking with Twitch first.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Sources checked and found not to contain the needed data, documented gap", "link": "" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "IIDEA annual report, I videogiochi in Italia. The trade body free annual gives market value, player demographics and an industry census of Italian companies, presented each spring, the standard reference for the Italian market.", "card_text": "IIDEA annual report", "year": "", "source": "IIDEA, trade body annual", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/dati/pubblicazioni/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Ministry of Culture DGCA tax credit notices. The permanent notices index carries every session opening and beneficiary decree for the games tax credit, letting a researcher see which Italian studios and games receive public production support and when.", "card_text": "Ministry of Culture tax credit notices", "year": "", "source": "Direzione generale Cinema e audiovisivo, government body", "link": "https://cinema.cultura.gov.it/comunicazione/avvisi/avvisi-tax-credit/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Audicom, the Audiweb system. Italy joint industry internet audience measurement publishes free monthly communiques with total and category level digital audience, with per brand data available behind registration, the independent check on any Italian site or platform scale claim.", "card_text": "Audicom, Audiweb internet audience", "year": "", "source": "Audicom, industry measurement body", "link": "https://www.audiweb.it/cosa-misuriamo/internet-audience.html" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Digital Bros financial reports. The Milan listed parent of 505 Games publishes full annual and interim reports with revenue split across premium games, free to play and Italian distribution, primary disclosure from Italy largest listed games company.", "card_text": "Digital Bros financial reports", "year": "", "source": "Digital Bros S.p.A., primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://digitalbros-com.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Digital-Bros-Bilancio-desercizio-al-30-giugno-2025.pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Public funding beneficiaries. No row for Invitalia's First Playable Fund or the tax-credit beneficiary lists; the Ministry of Culture notices are a profile card only.", "instead": "Open the DGCA notices from the profile card and read announced budgets and paid-out lists as different figures." }, { "gap": "Company filings. No route to Italian company accounts is held, and Digital Bros is a profile card rather than a row.", "instead": "Read a studio count as a census figure, not a set of accounts, and open the Digital Bros reports from the card for the one audited series." }, { "gap": "People and communities. No Italian people rows, two subreddits and three podcasts for the whole market, and the profile could not rank venues beyond one Comscore datum.", "instead": "Use the games-specific subreddit technique, r/italygames not r/italy, and the outlets' own comment sections; treat any venue share as unsourced." }, { "gap": "Physical retail and platform mix. The profile carries device use by player counts but no sales-by-channel or platform-share figure.", "instead": "GSD via Sparkers is the held sales panel for Italy; say which panel a platform share comes from." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "14.2 million", "value": 14.2, "year": "2025", "direction": "", "source": "IIDEA, I Videogiochi in Italia nel 2025", "link": "https://iideassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IIDEA_I-Videogiochi-in-Italia-nel-2025-1.pdf", "measure": "Played in past 12 months", "definition": "The figure counts people in Italy aged 6 to 75 who played a video game or game app on any device at least once in the previous 12 months, including occasional play, which IIDEA states is 29 percent of that age group. The data comes from the Ipsos GameTrack panel, with fieldwork in January and February 2026 among about 3,000 online respondents." } }, { "market": "CA", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not look for a Canadian world rank in the trade body's data, because ESAC states none. Its 2024 industry report release describes Canada as a global leader in video game development without ranking the sector or the consumer market. A rank comes from an analyst, on that analyst's basis.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ESAC industry report release via CNW, trade body", "link": "https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-s-video-game-industry-contributed-5-1-billion-to-gdp-in-2024-888181811.html" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "There is no free Canadian consumer-spend figure to standard, so the anchor here sizes the industry. The video game industry contributes 5.1 billion dollars to Canada's GDP in 2024, up 3 percent since 2021, per an economic impact study by Nordicity for ESAC; that is production, not what Canadians spend.", "card_text": "$5.1 billion GDP contribution", "year": "2024", "source": "ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, trade body commissioned study", "link": "https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-s-video-game-industry-contributed-5-1-billion-to-gdp-in-2024-888181811.html" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "ESAC's figures are Canadian dollars and the study compares three years apart. The 5.1 billion dollar GDP contribution, 821 studios, 34,010 full-time equivalents and 102,000 dollar average salary come from Nordicity's study for ESAC released on 28 January 2025, and its changes are against 2021, not the previous year, so a year-on-year does not exist and a US-dollar conversion moves every figure by the exchange rate.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, 28 January 2025, trade body commissioned study", "link": "https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-s-video-game-industry-contributed-5-1-billion-to-gdp-in-2024-888181811.html" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The production sector is large and well paid. Canada has 821 active studios employing 34,010 full time equivalents in 2024 at an average salary of 102,000 dollars, with 86 percent full time and an average age of 34.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, trade body commissioned study", "link": "https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-s-video-game-industry-contributed-5-1-billion-to-gdp-in-2024-888181811.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Production is export facing. 88 percent of the industry revenue comes from exports.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, trade body commissioned study", "link": "https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-s-video-game-industry-contributed-5-1-billion-to-gdp-in-2024-888181811.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Employment concentrates in three provinces. Quebec has 15,220 games industry employees, British Columbia 10,930 and Ontario 6,090, together about 94 percent of the national total.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, trade body commissioned study", "link": "https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-s-video-game-industry-contributed-5-1-billion-to-gdp-in-2024-888181811.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Ownership by count skews domestic in Quebec. The Guilde du jeu video du Quebec states that Quebec studios are 86 percent Quebec owned.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Guilde du jeu video du Quebec communique as reproduced by Le Beta-Testeur, games site", "link": "https://www.lebetatesteur.ca/budget-2024-quebec-coupe-dans-les-credits-dimpots-aux-studios-de-jeux-video/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Around 20 million Canadians play video games as of 2025, spending roughly eight hours per week playing.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Canada Media Fund Perspectives analysis, public private funding body research", "link": "https://cmf-fmc.ca/perspectives/pass-the-controller-demographics-and-the-future-of-gameplay/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Two Canadian player counts circulate, so say whose. ESAC's own site says 23 million Canadians are gamers; the Canada Media Fund's synthesis says around 20 million as of 2025, playing roughly eight hours a week. Neither page states its definition of a player, so quote one with its source and do not read the gap as growth.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "ESAC site, trade body, as read 8 Sep 2026", "link": "https://theesa.ca/" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Quebec games credit is generous and shrinking on a published schedule. The credit d impot pour la production de titres multimedias, which cost Quebec 409 million dollars in 2023 at a maximum refundable rate of 37.5 percent on salaries, is being reshaped from the March 2024 budget, with the refundable portion falling to 27.5 percent by 2028 and a new 10 percent non refundable portion payable only against Quebec tax.", "card_text": "Quebec is cutting its credit through 2028", "year": "", "source": "La Presse reporting on the 2024 Quebec budget, national daily", "link": "https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/2024-03-14/reduction-du-credit-d-impot-en-jeu-video/on-coupe-l-herbe-sous-le-pied-de-tous-les-studios.php" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Quebec second relevant credit is also being reshaped. The credit d impot pour le developpement des affaires electroniques pays 30 percent on eligible salaries, with significant calculation changes applying to financial years beginning after 31 December 2024 including replacement of the salary cap by an annual exclusion threshold.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Investissement Quebec CDAE information sheet, provincial agency primary source", "link": "https://www.investquebec.com/Documents/qc/FichesDetaillees/FTCDAE_fr.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Ontario credit rewards owning the product. The Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit pays 40 percent on eligible Ontario labour plus marketing and distribution costs for products a company develops and markets itself, and 35 percent for fee for service work and for qualifying digital game corporations.", "card_text": "Ontario pays more if you own the product", "year": "", "source": "Ontario Creates OIDMTC page, provincial agency primary source", "link": "https://www.ontariocreates.ca/tax-incentives/oidmtc" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "British Columbia raised its credit. The interactive digital media tax credit pays 25 percent of eligible salary and wages incurred after 31 August 2025, up from 17.5 percent before that date.", "card_text": "British Columbia raised its credit to 25%", "year": "", "source": "Government of British Columbia IDMTC page, provincial primary source", "link": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/income-taxes/corporate/credits/interactive-digital-media" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "ESRB ratings carry Canadian legal force in some provinces. Peer-reviewed analysis records that provincial statutes in Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan enforce the ESRB age restrictions on the sale and rental of games, a United States industry system given statutory effect province by province, so do not assume the US self-regulatory model travels north unchanged.", "card_text": "A US rating system with Canadian legal force", "year": "", "source": "Canadian Journal of Communication, peer reviewed article", "link": "https://cjc.utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/cjc.2022-0008" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "A dedicated Canadian consumer games press exists. CGMagazine, published by CGMagazine Publishing Inc. of St. Catharines, Ontario, is a Canadian print and digital games and comics publication founded in 2010, with named editorial staff and issues published through the end of 2025.