J. Clement
Research lead covering internet and gaming
Online gaming - Statistics & Facts
In 2023, the global online gaming market generated approximately 26.14 billion U.S. dollars in revenues, which translates to a 9.8 percent growth compared to the previous year. In 2020, online gaming revenues saw an significant boost due to the global COVID-19 outbreak, which forced many people to stay at home and turn to digital avenues of entertainment and find new channels to connect with others. While the growth trend has normalized, online gaming is still a popular activity and currently, there are an estimated 1.1 billion online gamers worldwide with China, South Korea, and Japan having the biggest online gaming reach among the population.
As mobile connectivity and smartphone ownership increased in recent years, so did online gaming possibilities for a whole range of new gaming audiences who do not have to rely on expensive PCs, consoles, or subscriptions to play with other people. As the market for traditional online gaming titles is shrinking, cross-platform titles with focus on mobile are currently the ones pushing the genre forward. The most popular online gaming format right now is battle royale games. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Fortnite, and Apex Legends generated tens of millions of players within months of their release and most recent prominent genre entry Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 has claimed 25 million players within five days of release.
The recent evolution of the online gaming genre
Despite this recent surge in prominence, online gaming has already been evolving over the past years. From classic PC and console-based online gaming genres such as massively multiplayer games (MMO gaming) and competitive first-person shooters, online gaming has seen a boost around the early 2010s when casual social gaming became popular. During the same period, free-to-play (F2P) multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), such as Dota2, League of Legends and Dota 2 gained mainstream popularity, followed by the emergence of the battle royale genre.As mobile connectivity and smartphone ownership increased in recent years, so did online gaming possibilities for a whole range of new gaming audiences who do not have to rely on expensive PCs, consoles, or subscriptions to play with other people. As the market for traditional online gaming titles is shrinking, cross-platform titles with focus on mobile are currently the ones pushing the genre forward. The most popular online gaming format right now is battle royale games. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Fortnite, and Apex Legends generated tens of millions of players within months of their release and most recent prominent genre entry Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 has claimed 25 million players within five days of release.
Online gaming behavior
Many U.S. gamers reported positive experiences while online gaming, the most common ones being making friends and helping other players. Gamers cited Madden NFL and Call of Duty as the gaming environments with the most positive social experiences. On the flipside, online harassment while online gaming was equally as common – from offensive name-calling and trolling to physical threats, to the severe threats of stalking and doxing. The impact of bad player behavior is severe – gamers who experienced online harassment felt less social and upset after playing, while some even had personal relationships disrupted and school or work performances impacted. As such, interactions with other players can make or break the enjoyment of online gaming and the anonymity of digital environments is not without risks.
