Game Statistics 2026
How many people play, what they spend, where they play and what they play, from video games to chess and board games. 199 figures, each with its original source, a date and a link, plus numbers we track ourselves every day.
Key numbers
- 3.70 billionAbout 3.70 billion people worldwide are forecast to play video games in 2026, up 4.4% on 2025.Newzoo
- $213.9 billionThe global games market is forecast to generate $213.9 billion in 2026, up 6.1% from 2025.Newzoo
- $121.1 billionMobile games are the biggest slice of the market: $121.1 billion in 2026, or 57% of global games revenue.Newzoo
- 1.65 billionAbout 1.65 billion people are expected to spend money on games in 2026 – 44.6% of all players.Newzoo
- 43,505,724Steam set its all-time record of 43,505,724 users online at the same time on 11 October 2026.SteamDB
- 3.3 billion hoursEsports audiences watched a record 3.3 billion hours of live esports in 2025, up 1.5% from 2024.Esports Charts
- 267 millionChess.com had more than 267 million members as of June 30, 2026.Chess.com
- 1.11 billionLichess players played about 1.11 billion rated standard games in 2025, around 3 million a day.Lichess
- 45 millionMore than 45 million copies of CATAN have been sold worldwide since 1995.CATAN GmbH
- 11.2 billionPlayers solved more than 11.2 billion New York Times Games puzzles in 2025, including 4.2 billion Wordles.The New York Times (reported by TODAY/NBC)
- 37 minutesAmericans aged 15 and over spent an average of 37 minutes a day playing games or using a computer for leisure in 2025, up from 25 minutes in 2015.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- 199 million199 million people aged 6–75 play video games in 16 European countries – 51% of that population.Video Games Europe & EGDF (data: GameTrack Ipsos)
Tracked by BeatMe
Two public counters we record ourselves, automatically, several times a day: how many chess games are played on Lichess, and how many people are logged in to Steam at the busiest moment of each day. Free to use: cite BeatMe Games and link to this page.
- 95,395,628 rated games were played on Lichess in October 2026.
- That is 4.2% more than in October 2025.
- The busiest month so far: March 2023, with 108,201,825 games.
- 8,315,708,510 rated games in total since January 2013.
Source: Lichess open database · recorded by BeatMe Games
- On November 14, 2026, 41,470,340 people were logged in to Steam at the busiest moment of the day.
- The highest daily peak we have recorded: 42,610,586, on November 1, 2026.
- We record this peak every day, starting October 31, 2026.
Source: Steam & Game Stats (Valve) · recorded by BeatMe Games
Players and the games market
Around 3.7 billion people play video games, most of them on smartphones, and players are now spread almost evenly across genders and well into middle age. Together they spend more than $200 billion a year on games, with China and the United States the two largest markets. Figures below come from industry associations, research firms and companies' own reports.
Source: Newzoo
Source: Newzoo
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About 3.70 billion people worldwide are forecast to play video games in 2026, up 4.4% on 2025.
Forecast from Newzoo's Global Games Market Report 2026; Newzoo expects player growth to flatten through 2029.
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In 2025, 3.58 billion people played games – more than 60% of everyone who is online.
Newzoo's 2026 update puts online-population penetration at about 62% in 2026, so the share of internet users who play is levelling off.
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Mobile is by far the most-used gaming platform: about 3.10 billion people are expected to play mobile games in 2026.
For comparison, Newzoo counted 936 million PC players and 645 million console players in 2025; many people play on more than one device.
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About 1.65 billion people are expected to spend money on games in 2026 – 44.6% of all players.
Most players never pay; the majority play free games or games they already own.
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Asia-Pacific is home to about 1.94 billion players in 2026, more than half of the world's gamers.
Newzoo's regional player counts are in its full report; this figure is from Newzoo's August 2026 key numbers, as published by gamescom latam.
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Latin America has about 394 million players in 2026 – 11% of the world's players but only 4% of global games revenue.
The same article states LATAM accounts for 11% of global players but only 4% of revenue, i.e. spending per player is low.
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199 million people aged 6–75 play video games in 16 European countries – 51% of that population.
Covers Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The report foreword refers to events of June 2026, so it was published in 2026.
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In Europe, 46% of players are women and the average player is 34 years old.
Europe's average is lower than the US figure (37) partly because the European survey stops at age 75.
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41.2 million people in Germany play computer and video games – about 6 in 10 people aged 6 to 69.
From this edition the count includes everyone living in Germany regardless of nationality, so it is not directly comparable with earlier years.
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The average gamer in Germany is 38.3 years old, and people aged 60+ are the largest single age group of players (18%).
46% of German players are women and 54% men; the smartphone (23.7 million players) is the most-used platform.
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China had 683 million game users in 2025, a record high.
Official industry report released at the China Game Industry Annual Conference on 19 Dec 2025 (posted online 30 Dec 2025).
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Japan had an estimated 56.4 million game players in 2025, up 3.0% on 2024.
Kadokawa says the Japanese player population has been roughly flat over the medium term.
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The global games market is forecast to generate $213.9 billion in 2026, up 6.1% from 2025.
Consumer spending on game software and services only (no hardware, ads or taxes). Newzoo's final 2025 estimate is $201.6 billion, well above its Sept 2025 forecast of $188.8 billion.
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Mobile games are the biggest slice of the market: $121.1 billion in 2026, or 57% of global games revenue.
Newzoo's figure includes direct-to-consumer and Chinese Android revenue, so it is higher than app-store-only estimates such as Sensor Tower's.
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Console games are forecast to earn $46.9 billion worldwide in 2026 (22% of the market).
Newzoo links the rebound to big launches (GTA VI in November 2026), Switch 2, subscriptions and higher prices.
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PC games are forecast to earn $45.9 billion worldwide in 2026 (21% of the market).
PC has the highest player-to-spender conversion of any platform, at 55%.
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Asia-Pacific is the largest games region, with $100.7 billion in 2026 – 47% of global games revenue.
Other regions in 2026: North America $56.9B (27%), Europe $38.5B (18%), Latin America $9.3B (4%), Middle East & Africa $8.5B (4%, fastest-growing at +10.3%).
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Paying players are forecast to spend an average of $129.60 each on games in 2026.
Average across all paying players worldwide; it varies widely by region.
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China ($49.8 billion) and the United States ($49.6 billion) were the two biggest games markets in 2025, together accounting for half of all consumer games spending.
Newzoo later raised its 2025 global total; its 2026 report says China and the US account for 52% of spending in 2026.
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China's domestic games market earned ¥350.8 billion (about $49 billion) in 2025, up 7.7%.