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "CGMagazine corporate release via CNW, publisher own release on the official wire", "link": "https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/cgmagazine-crowns-game-of-the-year-2025-amp-releases-the-final-issue-of-2025-898618653.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Canadian general interest technology media cover games as a regular beat, with MobileSyrup detailed reporting on the ESAC industry report, including an interview with the association chief executive, as a verified example.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "MobileSyrup reporting, Canadian technology outlet", "link": "https://mobilesyrup.com/2025/01/28/canadian-video-game-industry-2024-economic-impact-report/" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Playtime concentrates in the youngest players. Canadian players aged 13 to 17 spend the most time playing, with boys averaging 11.5 hours and girls 7.3 hours per week.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Canada Media Fund Perspectives analysis citing ESAC data, funding body research", "link": "https://cmf-fmc.ca/perspectives/pass-the-controller-demographics-and-the-future-of-gameplay/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games conversation runs substantially inside play itself. In ESAC 2022 player survey, 67 percent of Canadian players say games can introduce them to new friends and relationships, 48 percent spent time with people they would not have otherwise, and 38 percent met a good friend or spouse through games.", "card_text": "Conversation runs inside play itself", "year": "", "source": "ESAC Essential Facts 2022 release, trade body survey by NPD Group", "link": "https://theesa.ca/bringing-canadians-together-through-gaming/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert a Canadian venue hierarchy. The platform hierarchy of Canadian games conversation could not be sourced: ESAC's Essential Facts 2022 release covers social play but publishes no platform venue shares, the Canada Media Fund synthesis covers playtime by demographic but not venues, and Statistics Canada's cultural indicators do not break out games conversation.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Sources checked and found not to contain the needed data, documented gap", "link": "" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ESAC industry reports. The trade body Nordicity conducted economic studies give studio counts, employment by province, salaries, GDP contribution and export share for the production sector, the standard reference on Canada as a maker of games.", "card_text": "ESAC industry reports", "year": "", "source": "ESAC with Nordicity, trade body commissioned series", "link": "https://canadasvideogameindustry.ca/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ESAC player research. The trade body player survey series gives Canadian player counts, demographics, habits and attitudes.", "card_text": "ESAC player research", "year": "", "source": "ESAC, trade body player survey series", "link": "https://theesa.ca/bringing-canadians-together-through-gaming/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Ontario Creates OIDMTC pages. The provincial agency pages give the credit rules, rates and eligibility tracks, and its certification role makes it the reference point for Ontario games production support.", "card_text": "Ontario Creates OIDMTC", "year": "", "source": "Ontario Creates, provincial agency", "link": "https://www.ontariocreates.ca/tax-incentives/oidmtc" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "British Columbia IDMTC page. The province tax page states the current credit rate and eligibility for interactive digital media, the primary record for British Columbia games production support.", "card_text": "British Columbia IDMTC", "year": "", "source": "Government of British Columbia, provincial primary source", "link": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/income-taxes/corporate/credits/interactive-digital-media" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Investissement Quebec tax measure sheets. The agency fiches detaillees state the terms of Quebec credits including the CDAE, in French, the primary reference for the province at the centre of Canadian games production.", "card_text": "Investissement Québec tax sheets", "year": "", "source": "Investissement Quebec, provincial agency primary source", "link": "https://www.investquebec.com/Documents/qc/FichesDetaillees/FTCDAE_fr.pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Canada Media Fund research and Perspectives. The public private fund publishes free games relevant research syntheses with footnoted sources, and its funding programs reach interactive digital media, a federal complement to provincial production data.", "card_text": "Canada Media Fund research", "year": "", "source": "Canada Media Fund, public private funding body", "link": "https://cmf-fmc.ca/perspectives/pass-the-controller-demographics-and-the-future-of-gameplay/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Consumer spend. No free Canadian consumer-spend figure is held to standard; the one data row, Circana, is US-centric.", "instead": "Size the industry from ESAC and say so, or take a vendor's Canada estimate with its basis named; do not extrapolate from a US ratio without saying you did." }, { "gap": "Communities and media. No community rows and no Canadian channels, podcasts or newsletters are held as CA rows.", "instead": "Use the games-specific subreddit and official-Discord techniques; the English-language discourse mixes with the US's, and the French-language layer needs French search." }, { "gap": "Ownership of the big studios. The profile states Quebec studios are 86 percent Quebec-owned by count and nothing on who owns the largest employers.", "instead": "Publisher filings, held for the foreign parents, give country headcount; read a Canadian studio's name as a location until its owner is checked." }, { "gap": "Provincial data beyond Quebec and Ontario. Interactive Ontario and the Guilde are held; no British Columbia or Atlantic association row.", "instead": "Read the ESAC provincial split as the only national series and the province's own tax page for BC." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "23 million", "value": 23, "year": "", "direction": "", "source": "Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC)", "link": "https://theesa.ca/", "measure": "Identify as gamers", "definition": "About 23 million Canadians – roughly 61% of the country’s population – identify as gamers." } }, { "market": "BR", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not quote Brazil's world rank from a Brazilian source without the ranker, the basis and the year, because every rank in them relays Newzoo and the relays disagree. Abragames' 2022 industry survey calls Brazil the largest games market in Latin America and tenth in the world by revenue, citing Newzoo for 2021; Fast Company Brasil gave twelfth in August 2022, also citing Newzoo; and Abragames' 2023 survey calls Brazil fifth by online population, with an estimated 103 million players. A rank comes from Newzoo's own release, on Newzoo's basis, with its year.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Abragames and ApexBrasil, Pesquisa da Indústria Brasileira de Games 2022, by Homo Ludens, trade body survey", "link": "https://www.abragames.org/uploads/5/6/8/0/56805537/abragames-pt.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not size the Brazilian consumer market from the 13 billion reais a year in circulation, because no source for it names a publisher, a year or a method. It ran unsourced in Forbes Brasil in October 2022, in CartaCapital in September 2023 and in Diário do Comércio in July 2025, and no Abragames survey, fact sheet or white paper opened for this scan states it. Relays of Newzoo differ too: more than 2.3 billion dollars for 2021 in Abragames' 2022 fact sheet, 2.7 billion dollars for 2021 in IstoÉ Dinheiro and 2.7 billion dollars for 2022 in CartaCapital. Take a consumer figure from the analyst's own release, in its currency, with its basis and year.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "CartaCapital, 22 September 2023, national weekly", "link": "https://www.cartacapital.com.br/tecnologia/setor-de-games-no-brasil-movimenta-r-13-bilhoes-por-ano-mas-ainda-sem-uma-politica-nacional-adequada/" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "There is no free Brazilian consumer-spend figure to standard, so the anchor here sizes the development industry. Brazilian games studios had an estimated revenue of 251.6 million US dollars in 2022, per the 2023 Brazilian Gaming Industry Survey that GA Consulting conducted for Abragames and ApexBrasil's Brazil Games project; that is what Brazilian studios earn, not what Brazilians spend, and the survey puts it at only 10 percent of Brazilian players' consumption.", "card_text": "US$251.6 million studio revenue", "year": "2022", "source": "Abragames and ApexBrasil, 2023 Brazilian Gaming Industry Survey by GA Consulting, trade body survey", "link": "https://brazilgames.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2023-relatorio-final-v4.3.3-ENG.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The studio revenue is a model whose basis changed in the 2023 edition, so it makes no growth rate with earlier years. The survey takes each respondent's revenue band at its lower value, replaces the exporters' figures with their reported exports in dollars, converts the rest at an average 5.16 reais to the dollar and adds the AppMagic-tracked revenue of studios that did not respond, and unlike the 2022 edition it counts games and services made for third parties, educational games and advergames. Its own chart sets 251.6 million dollars for 2022 beside 143.3 million for 2021 and 149.9 million for 2018 on the earlier basis, a change the survey says it made at the risk of losing direct comparison.", "card_text": "", "year": "2022", "source": "Abragames and ApexBrasil, 2023 Brazilian Gaming Industry Survey by GA Consulting, trade body survey", "link": "https://brazilgames.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2023-relatorio-final-v4.3.3-ENG.pdf" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "75.3 percent of Brazilians aged 16 to 55 say they play, down from 82.8 percent a year earlier, and of those who play, 52.8 percent are women and 44.1 percent prefer the phone.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Pesquisa Game Brasil 2026, by SX Group and Go Gamers with Blend New Research and ESPM, reported by Meio & Mensagem, 9 April 2026, marketing trade press", "link": "https://www.meioemensagem.com.br/marketing/apos-pico-numero-de-jogadores-brasileiros-cai-segundo-pgb" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Give this survey's edition and sample with any figure from it, because both swing from year to year, and women were the majority of players in 2022 and 2026 but men in 2023.