Matthew Ball reports gaming industry losing audience attention and consumer spending declines in 2025
Matthew Ball reports gaming industry losing audience attention and consumer spending declines in 2025 – Matthew Ball published a 2025 market trends report saying people in major markets spend less time playing games – Eight countries (US, Japan, South Korea, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy) provi
Matthew Ball reports gaming industry losing audience attention and consumer spending declines in 2025
– Matthew Ball published a 2025 market trends report saying people in major markets spend less time playing games
– Eight countries (US, Japan, South Korea, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy) provided over 60% of consumer spending pre-COVID
– In half of those countries regular players are below pre-pandemic levels (US down 2.5–4 percentage points)
– South Korea player numbers fell 15% versus 2017–2019 averages; Italy adult players down 5% since 2019
– Canada lost roughly one in six adult players between 2018 and 2022
– France has stable 52% playing population since 2016; Germany +4% versus 2019; Japan +11% (≈6 million new players since 2019)
– Aggregate consumer spending on PC and console games has stalled or declined over the past four years in these countries
– Ball links falling player numbers to increased monetization pressure and rising competition from alternatives (TikTok +50 million hours in the US since 2020; OnlyFans spending doubled; AI app installs from 100M to ~1B since 2023)
@Games
– Matthew Ball published a 2025 market trends report saying people in major markets spend less time playing games
– Eight countries (US, Japan, South Korea, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy) provided over 60% of consumer spending pre-COVID
– In half of those countries regular players are below pre-pandemic levels (US down 2.5–4 percentage points)
– South Korea player numbers fell 15% versus 2017–2019 averages; Italy adult players down 5% since 2019
– Canada lost roughly one in six adult players between 2018 and 2022
– France has stable 52% playing population since 2016; Germany +4% versus 2019; Japan +11% (≈6 million new players since 2019)
– Aggregate consumer spending on PC and console games has stalled or declined over the past four years in these countries
– Ball links falling player numbers to increased monetization pressure and rising competition from alternatives (TikTok +50 million hours in the US since 2020; OnlyFans spending doubled; AI app installs from 100M to ~1B since 2023)
@Games