50+ Video Game Statistics, Facts & Trends (Jan 2021)

Essential Video Game Statistics

More than 2.6 billion people play video games worldwide.
Over 65% of American adults play video games, according to the Entertainment Software Association.
Nearly half (46%) of all gamers are female.
The average gamer is age 18–35 (40%), followed by under 18 (21%), 50+ (21%), and 26–49 (18%).
The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 36.
On average, 63% of gamers prefer to play co-op instead of single-player games, according to the Entertainment Software Association.
The most popular game genres are action games (26.9%), shooters (20.9%), and RPGs (11.3%).
The best selling console in 2019 was the Sony PS4 (18.28 million units), followed by the Nintendo Switch (16.34 million units), and the Xbox One (6.83 million units).
The most popular games in the world are Pokemon Go (147 million players), Minecraft (126 billion players), and League of Legends (115 million players).

Video Game Industry Revenue Statistics

This section covers which games and consoles generated the most revenue for the gaming market, as well as which countries tend to spend the most on video gaming.

There are now more than 2.5 billion video gamers across the world. Combined, they spent $120 billion on games in 2019, representing an increase of +9.6% year over year in the gaming market.
In 2017, 88% of the total revenue of the video games industry came from software sales, according to the Entertainment Software Association.
China is the largest spender on video games, accounting for $34.4 billion in game sales, followed by the United States at $31.5 billion and Japan at $17.7 billion. Below is a chart of the amount spent on the game market across the world.

When it comes to sheer number of copies sold, Minecraft is the most-sold game of all time with 200 million copies sold. The runners-up are Grand Theft Auto 5 at 130 million, and Tetris at 100 million.
However, the highest-earning game franchises of all time are the Pokemon series at $90 billion, the Mario series at $30.25 billion, and the Call of Duty series at $17 billion.
The best-selling game of all time is Space Invaders (Arcade / Atari 2600) at $13.9 billion in sales. This is followed by Pac-Man (Arcade / console games / mobile / PC, 1980) at $12.8 billion, Street Fighter II (Arcade / SNES / Genesis, 1991) at $10.6 billion, and World of Warcraft at $8.5 billion.
Sony Computer Entertainment is the wealthiest game development company in the world, with a $13.4 billion revenue in 2019. They're followed by Microsoft Studios at $12.82 billion, Nintendo at $6.28 billion, and SEGA at $4.9 billion.*

*Tencent Games, publisher of many online games such as League of Legends, is wealthier than Sony, but Tencent doesn't develop games themselves, so they are technically not the "wealthiest game development company."

Video Game Tournament Statistics

The rise of eSports and video game tournaments with high payouts are a large part of the reason for the surge in the video gaming industry. Playing video games is now a potentially lucrative career in the video gaming industry!

There were 454 million viewers of eSports and video game tournaments in 2019. Newzoo predicts that this will increase to 645 million by 2022—a 42% increase!

The highest-paying eSport game is DOTA 2, with a prize pool of $225 million. CS:GO is second at $98.3 million, followed by Fortnite at $90 million, and League of Legends at $75.5 million.
Johan Sundstein, also known as NTtail, has earned almost $7 million playing in 108 tournaments, making him the highest-paid eSport player to date.
The money paid from all video game tournaments to date totals $838 million.
The 10 highest-earning players in 2019 have each earned over $1 million.

Other Interesting Stats

This section is for the miscellaneous interesting video game industry statistics that didn't fit in anywhere else. Enjoy!

The Sims 3 sold the most units and is recognized as the best selling PC games of all time around the world, with over 10 million units sold as of 2019.
72.3% of mobile users in the U.S. are mobile gamers.
Gaming and entertainment media hold 40.5% of the virtual reality market share.
Every day, 25 new games are released on Steam.
In 2020, video gaming players will spend up to $4.5 billion on VR gaming or immersive gaming.
Two-thirds of American households have at least one gamer in the home.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some common questions we're asked about video games and the people who play games:

How Many People Play Video Games?

Over 2.6 billion people play video games across the world. That's nearly nine times the population of the entire United States! Playing video games is quickly becoming one of the most popular hobbies in the world.

Who Plays Video Games?

The majority of gamers (~40%) are between age 18–35. While video game players used to be predominantly younger males, now 46% of gamers are female gamers.

What Is The Future Of Gaming?

Mobile games claim 57% of the $160 billion video game industry market share—more than PC and console combined—and are likely to continue trending upward as more free-to-play games are released.

This is due to massive availability of smartphones and free, casual mobile games like Candy Crush. Mobile gaming is here to stay!

However, it's possible that, as virtual reality (VR) technology becomes cheaper and more triple A VR titles like Half Life: Alyx are released, we could see a surge in VR gaming. As of 2018, there were 171 million active virtual reality users in the world.

The statistics don't lie: video games are increasingly becoming a part of people's everyday lives. In our lifetime, we've seen the rise of first-person shooters, MMOs, MOBAs, battle royales, mobile gaming, VR, and so much more. This is especially true in the United States, where gaming is taking off.

We can only imagine what the future holds for gaming, but we do know that we'll be along for the ride!

Conclusion

We hope you've enjoyed learning more about video games and their players!

Now we want to hear from you:

Know of any interesting video game industry statistics we didn't include? Did anything about the video game industry surprise you?

Let us know in the comments below! We read and respond to every one.

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Bill "Nireck" Widmer

About the author

Bill has been gaming since he was 2 years old. He started with Putt-Putt and Pokemon, then fell in love with competitive games like League of Legends and Valorant.