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Go Gamers, Pesquisa Game Brasil 2023 release, survey publisher, with its 2022 release and press reports of the 2025 and 2026 editions", "link": "https://gogamers.gg/pgb-10-anos/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "38 percent of internet users aged 10 and over played online in the past three months, unchanged since 2023, with the share down among children aged 10 to 15 and up among people over 60.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Cetic.br (NIC.br), TIC Domicílios 2025, table C7, national household survey, with the 2023 and 2024 editions' tables", "link": "https://cetic.br/pt/tics/domicilios/2025/individuos/C7/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Brazil had an estimated 1,042 studios employing 13,225 people in 2022, most of them in the Southeast, and 58 percent of them sold games abroad.", "card_text": "", "year": "2022", "source": "Abragames and ApexBrasil, Brazil Games Industry Fact Sheet 2023, trade body survey", "link": "https://brazilgames.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2023-fact-sheet-v1.6.2-ENGLISH-VERSION.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not read the trade body's studio chart as a growth series, because it sets the census respondents of 2014 and 2018 beside the estimated totals of 2022 and 2023.", "card_text": "", "year": "2022", "source": "Abragames and ApexBrasil, 2023 Brazilian Gaming Industry Survey by GA Consulting, trade body survey", "link": "https://brazilgames.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2023-relatorio-final-v4.3.3-ENG.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Wildlife Studios earned the most of any Brazilian developer in 2015, 2018 and 2021, and had the largest staff, ahead of Afterverse, Aquiris, Fanatee and Puga.", "card_text": "", "year": "2022", "source": "Abragames and ApexBrasil, Pesquisa da Indústria Brasileira de Games 2022, by Homo Ludens, trade body survey", "link": "https://www.abragames.org/uploads/5/6/8/0/56805537/abragames-pt.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Epic Games has owned a Brazilian studio since 2023, when Aquiris, the Porto Alegre maker of Horizon Chase, became Epic Games Brasil to make content for Fortnite.", "card_text": "", "year": "2023", "source": "AQUIRIS news, 19 April 2023, company announcement", "link": "https://www.aquiris.com.br/news/epic-games-brasil" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Riot Games runs Brazil's League of Legends league, the CBLOL, which returns as a league of its own in 2026 after a year inside the League of the Americas.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "LoL Esports (Riot Games), 'O CBLOL está de volta!', 29 September 2025, league organiser announcement", "link": "https://lolesports.com/pt-BR/news/cblol2026" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "TecMundo and its games desk, Voxel, belong to a national newspaper group. Estadão announced on 1 October 2025 that it had bought No Zebra Network (NZN), which controls TecMundo, Voxel, Minha Série, Mega Curioso and The Brief, and now holds 100 percent of it. H.I.G. Capital had controlled NZN until then, and the price was not disclosed.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "TecMundo, 1 October 2025, the acquired company's own outlet", "link": "https://www.estadao.com.br/tecmundo/big-techs/407482-nzn-dona-do-tecmundo-e-adquirida-pelo-estadao/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "A retailer owns Jovem Nerd, a geek-culture media brand whose programmes cover games among other subjects. Magazine Luiza (Magalu) announced on 14 April 2021 that it was buying Jovem Nerd, which it called the country's largest and most iconic multimedia platform for the nerd and geek audience, adding it to the technology site Canaltech, bought about six months earlier, to build audience for its advertising business, MagaluAds.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Magazine Luiza press release, 14 April 2021, primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://ri.magazineluiza.com.br/Download.aspx?Arquivo=2aX1K2I4CFAKWzTU7VOwtQ==" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "IGN Brasil, the Brazilian edition of IGN, is a Webedia site, as its own footer states.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "IGN Brasil site footer, September 2026, publisher self-disclosure", "link": "https://br.ign.com/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The group that publishes Omelete runs games events as well as media. Omelete&CO describes itself as the largest independent entertainment company in Latin America, lists CCXP and gamescom latam, the Latin American edition of gamescom, among its brands beside the Omelete portal, and says its partnership with Gaules and Baiano gives it access to Brazil's Counter-Strike and League of Legends player communities.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Omelete&CO company site, company self-description", "link": "https://omeletecompany.com/en/home/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The Counter-Strike news site DRAFT5 is owned by the platform whose competitive scene it covers. DRAFT5, founded in February 2017, was bought in June 2019 by Gamers Club, which it calls the main Counter-Strike platform in Latin America, and since 2020 has been part of Gamers Club Media, a network of single-game sites such as VZone (VALORANT) and Tropa FF (Free Fire).", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "DRAFT5 Sobre nós (about) page, publisher self-description", "link": "https://draft5.gg/sobre-nos" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Drops de Jogos sits inside a newspaper portal as a partner, not a property. Created by Pedro Zambarda in 2015 and served from the UAI portal's domain, it describes itself as a partner of Portal Uai, the newspaper O Estado de Minas and Diários Associados, and as part of the Rede Progressista de Games (Progressive Games Network), which it says took part, covering and contributing, in the passage of Lei 14.852, the Marco Legal dos Games, in 2024.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Drops de Jogos Sobre e Expediente (about and masthead) page, publisher self-description", "link": "https://dropsdejogos.uai.com.br/expediente/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The defining pattern of the Brazilian games press is that the titles whose owners could be verified are one line of business inside groups whose main trade is something other than games journalism: a newspaper (Estadão, TecMundo and Voxel), a retailer (Magalu, Jovem Nerd and Canaltech), an international digital publisher (Webedia, IGN Brasil), an entertainment and events group (Omelete&CO) and an esports platform (Gamers Club, DRAFT5). Founder-led sites sit beside them, some as partners of newspaper portals, as Drops de Jogos is of UAI. This is an interpretation resting on the ownership claims above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "TecMundo, 1 October 2025, plus the ownership rows above", "link": "https://www.estadao.com.br/tecmundo/big-techs/407482-nzn-dona-do-tecmundo-e-adquirida-pelo-estadao/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not state who owns Adrenaline or Outer Space. Outer Space's footer names only its operating company, Outer Space Media Ltda., with no parent or shareholders, and Adrenaline's own pages, including the Quem somos (about) page that search results summarise as naming its two founders, answered scripted requests with a Cloudflare browser check on 28 September 2026, so neither ownership could be verified to standard. Open Adrenaline's Quem somos page in a browser to confirm its founders.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "No source meeting this directory's standard", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not cite The Enemy as a live games outlet without checking. Omelete billed its gamescom latam 2025 games showcase as the successor to The Enemy Direct, and on 28 September 2026 theenemy.com.br answered with a permanent redirect to omelete.com.br, but no statement from Omelete&CO on whether or when The Enemy closed was found.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Omelete, 29 April 2025, the owner's own outlet", "link": "https://www.omelete.com.br/games/omelete-games-direct-2025-gamescom-latam" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "WhatsApp chats are private. 66 percent of Brazilian internet users aged 9 to 17 use their own WhatsApp profile at least weekly, level with Instagram and ahead of TikTok at 57 percent, and none of WhatsApp's conversation is publicly searchable. That its chats are private is a reading of the product type, not a survey finding.", "card_text": "WhatsApp chats are private", "year": "2025", "source": "Cetic.br (NIC.br), TIC Kids Online Brasil 2025, table C8, national survey of children and adolescents", "link": "https://cetic.br/pt/tics/kidsonline/2025/criancas/C8/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Discord servers are private, and Discord's live video is suspended in Brazil. The data protection authority, ANPD, ordered Discord on 12 August 2026 to suspend Go Live, used for live streams in private servers, until it proves it protects children and adolescents. The platform itself is not blocked. That its servers are private reads the product type, not the order.", "card_text": "Discord servers are private, and Go Live suspended", "year": "2026", "source": "ANPD news release, 12 August 2026, data protection authority", "link": "https://www.gov.br/anpd/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/em-medida-preventiva-anpd-determina-que-discord-suspenda-transmissoes-ao-vivo-no-brasil" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not read one streaming platform's data as Brazil's. Streams Charts calls multistreaming a core competitive advantage in Brazil: Gaules and Baiano, second and fourth among Brazilian streamers by hours watched in 2025, each broadcast on Twitch, YouTube and Kick at once, and its ranking is not games-only either.", "card_text": "Streamers use three platforms at once", "year": "2025", "source": "Streams Charts, Top Brazilian streamers of 2025, 18 December 2025, analytics platform", "link": "https://streamscharts.com/news/top-brazilian-streamers-2025" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "X was off in Brazil for five and a half weeks in 2024, so Brazilian X data has a gap from 30 August to 8 October 2024. The Supreme Court suspended X nationwide for repeated non-compliance with its decisions, and authorised its return once the company complied and paid its fines.", "card_text": "X suspended nationwide, 30 Aug to 8 Oct 2024", "year": "2024", "source": "Supremo Tribunal Federal news release, 8 October 2024, supreme court", "link": "https://noticias.stf.jus.br/postsnoticias/stf-autoriza-o-retorno-imediato-do-x-e-determina-que-anatel-adote-providencias-para-a-retomada-do-servico/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert a Brazilian games venue hierarchy, or repeat a board's claim to be the largest. The national surveys count activities and profiles, not what is discussed, Pesquisa Game Brasil's free report sits behind a lead form, and no independent measure of any Brazilian board's scale was found.