Mobile games made up 73.29% (¥257.1B). Chinese-developed games also earned $20.46B abroad. Dollar conversion is approximate.
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Japan's game content market grew 8.0% to ¥2.59 trillion in 2025.
Software, DLC, in-game purchases and subscriptions on console, PC and mobile; excludes hardware. Famitsu puts the 2025 world market at ¥32.1 trillion ($214.6B).
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Germany's games market (games, hardware and online services) was worth about €9.4 billion in 2025 – the largest in Europe and fifth-largest in the world.
Games and in-game purchases were €4.9B (−1%), hardware €3.4B (+12%), online gaming services just over €1B (+7%).
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Europe's video game market (16 countries) generated €29.7 billion in revenue, 91% of it digital.
Smartphones/tablets account for 49% of revenue, consoles 30% and PC 12% (EU16).
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Premium (paid) games earned about $12 billion on Steam in 2025.
Sensor Tower estimate of premium game sales; Valve does not publish Steam revenue. Figure appears in the release headline.
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Roblox bookings grew 55% to $6.8 billion in 2025.
Roblox says it accounted for 3.4% of the global gaming content market at the end of 2025 (citing Newzoo).
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Roblox averaged 138 million daily active users in Q3 2026, with $1.7 billion in bookings.
Q3 2026 DAUs were 9% lower and bookings 12% lower than the record Q3 2025; Roblox cites tough comparisons.
Mobile, PC and console
Mobile is where most people play: about 3 billion players and roughly $82 billion in app-store spending a year, even as downloads fall. On PC, Steam keeps setting user records and releasing more games than ever, while console makers report their installed bases in investor filings.
Source: SteamDB
Source: Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Source: Newzoo
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Players spent almost $82 billion on in-app purchases in mobile games in 2025, up 1.3% on 2024.
Covers in-app purchases on the App Store and Google Play only; ad revenue and Chinese Android stores are not included.
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In 2025, for the first time, people spent more on in-app purchases in non-game apps than in mobile games; total app-store spending reached $167 billion.
Games grew 1.3% while non-game app spending grew 21%, driven partly by generative-AI subscriptions.
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Games were downloaded 52 billion times across mobile, PC and console in 2025.
Mobile accounts for the vast majority of downloads; download growth slowed compared with 2024.
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About 95,000 mobile games were downloaded every minute in 2025, compared with 3,800 PC and console games per minute.
Shows the scale gap between mobile and PC/console in sheer download volume.
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Mobile games were downloaded 49 billion times in 2024, 7% fewer than in 2023.
Downloads have been falling while spending and time spent rise: publishers focus on keeping existing players rather than winning new ones.
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The strategy games Last War: Survival and Whiteout Survival were the two highest-grossing mobile games of 2025, with about $2.4 billion and $2.2 billion in player spending.
Sensor Tower's State of Gaming 2026 press release also names them #1 and #2 by 2025 revenue; the dollar figures are Sensor Tower estimates of in-app purchase revenue.
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135 mobile games each earned more than $100 million from in-app purchases in 2025, together $50.8 billion.
Roughly 60% of the ~$82 billion mobile game spending went to these 135 titles, showing how concentrated the market is.
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Strategy games earned nearly $15 billion in mobile in-app purchases in 2025, the highest of any genre group among top earners.
Figure refers to strategy titles among games with $100M+ revenue; Sensor Tower says strategy was the only genre to grow revenue, downloads and time spent in 2025.
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The block puzzle game Block Blast! was the world's most downloaded mobile game in March 2026 and has passed 800 million lifetime downloads.
A simple puzzle game leads downloads while strategy games lead revenue; the same post reports 3.8 billion mobile game downloads in March 2026.
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Mobile games earned more than $12 billion from in-game advertising in 2025, from 2.4 trillion ad impressions.
Covers 19 markets per Sensor Tower; ad revenue comes on top of the ~$82 billion in in-app purchases.
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Mobile game in-app spending reached $39.8 billion in the first half of 2026, 2% below the first half of 2025 ($40.6 billion).
Mid-core games earned about $20.6B and casual games about $16.5B of the half-year total.
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Mobile game downloads fell 12% to 24 billion in the first half of 2026, while play time held at 221 billion hours.
Fewer new installs but steady engagement: players keep playing games they already have.
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Hybridcasual mobile games grew in-app revenue by about 23% to $2.4 billion in the first half of 2026.
Hybridcasual mixes simple hypercasual gameplay with deeper progression and purchases; the same report says hypercasual gained time spent in H1 2026.
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About 3.0 billion people played games on mobile devices in 2025, 83% of all players worldwide.
Shares add up to more than 100% because many people play on several platforms; Newzoo counts 3.58 billion players in total.
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Players spent $6.13 billion on mobile games in September 2026, and Roblox was the most downloaded mobile game that month.
The same post reports 3.56 billion mobile game downloads in September 2026 (-5.2% month on month).
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Browser game sites recorded about 9.4 billion visits in the first half of 2026, roughly flat year on year.
Sensor Tower notes browser traffic is concentrated in a handful of sites; this is one of very few measured figures for web games.
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Steam set its all-time record of 43,505,724 users online at the same time on 11 October 2026.
SteamDB records Valve's public concurrent-user counts; the previous record was about 42 million in January 2026, the level Valve cites in its 2025 review.
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Steam has added about 3.4 million peak concurrent users per year over five years, growing from 25 million to 42 million.
Valve's own figure; Valve has not published monthly active users in recent reviews.
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Steam delivered about 100 exabytes of game downloads and updates in 2025, up from 80 exabytes in 2024.
Valve says this averages 274 petabytes per day, about 190,000 GB per minute.
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Steam Deck users played 330 million hours of Steam games in 2024, 64% more than in 2023.
Latest Valve-published Steam Deck playtime figure; the 2025 review did not update it.
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21,217 games were released on Steam in 2025, up from 18,429 in 2024 and more than double the 9,629 of 2020.
SteamDB's count updates as listings change; other snapshots taken in December 2025 showed lower totals (about 17,900–20,000).
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Games released on Steam rose 19% to roughly 12,000 in the first half of 2026, while Steam premium game revenue dipped 5% to $5.4 billion.
Sensor Tower estimate; premium revenue means sales of paid games, not in-game purchases.
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Paid (premium) games earned about $12 billion on Steam in 2025, and PC/console game revenue grew 13%.
Sensor Tower estimate (Valve does not publish revenue); Steam saw record units sold, premium revenue and number of releases in 2025.
