Platform-style video games, direct-to-consumer distribution drive far-reaching shake-up of world gaming market–Bain & Company annual Gaming Report

2025 survey of greater than 5,000 avid gamers worldwide exhibits user-generated content material, influencer-led recreation discovery, and cross-media IP are defining the subsequent period of gaming

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Traditional AAA recreation studios face an intensifying squeeze as nimble impartial builders and platform-style video games quickly acquire market share amid far-reaching disruptions shaking up the worldwide gaming trade, analysis launched right this moment by Bain & Company finds.

Sweeping shifts within the trade throughout consumer behaviors, monetization fashions and distribution, fueled by rising participant expectations and growing democratization of recreation creation, are highlighted in Bain’s second annual global Gaming Report, Breaking Boundaries to Win.

The international online game market reached $219 billion final yr and is projected to develop by 4% yearly by way of 2028, Bain initiatives. But it notes that the trade’s development is more and more concentrated amongst high titles, lots of which depend on user-generated content material (UGC), cross-media IP ecosystems, and direct-to-consumer distribution fashions which sidestep conventional storefronts.

“We’re witnessing a generational shift in what it means to engage with games,” Daniel Hong, chief of Bain’s international Media & Entertainment follow, mentioned. “Today’s top games aren’t just entertainment—they’re platforms for creativity, socialization, and storytelling. Studios that embrace this broader role will lead the next era of gaming, and those that don’t will be left behind.”

Games as a platform thrive as AAA studios wrestle

Platform-style video games—these providing expansive worlds, community-building options, and instruments for creators—are capturing double-digit consumer development as they quickly pull gamers, creators, and types into their orbit, Bain’s report notes. Popular video games as a platform are rising lively customers by 10% to twenty% yearly and have gotten the “center of gravity” for all the ecosystem, it concludes.

Alongside, conventional AAA studios face rising growth prices, shrinking margins, and steep competitors. In distinction, impartial builders, unburdened by the legacy prices of extra established rivals, are thriving and achieved a 22% compound annual development price (CAGR) for PC recreation revenues from 2018 by way of 2024, in comparison with a CAGR of simply 8% for AAA/AA recreation studios.

UGC is mainstream—and rising quick

Bain’s 2025 survey of greater than 5,000 avid gamers throughout six nations together with the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, the UK, and the UAE finds that just about half of creators are spending extra time creating content material in comparison with final yr. Even avid gamers over 35 years previous reported a significant improve in time spent creating in-game content material.

This development is most pronounced amongst youthful gamers between two and 17 years previous, who’re 20 proportion factors extra more likely to play the video games their friends are taking part in. Platform-style titles that help UGC have a robust “flywheel effect”—boosting group retention and making player-generated content material central to recreation longevity.

“Young gamers are driving the success of top games, and their values are reshaping the industry,” mentioned Anders Christofferson, chief of Bain’s gaming sector and associate inside Bain’s Media & Entertainment follow. “Customization, social connection, and creativity now rank higher than visual fidelity for many players. The old formula of promising sequels and better graphics is no longer enough to stay competitive.”

Direct-to-consumer distribution is gaining floor

The steadiness of energy within the gaming market is shifting away from digital storefronts. Twenty-four p.c of gamers uncover new video games by way of on-line content material creators or influencers, whereas 14% of respondents uncover them by way of social media, and simply 12% uncover new video games by way of conventional digital storefronts, Bain’s survey exhibits.

In response, builders are launching their very own net shops to retain margin and construct direct buyer relationships. The share of top-grossing cell video games with their very own on-line shops has practically quadrupled inside 5 years from 12% in 2019 to 44% in 2024, Bain experiences. These traits are being accelerated by rulings within the US, the EU, and Brazil, which have barred app shops from proscribing builders from steering customers to exterior buy hyperlinks, Bain’s report observes.

Winning past the sport: IP growth fuels engagement

Top franchises are now not confined to consoles. Bain’s report exhibits that round 1 / 4 of avid gamers’ time spent consuming different media is targeted on game-related mental property (IP), similar to exhibits, music, and merchandise. Critically acclaimed movie and tv diversifications enhance recreation engagement considerably, lifting common concurrent customers (ACUs) by as much as 69% for top-rated collection, Bain notes.

Successful franchises are setting the benchmark for the trade by orchestrating seamless experiences throughout platforms, leveraging merchandising, and constructing creator communities. Several frequent ideas that set successful IP homeowners aside based on Bain embrace:

• Respect and embrace the followers: Leading firms keep high quality and authenticity to the sport’s lore throughout all media. Loyal followers will reward faithfulness and punish betrayal.
• Expand throughout media selectively: Not each story belongs on each display screen. Leading firms solely pursue new codecs that match the model and keep away from over-extending, which dilutes the IP and harms high quality.
• Build an intentional, complete roadmap: This must be extra than simply advertising. How do you are taking a participant or fan on a journey that immerses them deeply within the IP? Leading firms prioritize long-term engagement over short-term monetization.
• Invest within the working mannequin and key capabilities: Organizational construction performs a task, however making certain gamers and followers interact with IP requires investing in enterprise processes, governance boards, and new capabilities round components similar to interactive storytelling and IP administration.

Media contacts:
Amanda Folsom (Boston) — [email protected]
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Ann Lee (Singapore) — [email protected]

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SOURCE Bain & Company