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Sources checked and found not to contain the needed data, documented gap", "link": "" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "A ClassInd rating is required before sale, and it informs rather than bans. Under Portaria MJSP nº 1.048 of 15 October 2025, which replaced Portaria 502/2021 and has been in force since 17 November 2025, no game may be sold without a Classificação Indicativa (ClassInd) rating: games on physical media go through the Justice Ministry's prior analysis, and digital-only games rate themselves through the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) questionnaire, which the ministry checks by sampling. The portaria defines the rating as pedagogical and informative and forbids it from prohibiting the showing of a work, cutting scenes or asking for content to be removed. It added a 6 band, so the scale runs L, 6, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, and made interactivity a rating axis.", "card_text": "Ratings are required, and they inform rather than ban", "year": "2025", "source": "Portaria MJSP nº 1.048/2025, Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública, primary legal text", "link": "https://bibliotecadigital.mj.gov.br/bitstream/1/15993/1/PRT_GM_2025_1048.html" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Paid loot boxes are barred to under-18s, but the game itself is not. The only express prohibition on games in the ECA Digital (Estatuto Digital da Criança e do Adolescente, Lei 15.211/2025), in force since 17 March 2026, is on loot boxes for children and adolescents, and a game complies by offering a version without them or by switching them off until the player proves they are an adult, according to the government's question-and-answer guide to the law.", "card_text": "Loot boxes are banned for under-18s", "year": "2026", "source": "Perguntas e respostas sobre o ECA Digital, ANPD, Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública and Secom, updated 30 July 2026, government guidance", "link": "https://www.gov.br/mj/pt-br/assuntos/sua-protecao/sedigi/eca-digital/perguntas_respostas_eca_digital_30072026.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games that children are likely to use must ship parental controls switched on. Since 17 March 2026 the ECA Digital requires any service aimed at or likely to be used by minors, online games included, to offer tools to limit and monitor time of use, with default settings at the highest level of protection, and requires games with text, voice or video contact between users to limit those features by default so that a parent consents. It sets no cap on play.", "card_text": "Parental controls on by default, time limits included", "year": "2026", "source": "Lei 15.211/2025 (ECA Digital), articles 17 and 21, Planalto, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2023-2026/2025/lei/l15211.htm" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games have their own law, and betting is written out of it. The Marco Legal dos Games (the games legal framework, Lei 14.852 of 3 May 2024) frees the making, import and sale of games from prior state authorisation, and says lotteries, bets and any game offering a bet with prizes in real or virtual assets, or with a random or predicted result, are not jogos eletrônicos and get none of its benefits. It opens the culture incentive laws, the Lei Rouanet and the Lei do Audiovisual, to game development, and requires in-game purchase tools to restrict purchases by children by default.", "card_text": "Games have their own law, and bets are not games", "year": "2024", "source": "Lei 14.852/2024 (Marco Legal dos Games), Planalto, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2023-2026/2024/lei/l14852.htm" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Foreign providers need a legal representative in Brazil. Article 40 of the ECA Digital requires every provider it covers, online games and app stores included, to keep a legal representative in the country able to receive summonses and answer to the authorities, and a foreign company's Brazilian branch or office is jointly liable for its fines, which reach 10 percent of the group's revenue in Brazil.", "card_text": "Foreign providers need a legal representative", "year": "2026", "source": "Lei 15.211/2025 (ECA Digital), articles 35 and 40, Planalto, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2023-2026/2025/lei/l15211.htm" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Betting is banned, by a provisional measure. Medida Provisória nº 1.394 of 25 September 2026, which has the force of law from publication, prohibits fixed-odds betting in Brazil, on sports and on online games decided by a random number generator alike, including by operators abroad serving people in Brazil. Licensed operators must take their sites and apps offline within ten days, every licence ends thirty days after publication, and all betting advertising and sponsorship is banned.", "card_text": "Betting and its sponsorship are banned", "year": "2026", "source": "Medida Provisória nº 1.394/2026, Planalto, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2023-2026/2026/mpv/mpv1394.htm" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "HOLD: do not report the betting ban as settled law. Medida Provisória 1.394 took effect on publication on 25 September 2026, and the Congress record sets its deliberation period at 25 September to 23 November 2026, with an urgency regime from 9 November. Report it as in force and provisional, and check the record before quoting it.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Congresso Nacional, MPV 1394/2026 record, legislature", "link": "https://www.congressonacional.leg.br/materias/medidas-provisorias/-/mpv/175871" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Consoles pay a 20 percent federal tax on industrialised products (Imposto sobre Produtos Industrializados, IPI). The Receita Federal's IPI table (TIPI), updated to 30 January 2026, sets 20 percent for video game consoles, 9 percent for their parts and accessories and 0 percent for video game machines with a built-in screen, portable or not.", "card_text": "Consoles pay 20 percent IPI", "year": "2026", "source": "Receita Federal, Tabela de Incidência do IPI (TIPI), updated to 30 January 2026, tax authority", "link": "https://www.gov.br/receitafederal/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/legislacao/documentos-e-arquivos/tipi.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The IPI on consoles may end in 2027. Constitutional Amendment 132 of 20 December 2023 reduces IPI rates to zero from 2027 except on products with incentivised industrialisation in the Manaus Free Trade Zone, and whether consoles are among them could not be verified, so check before quoting the 20 percent for 2027 or later. The same reform's Lei Complementar 214 of 16 January 2025 creates three new taxes, IBS, CBS and the Imposto Seletivo.", "card_text": "Console IPI may end in 2027", "year": "2023", "source": "Emenda Constitucional nº 132/2023, Planalto, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/emendas/emc/emc132.htm" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games can raise money through the Lei Rouanet. Instrução Normativa MinC nº 29 of 29 January 2026, which sets the procedures of the Lei Rouanet's incentive mechanism for cultural projects (Lei 8.313/1991) and revoked Instrução Normativa nº 23 of 5 February 2025, lets a game project seek up to 1.5 million reais and the development of a game, a production phase ending in a playable simulation or demonstration that shows its potential, up to 400,000 reais, the same limits the 2025 instruction set. Higher sums are allowed for audiovisual projects chosen in a public call or holding a contract that secures at least half the amount sought, at market prices.", "card_text": "Lei Rouanet: up to 1.5 million reais a game", "year": "2026", "source": "Instrução Normativa MinC nº 29, de 29 de janeiro de 2026, Ministério da Cultura, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 30 January 2026, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.gov.br/cultura/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/legislacao-e-normativas/instrucao-normativa-minc-no-29-de-29-de-janeiro-de-2026" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "São Paulo state funds games through its cultural programme, ProAC. Its 2026 games call, Edital Fomento CultSP – ProAC nº 05/2026, offers 6 million reais, 300,000 reais each for ten projects developing a game up to a functional prototype (vertical slice) or a playable demo and ten finishing and publishing one. It is open to proponents based in the state with at least two years of activity, and the list of applications published after registration closed counts 217, 174 for development and 43 for finishing and publishing.", "card_text": "São Paulo state: 6 million reais for games in 2026", "year": "2026", "source": "Edital Fomento CultSP – ProAC nº 05/2026 and its list of applications, Secretaria da Cultura, Economia e Indústria Criativas do Estado de São Paulo, state funding call", "link": "https://www.cultura.sp.gov.br/sec_cultura/Arquivo_de_Editais/Editais_Fomento_Cultsp/Fomento_CultSP_2026/desenvolvimento_ou_finalizacao_e_publicacao_de_jogos_eletronicos_2026/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "HOLD: do not describe ANCINE's rules for publicly financing games as written. The film agency's Agenda Regulatória 2026/2027, approved by its board and announced on 30 March 2026, lists as Action 18 the regulation of how publicly financed games projects are approved, executed, monitored and accounted for under the Marco Legal dos Games, because the absence of specific rules limits the segment's access to the existing support mechanisms, and expects to finish it in the first half of 2027; Action 6, on the same timetable, would set the registration and reporting duties of companies in the games chain. The same agenda plans a general regulation of the Fundo Setorial do Audiovisual (Action 11), so check with ANCINE before citing a line of the fund for games.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "ANCINE, Agenda Regulatória 2026/2027, approved by Deliberação de Diretoria Colegiada nº 276-E/2026, regulator's own agenda", "link": "https://www.gov.br/ancine/pt-br/assuntos/atribuicoes-ancine/regulacao/AR202627VF.pdf/@@display-file/file" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Android accounted for 75.45 percent of mobile page views in Brazil in August 2026 and iOS for 24.54 percent, per StatCounter, which bases its shares on page views, over 3 billion a month by its own account, so the split measures web traffic, not devices, players or spending.", "card_text": "Android ~75 percent of mobile web traffic", "year": "2026", "source": "StatCounter Global Stats, mobile operating system market share in Brazil, August 2026, web analytics", "link": "https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/brazil" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not say which store Brazilians spend most through on mobile, because no free source read splits Brazilian mobile games spending between Google Play and the App Store. Sensor Tower's Brazilian figures, as the trade press relays them, combine the two stores; StatCounter's Android and iOS shares count web traffic, not spending; and the App Store's top-grossing feed ranks games without revenue, while Google Play shows no chart for Brazil. Read a vendor's per-store figure, where one is published, as that vendor's estimate.