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Battlefield 6 was the best-selling PC and console game of 2025, followed by the low-priced co-op hits R.E.P.O. and PEAK.
Ranking by copies sold as estimated by Sensor Tower across PC/console.
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72.51% of Steam users surveyed in October 2026 ran Windows 11; Linux reached 3.95%.
Monthly opt-in sample survey of Steam users; the same survey shows 16 GB RAM in 41.42% of systems and English as language for 39.04%.
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Nintendo had sold 156.59 million Nintendo Switch consoles by 30 June 2026, more than any other Nintendo system (Nintendo DS: 154.02 million).
Worldwide consolidated sell-in units; Sony reports PlayStation 2 at more than 160 million, still the best-selling console overall.
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Nintendo had sold 23.68 million Nintendo Switch 2 consoles by 30 June 2026, about 13 months after launch.
Switch 2 launched on 5 June 2025; figures are units shipped (sell-in), not sold to consumers.
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Sony had shipped more than 95 million PlayStation 5 consoles by 30 June 2026.
Sell-in units; PS5 shipments fell to 16.0 million in fiscal year 2025 (Apr 2025–Mar 2026) from 18.5 million the year before.
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PlayStation had 125 million monthly active users in June 2026, after a record 133 million in December 2025.
Sony counts monthly active users as unique accounts that played or used online services on PlayStation in the last month of the quarter.
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Xbox Game Pass earned nearly $5 billion in annual revenue for the first time in Microsoft's fiscal year 2025.
Microsoft's last official Game Pass subscriber count was 34 million (February 2024); no newer subscriber number has been published.
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Microsoft reports 500 million monthly active users across its gaming platforms and devices.
Counts players of Microsoft games on all platforms (Xbox, PC, mobile, PlayStation), not only Xbox console users.
Time spent, kids and health
How much time people spend playing, when they play, how children and teenagers use games, and what research says about gaming disorder and wellbeing. Figures come from official time-use surveys, regulators, industry associations, platform reports and peer-reviewed studies.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Source: Ofcom
Source: Roblox Corporation
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Americans aged 15 and over spent an average of 37 minutes a day playing games or using a computer for leisure in 2025, up from 25 minutes in 2015.
The BLS category also includes board games, social media and other leisure computer use, so it is broader than video games alone.
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Americans aged 15 to 19 spent 1.5 hours a day playing games or using a computer for leisure in 2025, more than any other age group.
Down to 0.26 hours a day for ages 55–64. The category also includes social media and other leisure computer use.
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Watching TV took 2.6 hours of Americans' day in 2025, roughly four times the 37 minutes spent playing games or using a computer for leisure.
Both figures are averages over all people aged 15+ on all days, including people who did not play or watch at all that day.
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Saturday is the biggest gaming day in the U.S., accounting for 22% of players' weekly playing time, versus about 11% on each weekday from Monday to Thursday.
Among players aged 8+. Friday is 16% and Sunday 17%.
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The evening (6pm–9pm) is the most popular time to play in the U.S., with 33% of playing time, followed by night (9pm–midnight) at 21%.
Among players aged 8+. Afternoon (2pm–6pm) is 20%, midday 10%, morning 9%, late night 8%.
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Video game players in Europe spend on average 8 hours 59 minutes a week playing.
Average among players aged 6–75.
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People in Germany aged 10 and over spent an average of 2 hours 10 minutes a week on computer games in 2022, nearly double the 1 hour 8 minutes of 2012/2013.
Official diary-based time-use survey run about every ten years; the average covers everyone aged 10+, players and non-players. Games moved ahead of visits to cultural events as the third-largest cultural activity.
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German 10- to 17-year-olds spent an average of 1 hour 7 minutes a day on video and computer games in 2022; boys played 1 hour 46 minutes a day, about four times as long as girls (26 minutes).
Destatis published revised 2022 time-use results on 6 June 2025 (Census 2022 weighting) and says they may differ slightly from these figures; the all-ages average was 19 minutes a day.
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Gaming is the most popular free-time activity among UK children aged 8–17: 43% name it among their three favourite things to do, ahead of watching TV or films (36%).
Children chose up to three favourite free-time activities (Overview, key findings).
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97% of U.S. teen boys play video games, compared with about three-quarters of teen girls; 61% of boys play daily versus 22% of girls.
62% of boys and 17% of girls call themselves gamers.
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84% of U.S. children aged 5 to 17 play video games for at least one hour a week, compared with 63% of adults.
Children's play was reported by adults for their household; players aged 8–17 answered with a parent present.
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88% of UK children aged 3–17 play games on some kind of device, peaking at 96% among 10- to 12-year-olds.
Boys are more likely than girls to game (91% vs 86%); Ofcom changed its survey method in 2025, so year-on-year comparisons are indicative only.
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55% of UK children aged 3–17 play games online, rising to 72% of 8- to 17-year-olds.
Online gaming by age: 29% (3–5), 48% (6–7), 64% (8–9), 75% (10–12), 73% (13–15), 76% (16–17). 55% of children who game online play at least sometimes with people they have only met online.
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U.S. children aged 0 to 8 spent 38 minutes a day playing video games in 2024, up 65% from 23 minutes in 2020.
Children aged 5–8 went from 40 minutes to 1 hour 4 minutes a day; total screen time stayed steady at about 2.5 hours a day.
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Roblox is used by 51% of UK children aged 8–14, making it their fourth most-used app or site after YouTube, WhatsApp and TikTok.
Data from Ofcom's Children's Online Safety Tracker; Minecraft is used by 39% of 8–14s and 34% of all 8–17s.
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34% of Roblox's age-checked daily users are under 13, 37% are aged 13 to 17 and 29% are 18 or older.
Based on the 64% of daily users who had completed an age check; Roblox averaged 138 million daily active users in Q3 2026 and says about 30% of U.S. 13–17-year-olds use it daily.
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91% of UK parents whose children play games say they set rules about their child's gaming.
Parents' most cited gaming concern is their child talking to strangers while gaming (64%); 56% say the benefits of playing games outweigh the risks.
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79% of U.S. parents say they use parental controls on a video game device.
83% of parents whose children play know the ESRB age ratings.
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93% of U.S. parents who have bought in-game content for their children require the child to ask for approval before purchases.
54% of parents have bought in-game content for their children.
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73% of U.S. parents would rather their child spend time playing video games than on social media.
Industry association survey; 75% of U.S. parents play video games themselves and 81% of those have played with their children.
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Under the WHO's ICD-11, gaming disorder is diagnosed only when impaired control over gaming causes significant impairment and has normally been evident for at least 12 months.
