This morning, Matthew Ball, CEO of the investment strategy company Epyllion, unveiled an initial version of a presentation titled “The State of Video Gaming in 2025.” The slideshow, which incorporates data from market analysis firms such as IDG, Newzoo, and Circana, encapsulates global market tendencies in the gaming sector. To be candid: the situation isn’t excellent. After a decade-long surge from 2011 to 2021, the revenue growth in the industry has stagnated, leading to an environment of caution and faltering investment.
However, the future is not completely bleak. Although the revenue growth in the gaming industry has leveled off over the past three years, Epyllion’s assessments indicate that PC gaming is “a bright point” of ongoing growth, now representing the majority of non-mobile content revenue.
Per Epyllion, both PC and console gaming have become— as you may have observed— significantly larger issues than they were at the beginning of the 2010s. In 2024, consumers spent nearly $50 billion more on PC and console games compared to 2011.
However, following 2021, the growth of console gaming began to decelerate, which is notably evident in the global sales of Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 consoles. In comparison to the prior console generation, the current lines from Microsoft and Sony had sold nearly 7 million fewer units after 49 months.
In contrast, PC gaming has continued its upward trajectory. “While console has remained flat since 2021,” Epyllion states, PC gaming revenue “has increased by 20%.”
Epyllion credits PC gaming’s ongoing development to “numerous compounding advantages over the console ecosystem,” including a broader release library with enhanced backwards compatibility, quicker access to web browsers, social media platforms, livestreaming software suites, and superior top-end performance.
Furthermore, Epyllion claims PC gaming’s “momentum is still escalating,” bolstered by cross-releases of console exclusives, innovations in portable PC gaming devices like SteamOS, and, quite simply, Roblox. “Hundreds of millions of children maturing on Roblox are improbable to request a $500 console to play AAA titles,” Epyllion notes.
Despite the optimistic perspective Epyllion provides for PC gaming, it is essential to highlight that there isn’t a general agreement on who possesses a larger market share between consoles and PC. For instance, in August 2023, Newzoo reported that console games amassed $56.1 billion in consumer spending compared to approximately $40 billion for PC games. To gain insight into what may explain the disparity, we reached out to Matthew Ball for clarification.
“IDG is usually regarded as the authoritative source for sales tracking in the industry, which is why I primarily relied on their estimate,” Ball communicated to PC Gamer via email. “If you look at Pelham Smithers, a private research agency/bank in the UK, which is usually referenced by Financial Times, and what Bloomberg utilizes (and actually puts into the Bloomberg Terminal), they actually present PC as 50% larger than console. IDC is fairly close to IDG but not identical.”
Ultimately, Ball expressed, “there are some differing opinions.” His hypothesis is that market researchers may differ in their tracking of game sales in China— which, he explains, are “mostly PC at the AA/AAA level.” In Epyllion’s evaluation, Ball said he “depended on where publishers advised me I should look, and then cross-referenced with a few other sources such as IDC and Bloomberg.”
Regarding the future of PC gaming, Ball stated he is optimistic about Epyllion’s identification of the PC gaming market’s “still intensifying” growth advantages. “I firmly believe that,” Ball asserted, “especially if/as Steam expands to the living room and portable devices.”