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Sources checked and found not to contain the needed data, documented gap", "link": "" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Nintendo's eShop sells in Brazil in reais and takes Visa and Mastercard credit cards, not PayPal. Players without a card can buy its gift cards on Nintendo's own store with Pix or boleto, and Nintendo content cards are sold at retailers such as Lojas Americanas and Magazine Luiza, and its digital games at americanas.com, submarino.com and Nuuvem, per Nintendo's support pages.", "card_text": "Pix and boleto buy Nintendo gift cards", "year": "2026", "source": "Nintendo support, Perguntas frequentes sobre o Nintendo Switch eShop do Brasil, undated, platform owner's support page", "link": "https://pt-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/53912/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Nintendo's consoles had no official distribution in Brazil from January 2015 to September 2020. Nintendo stopped distributing its consoles and games in Brazil in January 2015, saying challenges in the local business environment had made its distribution model unsustainable, returned officially with the Switch on 18 September 2020 at a suggested 2,999 reais, distributed by Ingram Micro rather than made in the country, and launched the Switch 2 in Brazil on 5 June 2025, the worldwide date, at 4,499.90 reais.", "card_text": "Nintendo official again since 2020", "year": "2025", "source": "TechTudo, 4 September 2020, technology news site, with Exame, 9 January 2015, and CNN Brasil, 23 April 2025", "link": "https://www.techtudo.com.br/noticias/2020/09/nintendo-switch-ganha-data-de-lancamento-e-preco-oficial-para-o-brasil.ghtml" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Sony and Microsoft launched their current consoles officially in Brazil in November 2020 and cut the announced prices before launch after an IPI reduction. Sony set 19 November 2020 for the PlayStation 5 and on 3 November 2020 cut its suggested prices, which it said was a result of the new IPI reduction for games, from 4,499 to 4,199 reais for the Digital Edition and from 4,999 to 4,699 reais for the model with an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive; Microsoft set 10 November 2020 for the Xbox Series X and Series S and on 29 October 2020 cut them from 4,999 and 2,999 reais to 4,599 and 2,799 reais.", "card_text": "PS5 and Xbox Series official since November 2020", "year": "2020", "source": "PlayStation.Blog BR, 3 November 2020, company announcement, with Xbox Wire em Português, 23 October 2020, and TechTudo, 29 October 2020", "link": "https://blog.br.playstation.com/2020/11/03/mudanca-de-preco-sugerido-ps5/" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Pesquisa Game Brasil (PGB). The annual consumer survey Go Gamers publishes, in its 13th edition in 2026, gives the share of Brazilians aged 16 to 55 who say they play, with their gender, age, class and preferred device. A free Trend Report sits behind a registration form, and the full data is sold by subscription from 2,290 reais a month.", "card_text": "Pesquisa Game Brasil (PGB)", "year": "", "source": "Pesquisa Game Brasil, Go Gamers, commercial annual survey", "link": "https://www.pesquisagamebrasil.com.br/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Pesquisa da Indústria Brasileira de Games (Brazilian Games Industry Survey), Abragames. The developers' association's survey with ApexBrasil counts studios and the people at them, where they are and how many sell abroad, free as reports and fact sheets. The 2023 survey, which portrays 2022, is the latest published.", "card_text": "Pesquisa da Indústria Brasileira de Games (Abragames)", "year": "", "source": "Abragames with ApexBrasil, industry association survey", "link": "https://brazilgames.org/en/brazilian-games-industry-survey/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "TIC Domicílios and TIC Kids Online Brasil, Cetic.br. The annual surveys of internet use run at NIC.br ask whether internet users aged 10 and over played online, and whether children and adolescents bought anything in online games, with free tables in Portuguese, English and Spanish. TIC Domicílios 2025 was presented on 9 December 2025.", "card_text": "TIC Domicílios and TIC Kids Online Brasil (Cetic.br)", "year": "", "source": "Cetic.br, NIC.br, annual household surveys", "link": "https://cetic.br/pt/tics/domicilios/2025/individuos/C7/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "IBGE PNAD Contínua, in the Sistema de Informações e Indicadores Culturais (SIIC). The national statistics office's household survey asks internet users aged 10 and over what they went online for: 30.3 percent went online to play in 2024. The SIIC is free and published every two years; the latest came out on 12 December 2025.", "card_text": "IBGE, PNAD Contínua and SIIC", "year": "", "source": "IBGE Sistema de Informações e Indicadores Culturais 2013-2024, 12 December 2025, national statistics office", "link": "https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/media/com_mediaibge/arquivos/b6c6d2b70f490c4eba9e52403fcec31b.pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "ClassInd (Classificação Indicativa) games consultation, Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública. The ministry's portal lists the rating it gave each game, free, on the scale L, 6, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, and its rating decisions are published as portarias; the rating informs rather than restricts, and complaints that a rating does not match a game go to the ministry's ombudsman.", "card_text": "ClassInd (Classificação Indicativa)", "year": "", "source": "ClassInd portal, Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública, rating body", "link": "https://classindportal.mj.gov.br/consulta-jogos" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Abragames' industry survey has no fixed calendar, so quote the edition with the figure. The 2022 edition covers 2020 and 2021, the 2023 edition measures 2022 and was published on 28 February 2024, and a third edition, run with Go Gamers, began sending questionnaires in September 2026 with no publication date.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "The Gaming Era, 17 September 2026, games business news site", "link": "https://gamingera.biz/abragames-3-censo-industria-brasileira-games-questionarios/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Steam weekly top sellers for Brazil, Valve. Valve's own ranking of the top 100 products on Steam in Brazil by revenue, free, published every Tuesday for the week before, with each title's rank the week before. It gives ranks, not units or revenue, covers Steam alone, and a script can read it through the store's web API without a key.", "card_text": "Steam weekly top sellers, Brazil (Valve)", "year": "", "source": "Valve, Steam Charts weekly top sellers for Brazil, platform chart", "link": "https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topsellers/BR" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "App Store top-grossing games feed for Brazil, Apple. Apple's public RSS feed ranks the top-grossing games in the Brazilian App Store, free, with prices in reais and the time of its last update, and a script can read it as JSON. It gives ranks, not revenue, states neither its method nor its period, and covers Apple's store alone.", "card_text": "App Store top-grossing games feed, Brazil (Apple)", "year": "", "source": "Apple, iTunes Store RSS feed Top rentáveis, Jogos, Brazil, platform chart", "link": "https://itunes.apple.com/br/rss/topgrossingapplications/limit=25/genre=6014/json" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Consumer spending. No free figure for what Brazilian players spend is held: the size card sizes studios' revenue, and the consumer figures in circulation are unsourced or relay a paid vendor.", "instead": "Take a consumer figure from Newzoo's own release, with its basis and year, as the Standing notes say, and read a figure in reais with no named publisher as untraceable." }, { "gap": "Who spends, and on what. Spending by platform and by payer, and in-game purchases beyond whether children made any, are not held: Pesquisa Game Brasil sells its cross-tabs by subscription.", "instead": "Read the free PGB Trend Report behind its registration form for the headlines and the Cetic.br tables for children's purchases in games, and say which sample a share is of." }, { "gap": "Mobile and streaming data are not tagged to Brazil. Sensor Tower, AppMagic, Streams Charts and Esports Charts are Global rows, so a BR-filtered search returns none of them, though Abragames models studio revenue partly from AppMagic.", "instead": "Search the Data group without a market filter, and read a vendor's Brazil figure as that house's estimate." }, { "gap": "Company filings. No Brazilian games company files where a reader can use it, and Sea, which owns Free Fire's publisher Garena, reports it with no country split.", "instead": "Read the global publishers' IR rows the directory holds, and only where they name Brazil; treat a studio's Brazilian address as a location until its owner is checked." }, { "gap": "Communities, and what players think. No Brazilian review venue is held, and the activity of the forums and subreddits held could not be checked: Fórum Adrenaline answered with a bot check and Reddit refused scripted reads.", "instead": "Read the held forums and subreddits, and the Steam reviews and forums row filtered to Brazilian Portuguese, as temperature, never as size, and check a thread's recent post dates before naming it as a venue." }, { "gap": "Video channels. They carry no market tag by design, so a BR-filtered search returns none.", "instead": "Search channels by language Portuguese instead." } ], "player_population": { "figure": "59,802,339", "value": 59.802339, "year": "2025", "direction": "", "source": "Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (NIC.br) and Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil (CGI.br), TIC Domicílios 2025", "link": "https://cetic.br/pt/arquivos/domicilios/2025/individuos/", "measure": "Played online in past 3 months", "definition": "Internet users aged 10 and over in Brazil who played online in the three months before the interview. They were 38 percent of internet users, as the survey's table of totals states (sheet C7). The question asks only about playing online, so play without a connection is not in it. The data comes from TIC Domicílios 2025, the household survey NIC.br runs for CGI.br, with face-to-face interviews of 24,535 individuals in 27,177 households from March to August 2025." } }, { "market": "IN", "sections": { "Standing": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not quote a revenue rank for India from its annuals, because neither FICCI-EY nor Lumikai states one, and do not call India the largest market by downloads without the basis. Sensor Tower calls India the world's largest mobile gaming market by downloads, 8.45 billion installs in FY 2024-25, counting the App Store and Google Play only, which leaves China's Android stores out, while Lumikai's FY24 report calls India the second largest by mobile gaming downloads. Quote a rank with its ranker, its basis and its year.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Sensor Tower, India Mobile Game Insights 2025, June 2025, analytics vendor blog, with Lumikai FY24 executive summary", "link": "https://sensortower.com/blog/india-mobile-game-insights-2025" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "India ranks sixth in Asia-Pacific by mobile in-app purchase revenue in 2025, at 800 million dollars, and first in Asia by game downloads, at 7.95 billion, per India's State of Play, written by Naavik for MIXI Global Investments in July 2026 from Sensor Tower data and combined industry estimates. Its revenue table counts China through iOS alone.