WHO adds that studies suggest gaming disorder 'affects only a small proportion' of people who play digital or video games.
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A meta-analysis of 53 studies with 226,247 participants estimated the worldwide prevalence of gaming disorder at 3.05%, or 1.96% when only studies with stricter sampling were counted.
Rates were about 2.5 times higher in males. Estimates vary with method: a 2026 umbrella review of nine meta-analyses (Poon et al., Brain Sciences) reported a median of 6.20% (IQR 4.25–8.30%) for internet gaming disorder.
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56% of U.S. teens who play video games say gaming has helped their problem-solving skills, while 41% say it has hurt how much sleep they get.
Self-reported views; 60% of teen players say gaming has neither helped nor hurt their mental health and 72% say the same about school performance.
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An Oxford study of about 39,000 adult players, using real playtime data from seven games, found little to no evidence that time spent playing affects well-being.
Vuorre, Johannes, Magnusson & Przybylski (2022); the authors found players' motivations mattered more than hours played. Older study, but still the largest of its kind using logged playtime.
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In a natural experiment using console lotteries in Japan, owning a Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 5 reduced psychological distress and raised life satisfaction by 0.1 to 0.6 standard deviations.
Survey data n = 97,602 (ages 10–69); the authors report the benefits diminished when gaming went beyond 3 hours a day.
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A U.S. study of nearly 2,000 children aged 9–10 found those who played video games 3 or more hours a day did better on impulse-control and working-memory tests than children who never played.
Chaarani et al., JAMA Network Open; a cross-sectional study that cannot show cause and effect, and the heavy-gaming group also scored higher (sub-clinically) on attention problems and depression symptoms.
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25–30% of Xbox players identify as having a disability, and 10% report a disability that affects their gaming.
Based on Microsoft's own 2020 Xbox accessibility survey and research synthesis; older data, and it covers Xbox players only.
Board games, chess and puzzles
Board games, card games and classic games like chess are growing both at the table and online. This section collects the latest official numbers from fairs, publishers, crowdfunding platforms, game sites and surveys. Sales and market-size figures from research firms are labelled as estimates.
Source: Lichess
Source: YouGov
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SPIEL Essen 2026, the world's largest board game fair, drew a record 230,000 visitors over four sold-out days.
Up 10,000 on the 2025 record of 220,000; attendance is capped per day, so the fair sold out on all four days.
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997 exhibitors from 53 countries brought 2,012 new games to SPIEL Essen 2026.
The fair used all eight halls of Messe Essen for the first time, a total of 81,200 square metres.
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Gen Con 2026 in Indianapolis set an attendance record with over 74,000 attendees.
Gen Con is North America's largest tabletop gaming convention; 2025 drew nearly 72,000, the previous record. The release gives a rounded figure and does not say whether it counts unique attendees.
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Gen Con 2026 offered nearly 28,000 events and generated an estimated $83.5 million in economic impact for Indianapolis.
The economic-impact estimate comes from Visit Indy, quoted in Gen Con's release.
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Backers pledged $220 million to successful tabletop game campaigns on Kickstarter in 2024.
Tabletop received 83% of all Games pledges on Kickstarter in 2024; Kickstarter has not published a 2025 tabletop total (its 2025 year review gives no games figure).
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In 2024, 6,646 tabletop game projects launched on Kickstarter and 80% of them (5,314) were successfully funded.
The success rate was the highest in Kickstarter's history for the category.
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Games projects on Kickstarter have raised $2.63 billion since 2009.
Covers the whole Games category (tabletop and video games); cumulative to early 2025.
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More than 45 million copies of CATAN have been sold worldwide since 1995.
Publisher's own cumulative figure as of Q1 2025; the same page estimates about 20 million people regularly play in the CATAN universe.
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Ticket to Ride has sold more than 20 million copies since its 2004 launch.
Cumulative figure from the owner of publisher Days of Wonder, stated when Netflix optioned the game.
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Mattel's mobile card games, including UNO!, Phase 10 and Skip-Bo, have passed 550 million downloads and reach about 20 million monthly active players.
Mobile apps only, cumulative since 2018. Mattel does not publish total physical UNO deck sales.
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Market researchers estimate the global board games market at about $15.8 billion in 2025 (estimate by Fortune Business Insights).
Commercial estimate, not measured sales. Other firms put 2025 between $17.2 billion (Mordor Intelligence) and $21.5 billion (Research and Markets), so treat it as a rough order of magnitude.
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Games & Puzzles was the largest and fastest-growing US toy supercategory in 2025, with dollar sales up 37%.
Growth was driven mainly by Pokémon trading cards, which count in this category; the whole US toy market grew 6%.
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In Germany, sales of games and puzzles grew 8% in the first three quarters of 2026, while the overall toy market grew 3%.
Data from the board game publishers' association Spieleverlage e.V. (part of DVSI), released for SPIEL Essen 2026.
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28% of US adults play board games at least once a month, while 22% never play them.
Online poll of 1,131 US adult citizens, margin of error about 4 points. 65% say they love or like playing board games.
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93% of US adults have played Monopoly, but only 19% have played Catan and 18% Ticket to Ride.
The Ticket to Ride share (18%) adds up the poll's 'played' answers (3% + 5% + 10%).
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Almost half of US adults have played mahjong (45%) or backgammon (47%) at least once.
45% and 47% are the sums of the poll's 'many times', 'several times' and 'once or twice' answers (mahjong 13+13+19; backgammon 11+14+22).
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FIDE, the world chess federation, counts 1.5 million rated players across 204 national federations.
A rounded figure; FIDE does not say whether inactive players are included. For comparison, FIDE reported 352,234 players with a standard rating in December 2019.
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Chess.com had more than 267 million members as of June 30, 2026.
Registered accounts, not active players. Chess.com passed 250 million members in February 2026 and 100 million in December 2022.
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Chess.com averaged 10.2 million daily active users in Q2 2026, up 25.7% from a year earlier.
The same report lists 14.2 million new registrations and 2.8 billion games in the quarter.
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Chess.com players completed 23,035,551 games on a single day, February 17, 2026.
Counts only games between two human players, not bot games. The same talk put Chess.com's all-time total at 32 billion games.
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Lichess's open database holds 8.3 billion rated standard chess games, all free to download.
Rated standard chess only; variants, casual and bot games are not included. The total grows every month.
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Lichess players played about 1.11 billion rated standard games in 2025, around 3 million a day.
Our sum of Lichess's twelve published monthly counts for 2025. Volume has stayed at 1.09–1.18 billion a year since 2021.