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Naavik for MIXI Global Investments, India's State of Play, July 2026, investor report", "link": "https://mixiglobalinv.com/report/upload/indias-state-of-play-260708.pdf" } ], "Market size": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Video games and esports in India earn 63 billion rupees in 2025, up from 57 billion in 2024, per the FICCI-EY media and entertainment report Stories, scale and impact, released 24 March 2026. The EY estimate is domestic revenue gross of taxes: in-app purchases 36 billion rupees, advertising 15 billion and esports 12 billion.", "card_text": "63 billion rupees video games and esports revenue", "year": "2025", "source": "FICCI-EY, Stories, scale and impact: Unlocking India's media and entertainment economy, 24 March 2026, trade body and consultancy annual", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/2026/03/ey-stories-scale-and-impact-un-locking-indias-media-and-entertainment-economy.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The FICCI-EY games figure is revenue, not consumer spend, and each edition redraws and restates the segment. The 2026 edition splits Online and video games into Money gaming, 133 billion rupees for 2025 counted only up to the ban, and Esports and video games, 63 billion. The 2025 edition called them transaction-based games and esports and casual, and put the second at 53 billion for 2024, which the 2026 edition restates as 57 billion. Quote the edition with the figure.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "FICCI-EY, Stories, scale and impact: Unlocking India's media and entertainment economy, 24 March 2026, trade body and consultancy annual", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/2026/03/ey-stories-scale-and-impact-un-locking-indias-media-and-entertainment-economy.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The two annuals size the same 2025 market on different bases, and FICCI-EY says they do not reconcile. FICCI-EY prints Lumikai's own figures on a page Lumikai supplied, 1,534 million dollars for 2025, and notes that this revenue data does not tie in to EY estimates and has to be seen directionally. Name the publisher and the basis with every Indian games figure.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "FICCI-EY, Stories, scale and impact: Unlocking India's media and entertainment economy, 24 March 2026, trade body and consultancy annual, page powered by Lumikai", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/2026/03/ey-stories-scale-and-impact-un-locking-indias-media-and-entertainment-economy.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not read Lumikai's report as a fiscal-year series released each autumn, or compare its 2025 games figure with earlier headlines. The FY24 edition, posted in November 2024, covered April 2023 to March 2024 and put the market at 3.8 billion dollars, 2.4 billion of it real-money gaming. The 2025 edition, released on 23 March 2026, covers calendar 2025 and leaves real-money gaming out of its 1.5 billion dollars.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "Lumikai, State of India Interactive Media & Gaming FY'24 executive summary, as hosted by InvestGame, venture fund annual", "link": "https://investgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Lumikai-Interactive-Media-and-Gaming-Report-2024-Executive-Summary.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Take FICCI-EY's online gaming series from one edition, because each edition restates past years. The March 2025 edition, Shape the future, which is not the separate EY report A studio called India made for the WAVES summit, gave 236 billion rupees for 2023 and 232 billion for 2024, a 2 percent fall, and within it 2022 reads 222 billion in the overview and 196 billion in the gaming chapter. Transaction-based games were 179 billion of the 2024 figure.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "FICCI-EY, Shape the future, March 2025, trade body and consultancy annual", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/images/ey-shape-the-future-indian-media-and-entertainment-is-scripting-a-new-story.pdf" } ], "Shape": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Lumikai counts 555 million gamers in India in 2025, 9 percent fewer than in 2024, and puts the fall down to the ban on money games.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Lumikai, State of Interactive Media Report 2025, fifth edition, 23 March 2026, venture fund annual", "link": "https://www.lumikai.com/_files/ugd/9e9f8d_a25e836de2b3448081a3ac9e17b9adda.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "In Lumikai's survey of smartphone users, 45 percent of players are women, 44 percent are aged 18 to 30, and 97 percent play on a phone.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "FICCI-EY, Stories, scale and impact: Unlocking India's media and entertainment economy, 24 March 2026, trade body and consultancy annual, page powered by Lumikai, survey of 3,000+ smartphone users", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/2026/03/ey-stories-scale-and-impact-un-locking-indias-media-and-entertainment-economy.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Free Fire and Battlegrounds Mobile India earned the most of any games in India in 2025, ahead of Coin Master, Candy Crush Saga and eFootball.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Lumikai, State of Interactive Media Report 2025, fifth edition, 23 March 2026, venture fund annual", "link": "https://www.lumikai.com/_files/ugd/9e9f8d_a25e836de2b3448081a3ac9e17b9adda.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "India had over 1,900 game development companies in 2024, employing around 66,000 people by one count and over 130,000 by another.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "EY, A studio called India, May 2025, consultancy report for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's WAVES 2025", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/documents/ey-a-studio-called-india-v1.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Games made in India earned over 1.5 billion dollars abroad in 2025-26, by the developers' association's own count, which EY did not verify.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "FICCI-EY, Stories, scale and impact: Unlocking India's media and entertainment economy, 24 March 2026, trade body and consultancy annual, data compiled by the Game Developer Association of India", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/2026/03/ey-stories-scale-and-impact-un-locking-indias-media-and-entertainment-economy.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Nazara, JetSynthesys and nCore publish games in India, Gametion, SuperGaming and Gameberry Labs make their own, and Electronic Arts, Krafton, Rockstar, Ubisoft and Riot Games all work there.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "EY, A studio called India, May 2025, consultancy report for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's WAVES 2025", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/documents/ey-a-studio-called-india-v1.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "The two annuals count players in opposite directions, FICCI-EY at 515 to 525 million and rising, Lumikai at 555 million and falling, and neither says who it counted.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "FICCI-EY, Stories, scale and impact: Unlocking India's media and entertainment economy, 24 March 2026, trade body and consultancy annual", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/2026/03/ey-stories-scale-and-impact-un-locking-indias-media-and-entertainment-economy.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Device shares overlap and do not sum, and Lumikai's 97 percent on a phone comes from a panel of smartphone users, not all players.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "FICCI-EY, Stories, scale and impact: Unlocking India's media and entertainment economy, 24 March 2026, trade body and consultancy annual", "link": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-in/insights/media-entertainment/2026/03/ey-stories-scale-and-impact-un-locking-indias-media-and-entertainment-economy.pdf" } ], "Press structure": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "IGN India is a licensed edition, not an IGN-owned site. Its footer says it is operated by Fork Media Group Pvt. Ltd. under license from IGN Entertainment and its affiliates.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "IGN India site footer, September 2026, publisher self-disclosure", "link": "https://in.ign.com/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Outlook Respawn is the gaming, esports and pop culture vertical of Outlook India. Outlook Publishing (India) Pvt. Ltd. says it is part of the Rajan Raheja group, whose interests run from real estate, cement and automotive batteries to hospitality and media.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Outlook About Us page, company self-description", "link": "https://www.outlookindia.com/about-us" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Moneycontrol belongs to Reliance Industries' media arm. Network18 runs moneycontrol.com, and Independent Media Trust, whose sole beneficiary is Reliance Industries, and other promoter group entities hold 56.89 percent of Network18, per CARE Ratings on 16 December 2024.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "CARE Ratings press release on Network 18 Media and Investments Limited, 16 December 2024, credit rating agency", "link": "https://www.careratings.com/upload/CompanyFiles/PR/202412131255_Network_18_Media_and_Investments_Limited.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Storyboard18, whose gaming desk covers policy and the real-money gaming industry, is Network18's advertising and marketing trade title. Its own site describes it as Network18 Group's flagship platform focussed on the advertising and marketing community.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Storyboard18 gaming news page, site metadata, publisher self-description", "link": "https://www.storyboard18.com/gaming-news" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "AFK Gaming, the esports and games outlet, is being bought outright by NODWIN Gaming. Nazara Technologies' annual report for 2024-25 says NODWIN agreed on 18 December 2024 to buy the remaining 92.30 percent of AFK Gaming for 7.58 crore rupees, in cash and a swap of shares, with completion expected in 2025-26, after which AFK would be a wholly owned subsidiary. Completion was not verified.", "card_text": "", "year": "2024", "source": "Nazara Technologies annual report 2024-25, directors' report, listed company filing", "link": "https://investors.nazara.com/content/pdfs/financials/68bc10bdc953599b2c99e1d8_nazaraannualreport.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "NODWIN Gaming, AFK Gaming's owner, is no longer a Nazara subsidiary. Nazara ceased to hold a controlling stake in the July to September 2025 quarter, after it stayed out of a NODWIN fundraise, and NODWIN became an associate, with Nazara still its largest shareholder.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Indian Startup News, 14 November 2025, reporting Nazara's Q2 FY26 results, startup news site", "link": "https://indianstartupnews.com/news/gaming-company-nazara-tech-reports-rs-29-crore-loss-in-q2-fy26-revenue-grows-65-to-rs-526-crore-10652950" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "AFK Gaming sells services to brands in the field it covers. Its site says it also operates a full-stack services agency, Max Level by AFK Gaming, to help brands grow in the gaming and esports space.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "AFK Gaming site, publisher self-description", "link": "https://www.afkgaming.com/about-us" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not cite India Today Gaming as a live outlet without checking. The site, copyright Living Media India Limited, still answered on 30 September 2026, but the newest items on its homepage were dated 30 July 2025, and no statement on whether it closed was found.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "India Today Gaming homepage, read 30 September 2026, publisher's own site", "link": "https://www.indiatodaygaming.com/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Sportskeeda belongs to Nazara Technologies, the listed games company. Nazara bought the last 8.97 percent of Absolute Sports, Sportskeeda's parent, in March 2025, taking its stake to 100 percent.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Inc42, 19 March 2025, startup trade press", "link": "https://inc42.com/buzz/nazara-buys-out-absolute-sports-raises-stake-to-100/" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The defining pattern of the Indian games press is that most outlets whose owners could be verified are verticals or trade titles of national media groups whose main business is general or business news: Outlook (the Rajan Raheja group), Network18 (Reliance Industries), Bennett, Coleman (The Economic Times) and Living Media (India Today Gaming). The other pattern is the games industry owning its press: Sportskeeda belongs to Nazara, and AFK Gaming is being bought outright by NODWIN Gaming, whose largest shareholder is Nazara. IGN India is a licensed edition run by an advertising company. This is an interpretation resting on the ownership claims above.", "card_text": "", "year": "", "source": "Outlook About Us page, company self-description, plus the ownership rows above", "link": "https://www.outlookindia.com/about-us" } ], "Venues": [ { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "YouTube is where Indian live streams are watched. Streams Charts says India's livestreaming remains dominated by YouTube Live, and all ten of the country's most-watched streamers in April 2026 streamed there, but only one, LoLzZz Gaming, streams games; the rest are devotional, cooking and cricket channels.", "card_text": "YouTube Live dominates Indian streaming", "year": "2026", "source": "Streams Charts, Top Indian streamers April 2026, 6 May 2026, analytics platform", "link": "https://streamscharts.com/news/top-indian-streamers-april-2026" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The most-watched Indian games streamer on YouTube in 2025 was LoLzZz Gaming, Yash Thakker, who streams Battlegrounds Mobile India. He was tenth worldwide among YouTube gaming streamers with 29,884,524 hours watched, the only Indian in Streams Charts' top ten.", "card_text": "LoLzZz Gaming, India's most-watched games streamer", "year": "2025", "source": "Streams Charts, Top YouTube gaming streamers of 2025, 19 December 2025, analytics platform", "link": "https://streamscharts.com/news/top-youtube-gaming-streamers-2025" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "WhatsApp chats are private, so they cannot be read from outside. The government put India's WhatsApp users at 53 crore in February 2021, ahead of YouTube at 44.8 crore, Facebook at 41 crore and Instagram at 21 crore, figures it took from outside portals. That its chats are private is a reading of the product, not the release.", "card_text": "WhatsApp chats are private", "year": "2021", "source": "Press Information Bureau release on the IT Rules 2021, 25 February 2021, government release", "link": "https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1700749" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Only members can read a Discord server, but anyone can see how many it has. Discord's invite page showed about 495,484 members, 5,356 of them online, for the official BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA server on 30 September 2026.", "card_text": "BGMI's official Discord, members only", "year": "2026", "source": "Discord invite page for the official BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA server, read 30 September 2026, platform's own count", "link": "https://discord.com/invite/battlegroundsmobilein" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not assert an Indian games venue hierarchy beyond Streams Charts' YouTube datum. The government's 2021 platform figures count all use, not games, and Niko Partners' India Gamer Behavior and Market Insights Report of October 2025 ranks kinds of channel, social media 58.7 percent, short video apps 46.6 percent, influencers and streamers 45.3 percent, not named venues.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Niko Partners, What you need to know about India's video game market, 5 November 2025, market research firm", "link": "https://nikopartners.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-indias-video-game-market/" } ], "Unique to this market": [ { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "There is no Indian games rating board, and no Indian law requires a game to carry an age rating. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and its 2026 Rules set no rating scale, and the Act lists, among steps the government may take, \"supporting initiatives aimed at increasing public access to safe and age-appropriate social gaming content\". India has no rating authority in the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), whose questionnaire gives a generic rating for the rest of the world, so storefronts that use IARC show that generic rating in India.", "card_text": "", "year": "2025", "source": "Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (Act No. 32 of 2025), section 4, MeitY, primary legal text, with IARC, About, read 30 September 2026", "link": "https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/8a7f103cefc68ed8aaa2ebc9a2ed7c13.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Online games played for money are banned, whether they turn on skill or chance. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 defines an online money game as one played by paying fees or depositing money or other stakes in expectation of winning, and bans offering one, advertising one and any bank or payment transfer for one. Other stakes include coins, tokens or credits bought with money, real or virtual.", "card_text": "Money games are banned, skill or chance", "year": "2025", "source": "Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (Act No. 32 of 2025), sections 2, 5, 6 and 7, MeitY, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/8a7f103cefc68ed8aaa2ebc9a2ed7c13.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Most games need no licence or registration. Under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, in force since 1 May 2026, a game must be registered with the Online Gaming Authority of India only if it is to be offered as an e-sport or if the central government notifies it, or its category, for registration, having regard to risk to children, scale, money flows and the provider's country of origin. The Authority may also examine any game of its own motion to decide whether it is a money game.", "card_text": "Only esports must register", "year": "2026", "source": "Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 303(E), 22 April 2026, rules 8 and 12, MeitY, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/04/7e0b02d37fd07f81fa48578a9996aa85.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "An e-sport is a legal category in India, and it cannot carry bets. The 2025 Act defines an e-sport as an organised multiplayer competition decided by skill, recognised under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 and registered with the Online Gaming Authority, which may charge entry fees and pay prize money but involves no bets or stakes by anyone, player or not. A money game cannot be registered as an e-sport.", "card_text": "Esports are a legal category, with no bets", "year": "2025", "source": "Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, section 2(1)(c), MeitY, primary legal text, with the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, rule 12(3)", "link": "https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/8a7f103cefc68ed8aaa2ebc9a2ed7c13.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "No Indian law names loot boxes. Neither the 2025 Act nor its 2026 Rules mentions them, and no loot box rule was found elsewhere. When the Online Gaming Authority decides whether a game is a money game it weighs whether money or other stakes are paid in expectation of winning and whether in-game assets can be redeemed or monetised outside the game, so check a game with cash-out or tradeable items against rule 9 before calling it an ordinary video game.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, rule 9, MeitY, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/04/7e0b02d37fd07f81fa48578a9996aa85.pdf" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "There is no legal cap on how long children play. The 2026 online gaming Rules list time restrictions, age checks and parental controls among the user safety features a game describes when it applies to the Online Gaming Authority, and let the Authority issue codes on user safety, but they set no limit and bind only games that apply or are notified. The government's own summary calls these features mandatory, so read the rule text before quoting either.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, rules 2(1)(i), 6(4) and 23, MeitY, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/04/7e0b02d37fd07f81fa48578a9996aa85.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "From 2027, anyone processing an under-18's personal data will need a parent's verifiable consent. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 requires it and bars tracking, behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising aimed at children, and rule 10 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, published on 13 November 2025, sets how the parent is checked. Rule 10 comes into force eighteen months after publication.", "card_text": "Parental consent for under-18s' data, from 2027", "year": "2025", "source": "Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, G.S.R. 846(E), 13 November 2025, rules 1 and 10, MeitY, primary legal text, with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, section 9", "link": "https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/11/53450e6e5dc0bfa85ebd78686cadad39.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The government can block a game outright, and has. On 2 September 2020 the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology blocked 118 mobile apps under section 69A of the Information Technology Act, citing sovereignty, defence, security and public order and data sent to servers outside India. PUBG MOBILE and PUBG MOBILE LITE were among them.", "card_text": "Games can be blocked under section 69A", "year": "2020", "source": "Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Electronics and IT, 2 September 2020, government release", "link": "https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1650669" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Blocking orders are not always published, and a block can be lifted. Garena's Free Fire was among 54 apps blocked under section 69A in February 2022 without an official statement, per TechCrunch. Krafton's Battlegrounds Mobile India, blocked in July 2022, was allowed back in May 2023 on a three-month trial after addressing concerns over data security and where its servers were, according to the deputy IT minister as TechCrunch reports.", "card_text": "BGMI came back in 2023, on trial", "year": "2023", "source": "TechCrunch, Manish Singh, 18 May 2023, technology news site, with TechCrunch, 13 February 2022", "link": "https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/18/krafton-to-relaunch-bgmi-mobile-game-in-india-a-year-after-ban" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not describe Indian online games as regulated by industry self-regulatory bodies. The 2023 amendment to the IT Rules let the ministry designate online gaming self-regulatory bodies to verify permissible real-money games, but its obligations for online games apply only three months after at least three such bodies are designated, and no designation could be found. The rule is still in MeitY's consolidated text of 10 February 2026. The 2025 Act and its Online Gaming Authority are the regime in force.