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Online chess doubled during the 2020 chess boom: Lichess's monthly rated games rose from 44.1 million in December 2019 to 89.4 million in December 2020.
The jump coincides with pandemic lockdowns and the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit (October 2020).
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Players solved more than 11.2 billion New York Times Games puzzles in 2025, including 4.2 billion Wordles.
NYT shared the numbers exclusively with TODAY; an average of 46 Wordle scores were shared per second.
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After Wordle, the most-solved NYT puzzles in 2025 were Connections (1.6 billion), Strands (1.5 billion) and the Mini Crossword (1.4 billion).
Spelling Bee and Pips (a domino-style logic puzzle) follow with well under a billion solves each.
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Microsoft Solitaire Collection has over 35 million players each month, who play more than 100 million hands a day.
This is Microsoft's latest published figure, from 2020; no newer official number exists, so treat it as dated.
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The 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event drew 9,208 entrants at $10,000 each, and the winner took $10 million.
Poker counted here as a tournament game, not gambling. Lucas Jumalon (22) won the $10,000,000 first prize.
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The 2025 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas set records with 246,960 entries across all events.
Counts entries across all tournaments of the summer series (one player can enter many events), not unique players.
Countries compared
How gaming looks in the countries of our seven languages, each from that country's own sources. Every source counts players in its own way (different age ranges and survey methods), so compare with care.
Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche, SELL / Médiamétrie
Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche, SELL / Médiamétrie, AEVI (Asociación Española de Videojuegos), Pesquisa Game Brasil (SX Group and Go Gamers, with Blend New Research and ESPM), Gaming in Türkiye MENA EU (Türkiye Oyun Sektörü Raporu 2025), reported by Bloomberg HT
Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Bitkom e.V., SELL (Syndicat des Éditeurs de Logiciels de Loisirs) / Médiamétrie, AEVI (Asociación Española de Videojuegos)
United States
One of the two biggest games markets in the world. Figures from the Entertainment Software Association's yearly survey, Circana's sales tracking and Pew Research Center.
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Half of American Boomers (ages 62–80) play video games every week, as do 71% of Millennials and 56% of Gen X.
More than 80% of Gen Alpha (5–13) and Gen Z (14–29) play; even 32% of the Silent Generation (81–90) do.
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Americans spent $60.7 billion on video games in 2025 – content, hardware and accessories combined – the second-highest total on record.
Of this, $52.3B was game content, $5.4B hardware and $2.95B accessories; only 2021 ($61.7B) was higher. US mobile game spending alone was $26.7B (Sensor Tower).
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Gen Alpha, Gen Z and Millennial players in the US who buy in-game content typically spend $20 a month on it.
Median among Gen Alpha, Gen Z and Millennial players who buy in-game content.
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212.3 million Americans aged 5 to 90 play video games, which is 67% of the U.S. population playing at least one hour a week.
ESA counts only people who play at least 1 hour per week; the figure was up 3% (7.2 million) on 2025 according to ESA's June 3, 2026 press release.
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The average American video game player is 37 years old.
63% of U.S. adults (18–90) and 84% of children (5–17) play at least one hour a week.
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53% of U.S. video game players are male and 46% are female.
The remaining 1% are non-binary or preferred not to say.
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Mobile is the most-used gaming platform in the U.S.: 73% of households play on mobile, 52% on PC, 44% on console and 10% in virtual reality.
83% of U.S. households played on at least one video game device in the past 12 months; 31% of individual players play on mobile only.
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Puzzle games are the most played genre in the U.S., played regularly by 59% of players aged 8 and over.
Genres played regularly in the past year. Card, casino-style and similar games are played by 35% overall and by 53% of the oldest players (Boomers and the Silent Generation).
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U.S. consumers spent $52.3 billion on video game content in 2025, plus $5.4 billion on hardware and $2.95 billion on accessories.
Total U.S. video game industry sales were $60.8 billion in 2025, up from $59.9 billion in 2024.
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85% of U.S. teenagers play video games, and 41% play at least once a day.
Latest Pew teen gaming report; boys are far more likely than girls to play every day (61% vs. 22%).
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75% of American parents play video games, and 81% of those parents say they play with their children.
52% of parents who play say they play with their children every week.
Germany
Europe's biggest games market. Figures from game, the German games industry association, the digital association Bitkom and the board game publishers' association Spieleverlage e.V.
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41.2 million people in Germany play computer and video games, about 6 in 10 of everyone aged 6 to 69.
Based on YouGov Shopper (n=25,000); from this edition the count includes all residents of Germany, not only German citizens, so it is not directly comparable with earlier years.
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The average age of video game players in Germany is 38.3 years, and 79% of players are adults.
The Jahresreport 2026 adds that players aged 60+ are the largest age group, at 18% of all players.
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46% of video game players in Germany are women and 54% are men.
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The smartphone is Germany's most popular gaming platform with 23.7 million players, ahead of consoles (22.1 million), PC (14 million) and tablets (9.9 million).
About 19 million people in Germany play on two or more devices, so platform counts overlap.
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Germany's games market (games, gaming hardware and online gaming services) grew 4% to about €9.4 billion in 2025.
Console sales grew 26% and online gaming services (e.g. PlayStation Plus, Xbox Game Pass) passed €1 billion for the first time; market data from YouGov Shopper, NielsenIQ and Sensor Tower.
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55% of people in Germany aged 16 and over play video or computer games, about 39 million people.
89% of 16–29-year-olds play, against 24% of people aged 65+. Bitkom's survey of people aged 16+ counts differently from the games association game's figure of 41.2 million.
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Gamers in Germany play for about two hours a day on average.
57% of gamers play less than two hours a day and 10% play five hours or more.
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Casual games are the most popular genre in Germany, played by 73% of gamers aged 16 and over.
They are followed by jump'n'run games (69%), strategy/management games (62%), social and messenger games (56%) and action games (53%).
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Sales of board games and puzzles in Germany grew 8% in the first three quarters of 2026, while the overall toy market grew only 3%.
Circana is quoted in the same release saying adult games grew more than 20% over the period; in 2025 (Jan–mid-Sept) the category had grown about 18%.
France
One of Europe's most game-loving countries, and its biggest market for board games. Figures from SELL, the French games publishers' association, with Médiamétrie, and from Circana.
Source: SELL (Syndicat des Éditeurs de Logiciels de Loisirs)
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38.7 million people in France play video games, 69% of the population aged 10 to 80.
SELL says the small drop from 2025 may partly reflect a heatwave and the football World Cup during the survey period.
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52% of French people aged 10 to 80 play video games regularly, meaning at least once a week.
SELL defines regular players as those who play at least once a week; they average 6 h 38 of play per week.
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The average French video game player is 40 years old, and 89% of players are adults.
Play is near-universal among the young (96% of 10–14-year-olds) and still reaches 42% of 65–80-year-olds.
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French video game players are split exactly 50/50 between women and men, and women make up 62% of Gen Z players (ages 17–31).
Among regular (weekly) players the split is 53% men and 47% women.
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French players spend an average of 5 hours 23 minutes a week playing video games.
The key-figures page gives 5 h 23 as the average weekly time of all players; SELL attributes part of the year-on-year drop to the heatwave and World Cup during fieldwork.
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In France, consoles and smartphones are each used by 57% of video game players, ahead of computers at 36%.
Chapter 2; French players use 2.1 different devices on average.
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Casual games are the favourite genre of French players (36%), ahead of racing (27%) and platform games (26%).
Share of players naming the genre among their favourites.
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France's video game market grew 2.9% to €5.8 billion in 2025, its second-best year on record.
Console ecosystem €2.5 bn (44%), mobile €1.8 bn (31%), PC gaming €1.5 bn (26%); SELL data from GSD, GameTrack, Sensor Tower and IDC panels (April 2026 EJV).
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France is Europe's largest market for board games and puzzles, with estimated sales of €1.1 billion in 2025.
Strategic trading cards grew 78% in 2025, and the whole French toy market reached a record €4.7 billion (+7.1%).
Spain
Figures from AEVI, the Spanish video game association, and DEV, the association of Spanish game studios.
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22.8 million people in Spain played video games regularly in 2025.
Up from 22.1 million in 2024. This edition is the first to cover ages 6 to 75 instead of 6 to 64.
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More than 54% of people in Spain aged 6 to 75 play video games.
The player data comes from the GameTrack consumer survey used in the AEVI yearbook.
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Spain's players are split almost evenly by gender: 51% men, 48.5% women and 0.5% non-binary.
In 2024 the yearbook counted slightly more women than men among players (50.45% women).
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28% of Spaniards aged 65 to 75 play video games.
The share is highest among children: 84% of 6- to 11-year-olds play.
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In Spain, 18 million people play on phones and tablets, 11.3 million on consoles and 6.9 million on PCs.
Many people play on more than one device, so the three figures add up to more than the 22.8 million players.
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Players in Spain spend an average of 8.5 hours a week playing video games.
This is the average across players, not across the whole population.
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Spain's video game market took in €2,293 million in 2025: €1,419 million from digital sales and €873 million from physical sales.
This is 3.2% below 2024's €2,369 million.
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Spanish video game developers had a turnover of €1.464 billion in 2024, 2.7% more than in 2023.
This counts what Spanish studios earn, not what Spanish players spend. 54% of the turnover is in Catalonia.
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Spain has 820 active video game development studios.
The same report counts 10,508 direct jobs in 2024, and women hold 27% of them.
Brazil
Latin America's biggest games country. Figures from Pesquisa Game Brasil, the country's yearly player survey, and the Ministry of Culture.
Source: Pesquisa Game Brasil (SX Group and Go Gamers, with Blend New Research and ESPM)
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75.3% of Brazilians surveyed in 2026 said they play digital games, down from a record 82.8% in 2025.
Online survey of 7,115 people aged 16 to 55. The researchers say the 2025 peak was partly because people counted betting games as digital games before betting was regulated.
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Women make up 52.8% of Brazil's players.
Women have been the majority of players in Pesquisa Game Brasil for several editions. 54.9% of players say they are middle class.
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Generation Z (ages 16–29) is now the largest group of Brazilian players at 36.5%, ahead of millennials at 33.7%.
In 2025, millennials (ages 30–44) were the largest group. The survey only covers ages 16 to 55, so it does not give an average age for all players.
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44.1% of Brazilian players name the phone as their main gaming device, against 24% for consoles and 21.1% for PCs.
This asks for each player's preferred device, not every device they use.
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86.7% of Brazilian respondents count digital games among their main forms of entertainment, and 80.7% call games their top one.
Based on the PGB 2026 sample, not on all Brazilians.
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62.6% of Brazilian players replay old or classic games on their own, and 55.1% play older games with friends.
Here 'classic' means older video games, not traditional table games such as dominoes or truco.
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45.7% of Brazilian players worry that AI will cost jobs and weaken creative work in games, yet 39.3% would still buy a game made largely with AI.
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Brazil's government announced a R$200 million Finep funding call for game and digital start-ups when it regulated the games legal framework in October 2026.
The call was announced with Decreto nº 13.138 of 14 October 2026, which puts into effect Lei 14.852/2024. The same release says federal universities will offer 230 new places on game degrees.
Turkey
Figures from TÜİK, the Turkish Statistical Institute, and the yearly Gaming in Türkiye industry report.
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Turkey's game market grew about 25% in dollar terms to $1.01 billion in 2025, up from about $810 million in 2024.
Measured in Turkish lira, the market grew 51.46%, much faster than in dollars because of inflation. Gaming in Türkiye is a private consultancy, so this is its estimate. Diken reported the same figures on the same day.
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Turkey has close to 50 million active game players.
This is an industry estimate. The same report gives about 77 million internet users in Turkey.
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46% of Turkey's players are women and 54% are men.
This is an industry estimate. Official figures cover children only (see the TÜİK figures below).
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74.0% of children aged 6–15 in Turkey played digital games in 2024.
These are the latest official figures. The 2024 survey was the first run as a stand-alone study, and no newer edition had been released as of November 2026. 'Children' means ages 6–15.
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In Turkey, 82.8% of boys aged 6–15 play digital games, compared with 64.8% of girls.
The gap grows with age: 85.0% of boys and 58.7% of girls aged 11–15 play.
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25.6% of Turkish children who play digital games regularly play about two hours or more on a weekday, and 41.8% do so on weekends.
90.8% of children who play digital games say they play regularly.
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40.1% of Turkish children who play digital games regularly say they play longer than they planned.
In the same survey, 35.6% said gaming made them neglect their duties.
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72.7% of Turkish children who use the internet go online to play or download games, the third most common use after watching videos and schoolwork.
This covers children aged 6–15 who use the internet regularly.
Vietnam
One of the world's biggest makers of mobile games. Figures from the GameGeek industry report, published under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and from government rules and targets.
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Mobile games made in Vietnam were downloaded about 4.9 billion times in 2025, second in the world after China (5.3 billion).
This counts downloads of games made by Vietnamese studios worldwide, not play inside Vietnam. In mid-2025 GameGeek had given a much higher count (9.6 billion for 2024) using a different method, so the two figures cannot be compared.