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, rules 4A and 4B, updated as on 10 February 2026, MeitY, primary legal text", "link": "https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/02/550681ab908f8afb135b0ad42816a1c9.pdf" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "The central government backs games through a creative technology institute, not a tax credit. The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), a not-for-profit company named the National Centre of Excellence for animation, visual effects, gaming, comics and extended reality (AVGC-XR), opened its first campus in Mumbai on 18 July 2025 with an initial budget of 400 crore rupees, and the Budget 2026-27 speech proposes that it set up AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges.", "card_text": "A national institute, not a tax credit", "year": "2026", "source": "Press Information Bureau explainer, Powering Creative Technology, 18 November 2025, government release, with the Budget 2026-2027 speech, 1 February 2026", "link": "https://www.pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?NoteId=156068&ModuleId=3®=3&lang=2" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "States run their own programmes. Karnataka has an AVGC-XR Policy for 2024 to 2029 on skilling, incubation and market competitiveness, and Maharashtra approved an AVGC-XR Policy in September 2025 with a financial plan of 3,268 crore rupees and a roadmap to 2050, per the central government's account.", "card_text": "Karnataka and Maharashtra have AVGC policies", "year": "2025", "source": "Press Information Bureau explainer, Powering Creative Technology, 18 November 2025, government release", "link": "https://www.pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?NoteId=156068&ModuleId=3®=3&lang=2" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Android accounted for 92.77 percent of mobile page views in India in August 2026 and iOS for 7.17 percent, per StatCounter, which bases its shares on page views, so the split measures web traffic, not devices, players or spending.", "card_text": "Android ~93 percent of mobile web traffic", "year": "2026", "source": "StatCounter Global Stats, mobile operating system market share in India, August 2026, web analytics", "link": "https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/india" }, { "kind": "Narrative", "claim": "Google Play in India takes UPI from every provider, including for subscriptions through UPI Autopay, as well as Visa and Mastercard, RuPay cards for one-time purchases, and Play balance and recharge codes. It stopped taking net banking in October 2025.", "card_text": "UPI pays for Google Play", "year": "2026", "source": "Google Play Help, Accepted payment methods on Google Play, India, read 30 September 2026, platform owner's support page", "link": "https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/2651410?hl=en&co=GENIE.CountryCode%3DIN" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not date the Online Gaming Act from 1 October 2025. The IT minister announced that date in September 2025 and some law-firm notes still give it, but the ministry notified on 22 April 2026 that the Act takes effect from 1 May 2026, the day the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026 also came into force. The draft rules were published on 2 October 2025.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "SCC Online blog, 23 April 2026, legal publisher, reporting the ministry's notification of 22 April 2026", "link": "https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2026/04/23/meity-notified-enforcement-of-promotion-regulation-online-gaming-act-2025/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "HOLD: do not report the challenge to the Online Gaming Act as decided. The Supreme Court took the petitions against it from three high courts on 8 September 2025, before a three-judge bench, and no ruling on the Act and no stay of it had been reported by 30 September 2026.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Supreme Court Observer, Challenge to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, case page, legal tracker", "link": "https://www.scobserver.in/cases/challenge-to-the-promotion-and-regulation-of-online-gaming-act-2025/" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "Do not report the tax demands on real-money gaming companies as stayed. The Supreme Court stayed show-cause notices worth 1.12 lakh crore rupees in January 2025, but on 27 May 2026 it ruled that the 28 percent tax applies to full deposits, and Outlook Business puts the demands for past years that now stand at nearly 2.5 trillion rupees.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Outlook Business, 28 May 2026, business magazine, with LawBeat, January 2025", "link": "https://www.outlookbusiness.com/corporate/real-money-gaming-companies-brace-for-next-move-after-sc-gst-ruling" } ], "Where the data lives": [ { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "FICCI-EY media and entertainment report. The annual report by FICCI and EY sizes India's online and video games, money gaming and esports in rupees, with gamer counts and Sensor Tower genre tables, free to download as a PDF with no form, released each March under a new title.", "card_text": "FICCI-EY media and entertainment report", "year": "", "source": "FICCI and EY, trade body and consultancy annual", "link": "https://www.ey.com/en_in/insights/media-entertainment/stories-scale-and-impact-unlocking-india-s-m-e-economy" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Lumikai State of Interactive Media Report. The games venture fund's annual sizes India's video games, real-money gaming and other interactive media in dollars, with gamer and payer counts and top-grossing titles, free as a PDF on its site with no form. The fifth edition, for calendar 2025, came out on 23 March 2026.", "card_text": "Lumikai State of Interactive Media Report", "year": "", "source": "Lumikai, venture fund annual", "link": "https://www.lumikai.com/post/india-s-interactive-media-economy-state-of-interactive-media-report-2025" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Time Use Survey 2024, National Statistics Office (MoSPI). The national survey of how people aged 6 and over spend their day, 139,487 households in 2024 after a first round in 2019, codes play under 823, Playing games and other pastime activities, with no separate code for video games. Free on MoSPI's site.", "card_text": "Time Use Survey (MoSPI)", "year": "", "source": "MoSPI press note, Report: Time Use in India, 2024, 28 March 2025, national statistics office", "link": "https://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/Press_Note_28.03.2025-1.pdf" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Nazara Technologies investor relations. The investors site of the company that calls itself India's only listed gaming company, in business since 1999, carries its quarterly highlights and filings, free.", "card_text": "Nazara Technologies investor relations", "year": "", "source": "Nazara Technologies, investor relations site, primary corporate disclosure", "link": "https://investors.nazara.com/" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "App Store top-grossing games feed, India (Apple). Apple's public RSS feed ranks the top-grossing games in the Indian App Store, free, with prices in rupees and the time of its last update, and a script can read it as JSON. It gives ranks, not revenue, states neither its method nor its period, and covers Apple's store alone.", "card_text": "App Store top-grossing games feed, India (Apple)", "year": "", "source": "Apple, iTunes Store RSS feed Top Grossing, Games, India, platform chart", "link": "https://itunes.apple.com/in/rss/topgrossingapplications/limit=25/genre=6014/json" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "Google Play top charts for games, India (Google). The games page of Google Play's Indian store shows Top free, Top grossing and Top paid charts for Android, free. It gives ranks only, states no method or period, keeps no archive, and shows the chart for the store's country, set here by gl=IN in the address.", "card_text": "Google Play top charts, India (Google)", "year": "", "source": "Google Play, games top charts, India, platform chart", "link": "https://play.google.com/store/games?hl=en_IN&gl=IN" }, { "kind": "Card entry", "claim": "The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.", "card_text": "The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)", "year": "", "source": "Matthew Ball, Epyllion, independent analyst, annual presentation", "link": "https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026" }, { "kind": "Research note", "claim": "There is no games rating database to search in India. The Bureau of Indian Standards' IS 19690:2026, notified on 10 March 2026, sets age ratings from U/A 0+ to A that publishers assess themselves, and it is voluntary, with no order making it compulsory. No public register of ratings under it was found.", "card_text": "", "year": "2026", "source": "Outlook Respawn, Abhimannu Das, 20 April 2026, games news site", "link": "https://respawn.outlookindia.com/gaming/gaming-originals/indias-first-game-rating-standard-real-need-or-overreach" } ] }, "known_gaps": [ { "gap": "Consumer spending. No free figure for what Indian players spend is held: the size card is FICCI-EY's revenue estimate, which counts advertising and esports as well as purchases, and Lumikai's dollar figure is revenue on another basis.", "instead": "Quote each annual with its edition and basis, as the Market size notes say, and read a spending figure that names no publisher as untraceable." }, { "gap": "Player numbers. No count of India's players says who was counted, over what period or how, so the directory carries no player figure for India.", "instead": "Name the publisher with any count, as the Shape notes do, and use the national Time Use Survey for time spent on games and pastimes, the one official measure." }, { "gap": "Company filings. Most of India's largest games companies are private, and only Nazara and OnMobile report games revenue as listed companies.", "instead": "Use the fiscal-year search technique to find business reporting on private companies' annual filings, and Nazara's and OnMobile's investor pages for the listed ones." }, { "gap": "Console and PC play. No chart counts what India plays on console or PC: Steam publishes no chart for India, and both annuals measure phones first.", "instead": "Read TechEnclave for what PC players buy and pay, and quote a device share only with the annual that states it." }, { "gap": "Communities. Most talk among Indian players happens on YouTube, in closed apps, and in Hindi and regional languages, and the open communities held could not be measured or are quiet.", "instead": "Search YouTube and Discord in Hindi, as the searching tips say, read a Discord server's size from its invite page, and read the forums for the temperature of the talk, never its size." } ] } ]