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Only 5.5% of downloads of Vietnamese-made mobile games come from Vietnam itself; about 95% come from abroad.
The biggest foreign markets are India (13.93% of downloads), Brazil (7.32%) and Indonesia (6.76%).
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Vietnamese studios released 27,388 new games in 2025, 13% more than in 2024.
The report counts 210 actively publishing studios and says the real number may be much higher. Most of these releases are mobile games.
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Vietnamese mobile games earned $825 million worldwide in 2025.
This is what Vietnamese-made games earned worldwide, not what players in Vietnam spent. A widely cited '$1.66 billion in 2025' figure for Vietnam's game market is a forecast quoted by TikTok, and its original source is unclear.
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In Vietnam, players under 16 may play at most 60 minutes per game and 180 minutes a day across one provider's games.
A draft amendment presented in July 2026 would cut the limit to 60 minutes a day in total. The draft had not been adopted as of the article.
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Vietnam's government aims for the country's online game industry to earn about 25,000 billion dong (around $1 billion) a year by 2030.
This is a government target, not a measured result. The strategy also aims for Vietnam to rank third in Southeast Asia by game industry revenue.
Questions and answers
How many people play video games in the world?
About 3.7 billion people are expected to play video games in 2026, according to Newzoo, up 4.4% on 2025. That is more than 60% of everyone who is online. Mobile is by far the biggest platform, with about 3.1 billion players.
How big is the video game market?
Newzoo forecasts $213.9 billion in consumer spending on games in 2026, up 6.1% on 2025. Mobile games bring in $121.1 billion of that, consoles $46.9 billion and PC $45.9 billion.
How many people pay for games?
About 1.65 billion people, or 44.6% of all players, are expected to spend money on games in 2026 (Newzoo). The rest play free games or games they already own.
What is the record number of people on Steam at the same time?
Steam reached 43,505,724 users online at the same time on 11 October 2026, its all-time record (SteamDB, from Valve's public data). We record Steam's daily peak ourselves, under Tracked by BeatMe on this page.
How many chess games are played online?
Lichess alone recorded about 1.11 billion rated standard games in 2025, around 3 million a day, and Chess.com has more than 267 million members. The monthly Lichess count above is updated automatically.
How much time do people spend playing games?
In the United States, people aged 15 and over spent an average of 37 minutes a day playing games or using a computer for leisure in 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Teenagers aged 15 to 19 spent about 1.5 hours a day.
Can I use these statistics in my article?
Yes. Every figure links to its original source. Please cite BeatMe Games with a link to this page, or cite the original source directly. Each statistic has a Copy citation button.
How we collect these numbers
Every figure on this page comes from the organisation that measured it: industry associations, research firms' own published results, the platforms themselves, surveys, studies and official statistics. We open every source, check that the number is really there and link straight to it. We do not copy numbers from other statistics pages.
Each statistic shows when it was published, which year it describes and where it applies. When sources disagree, we use the most authoritative one and say so. Forecasts are marked as forecasts.
We review the whole page every month and replace numbers as soon as newer ones come out. The two counters under *Tracked by BeatMe* update by themselves several times a day.
Found a number that is out of date or wrong? Write to us at orp.8ysae@troppus and we will fix it.
Cite this page
You are welcome to use any number on this page in articles, reports, videos and school work. Please cite BeatMe Games and link to this page (or to the original source).
BeatMe Games. (November 1, 2026). Game Statistics 2026. https://beatmegames.com/game-statistics<a href="https://beatmegames.com/game-statistics">Game Statistics 2026 (BeatMe Games)</a>Our own data (Tracked by BeatMe) is free to use under CC BY 4.0. The other figures belong to their sources: please name them too.
Multiplayer, esports and streaming
Most people who play games do not play alone: surveys from the ESA and Pew show that playing with friends, family and partners is a normal part of gaming, and that many players have made friends through games. The biggest social platforms count their players in the hundreds of millions, and competitive gaming is watched for billions of hours each year. Viewing figures below come from independent measurement firms (Esports Charts, Streams Charts) unless marked as organiser figures.
Source: Roblox Corporation
Source: Streams Charts
Source: Esports Charts
70% of American video game players aged 8 and over have played games with other people, online or offline.
The share is 91% for Gen Alpha and 89% for Gen Z, but 35% for Boomers and the Silent Generation. Online survey of 13,545 people.
US · 2026 (survey Feb 11–25, 2026) Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by YouGov, 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry (PDF booklet) (June 2026)
46% of American players aged 8 and over play video games with other people at least once a week.
The 2025 edition reported 55% playing with others weekly; question wording and sample differ, so treat these as separate readings rather than a trend.
US · 2026 Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by YouGov, 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry (PDF booklet) (June 2026)
Among American players who play with others, 62% play online with friends they also know in person, and 80% play with people they don't know.
Base: the 70% of players who play with others. 38% play with friends they know only online.
US · 2026 Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by YouGov, 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry (PDF booklet) (June 2026)
47% of American adult players say they have met people through video games whom they would not otherwise have met.
Base: all players aged 18+.
US · 2026 Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by YouGov, 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry (PDF booklet) (June 2026)
72% of American online players have used text or voice chat to talk to others while playing; 52% of those who communicate have used in-game or platform voice chat.
Among those who communicate online: 58% have used in-game text chat, 52% in-game voice chat, 28% Discord. Use rises to 90% among Gen Z.
US · 2026 Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by YouGov, 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry (PDF booklet) (June 2026)
75% of American parents play video games, and 81% of those parents have played video games with their children.
52% of parents who play do so with their children weekly; the top reason given is 'It's fun for all of us' (63%).
US · 2026 Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by YouGov, 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry (June 2026)
Among American players who play with others, 24% play with a spouse or significant other.
Of those who play with others: friends 62%, siblings 31%, other family 27%, children 20%, parents 15%.
US · 2026 Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by YouGov, 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry (PDF booklet) (June 2026)
In a 21-country survey of 24,216 players, 64% said video games help them feel less isolated or lonely by connecting them to other people.
Respondents were active players aged 16+ (at least 1 hour a week); 'global' means the combined results of the 21 countries surveyed.
Global (21 countries) · 2025 Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by AudienceNet, Power of Play: 2025 Global Video Games Report (September 2025)
71% of players across 21 countries agree that video games introduce people to new friends and relationships.
Same survey of 24,216 active players aged 16+; it also found 62% agree that video games foster positive connections.
Global (21 countries) · 2025 Source: Entertainment Software Association (ESA), survey by AudienceNet, Power of Play: 2025 Global Video Games Report (September 2025)
89% of US teens who play video games play them with other people, in person or online.
Latest Pew survey on teens and gaming; 85% of US teens play video games. Only 11% of teen players play solely on their own.
US (ages 13–17) · 2023 (survey Sept 26–Oct 23, 2023) Source: Pew Research Center, Teens and Video Games Today (May 9, 2024)
47% of US teens who play video games have made a friend online because of a game they both play (56% of boys vs. 35% of girls).
Equals 40% of all US teens. The boy/girl split (56% vs 35%) is from the same page.
US (ages 13–17) · 2023 Source: Pew Research Center, Teens and Video Games Today (May 9, 2024)
Roblox averaged 138 million daily active users in the third quarter of 2026, down 9% from its record 152 million a year earlier.
Q3 2026 was up from 123 million in Q2 2026; Asia-Pacific is now the largest region (42 million).
Global · Q3 2026 (Jul–Sep) Source: Roblox Corporation, Q3 2026 Investor Data Sheet (October 29, 2026)
Roblox users spent 33.8 billion hours on the platform in the third quarter of 2026.
Engagement figures are shown in billions; down 15% year over year from 39.6 billion hours in Q3 2025. Full-year 2025 total was 123.9 billion hours.
Global · Q3 2026 Source: Roblox Corporation, Q3 2026 Investor Data Sheet (October 29, 2026)
Minecraft reached 155 million monthly active users, an all-time high, according to Microsoft.
The latest official monthly figure. In October 2026 Microsoft said Minecraft hit all-time highs in engagement and revenue, but gave no new number.
Global · Jul–Sep 2025 Source: Microsoft, Microsoft Fiscal Year 2026 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call (October 29, 2025)
Discord, the chat platform built around multiplayer gaming, says it has more than 200 million monthly active users.
Discord states it as a minimum (200+ million) and has not published a more precise monthly figure.
Global · 2026 Source: Discord, Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally (press release) (February 2026)
The 2024 League of Legends World Championship final (T1 vs BLG) peaked at 6.94 million concurrent viewers, the most-watched esports match ever.
Esports Charts excludes Chinese streaming platforms. Its records page lists the single-match figure as 6,856,769, while the event-level peak is 6,941,610.
Global (excl. Chinese platforms) · 2024 Source: Esports Charts, 10 years of esports viewership — how the industry changed (October 13, 2026)
The 2025 League of Legends World Championship peaked at 6.75 million concurrent viewers, the second-biggest esports peak on record.
The Esports Charts tournament page gives the exact peak as 6,752,585 (T1 vs KT Rolster), 1.5% below 2024. The same article reports a LoL YouTube record of 3,769,077 viewers. Worlds 2026 was still in progress at the time of writing.
Global (excl. Chinese platforms) · 2025 Source: Esports Charts, T1 makes history by winning Worlds 2025, event reached over 6.7M Peak Viewers (November 9, 2025)
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang's M7 World Championship set the mobile esports record in January 2026 with 5.68 million peak viewers.
The same event set an Indonesian-language record of 3,870,544 and a TikTok LIVE esports record of 2,498,373 (Esports Charts records page).
Global (excl. Chinese platforms) · 2026 Source: Esports Charts, 10 years of esports viewership — how the industry changed (October 13, 2026)
Esports audiences watched a record 3.3 billion hours of live esports in 2025, up 1.5% from 2024.
Third straight year of growth; mobile esports were over 25% of viewing. A later Esports Charts article (Oct 2026) rounds the same total to 3.2 billion.
Global (excl. mainland China) · 2025 Source: Esports Charts, Esports sets new record with 3.3B yearly Hours Watched (May 6, 2026)
Total esports prize money passed $272.6 million in 2025, a 15% increase on 2024.
Counter-Strike overtook Dota 2 as the esport with the most prize money in 2025.
Global · 2025 Source: Esports Charts, Esports sets new record with 3.3B yearly Hours Watched (May 6, 2026)
The biggest prize pool for a single esports tournament is still The International 2021 (Dota 2), with $40,018,195.
Mostly crowdfunded by players; winner Team Spirit took $18,208,300. The record for a solo-player event is the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals ($15 million).
Global · 2021 Source: Esports Charts, All-Time Esports Viewership Records (November 2026)
The 2026 Esports World Cup in Paris offered a record $75 million prize pool across 25 tournaments.
This is a multi-game event, not a single tournament. The organiser also claims 850 million viewers and 440 million hours watched, but these are its own figures, not independently measured. Previous editions: $70M (2025) and $62.5M (2024).
Global · 2026 Source: Esports World Cup Foundation, 2026 Esports World Cup in Numbers (September 10, 2026)
Twitch viewers watched 4.51 billion hours of live streams in Q3 2026, and gaming made up 76.9% of that watch time.
Independently measured third-party data, not Twitch's own figures. Up 4% on Q2 2026; Kick grew 30.7% to 2.04 billion hours.
Global · Q3 2026 Source: Streams Charts, Q3 2026 Global Livestreaming Landscape (October 13, 2026)
YouTube gaming live streams drew about 1.98 billion hours watched in Q3 2026, 14.5% of all YouTube live watch time.
Live streams only (not uploaded videos), measured by Streams Charts; YouTube publishes no official figure for this.
Global · Q3 2026 Source: Streams Charts, Q3 2026 Global Livestreaming Landscape (October 13, 2026)
Twitch viewers watched 1.5 billion hours of live streams between October 3 and November 1, 2026, with a peak of 4.17 million viewers watching at once.
Rolling 30-day window on a live dashboard, so the figure changes daily. The window includes the LoL Worlds 2026 playoffs.
Global · Oct 3 – Nov 1, 2026 Source: Streams Charts, Twitch Stats and Analytics: Growth Charts, Channels, Games, Streams (November 1, 2026)
Community co-streams by creators accounted for 46.7% of all esports watch time in the first half of 2026.
Covers major esports titles only. Co-streams are creators re-broadcasting official matches with their own commentary.
Global (excl. Chinese platforms) · H1 2026 Source: Esports Charts, 10 years of esports viewership — how the industry changed (October 13, 2026)
South Korea's LCK league was the most-watched esports event of 2025 with 155.5 million hours watched, ahead of the LoL World Championship (132.9 million).
A league season runs for months, so its total hours exceed a weeks-long tournament even though its single-match peaks are lower.
Global (excl. Chinese platforms) · 2025 Source: Esports Charts, 10 years of esports viewership — how the industry changed (October 13, 2026)