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In This Edition
- The biggest TGA reveals
- 2025 Market Review
- Newzoo’s Emmanuel Rosier joins us on the Show
Hello, hello! Welcome to the sort-of final edition of the year for The Game Business.
I say ‘sort-of final’, because it isn’t at all. We’ve got a few things coming-up, including one more interview, one more Micro, one more market report, and (hopefully) a special clips show. All before we sit down for turkey and silly hats. Don’t say I don’t treat you.
It’s been a fascinating first nine months for TGB, and we’ve now sailed past 18,000 subscribers. Thank you to everyone who joined us this year, and a special thank you to those who supported us through subscriptions and sponsorships. It’s tough out there, and you’re helping us to keep going.
Anyway, today is our last News and Analysis Show and Newsletter of 2025.
On the Show this week, we dive into the big stories of the moment, we reveal who REALLY won The Game Awards, and we look back at the year that was with Newzoo’s director of market intelligence Emmanuel Rosier.
Of course, if you’re not interested in watching or listening, all that data and insight is available to read below. So enjoy!
Who really won The Game Awards 2025?
The Game Awards 2025 was yet another highly watched event. The show delivered 171 million livestreams (excluding Amazon Prime), a huge 11% jump on the year before. The peak viewership was 4.4 million, according to StreamCharts, a rise of 9% year-on-year. And those statistics don’t include viewing figures from Amazon Prime, which the organiser partnered with this year.
But who benefitted most from these huge figures? We know who won the Awards, but who won the event?
Welcome to The Game Business’ very own, data-driven The Game Awards Awards.
The Game That Saw The Biggest Bump In Players
Winner: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Kepler)
The RPG scooped up the big prizes at The Game Awards, including Game of the Year, and that helped drive a huge spike in sales and players. According to Ampere Analysis, on the Saturday after the Awards (December 13), the game enjoyed a 160% increase in players compared to the previous Saturday. 17.7% of these players were new to the game. The numbers were helped by developer Sandfall delivering a free DLC update during the awards.
Notable Mentions: South of Midnight saw a 32.5% increase in new players on Sunday, December 14, while 14.1% of No Man Sky daily active users on Saturday, December 13 also came from new users. (Ampere data).
The Game That Generated The Most Steam Follows
Winner: Total War: Warhammer 40,000 (Sega)
The Total War franchise has always been a huge hit on Steam, so a newly announced game, coupled with the popular Warhammer 40,000 universe, was destined to do well here. The game was announced by Stranger Things actor David Harbour, and generated 54,600 followers on the digital retail store.
Notable Mentions: Phantom Blade Zero generated 20,607 Steam followers, with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis managing 20,570. Check out the full ranking below.
The Game That Generated The Most Articles:
Winner: Resident Evil 9: Requiem (Capcom)
The next Resident Evil was revealed in June, but during The Game Awards Capcom announced that iconic character Leon Kennedy would be returning as a playable character. This news generated 1,740 articles, according to Fancensus.
Notable Mentions: The new game announcement that generated the most coverage was Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, which resulted in 1,605 articles, followed by Larian’s Divinity which saw 1,357 articles. Divinity’s numbers may have jumped up following a number of interviews that went live yesterday across video game websites. Full chart is below.
The Biggest Trailer Of The Game Awards (YouTube)
Winner: 2XKO (Riot Games)
A surprise winner. 2XKO is Riot Games’ fighting title based on League of Legends, and during The Game Awards, it was announced for consoles, while a new character was also teased. On its main YouTube channels, it drove over eight million views. However, the engagement rate is low compared to the other trailers (Fancensus data).
Notable Mentions: The No.2 trailer was Resident Evil 9: Requiem, with nearly 6.5 million views. In third spot was Marvel Rivals with just over 5.2 million views for its Deadpool trailer.
The Game With The Most Homepage Appearances
Winner: Resident Evil 9: Requiem (Capcom)
Another win for Resident Evil. The horror game had 37 prime spots, and 23 secondary spots, on video game homepages by the time Sunday rolled around (Fancensus data).
Notable Mentions: Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis had 53 homepage appearances overall: 25 prime spots and 28 secondary spots. It was just slightly ahead of Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic, but the Star Wars game actually had more ‘prime’ positions than Tomb Raider.
The Game With The Most Social Interaction (X and Facebook)
Winner: Resident Evil 9: Requiem
Capcom’s title was No.1 on X and Facebook. The game’s trailer revealed a more action-focused part of the series, featuring returning hero Leon Kennedy.
Notable Mentions: The second best-performing game on Facebook was Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, while the second best-performing game on X was Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve.
So there you have it, Resident Evil 9: Requiem has done exceptionally well during the event overall, although there are plenty of other winners. In fact, why not check out the charts below for the full Steam, Article and Trailer rankings.
Video games will deliver a record-breaking $197 billion in 2025
Data giant Newzoo expects the video games market to finish on $197 billion this year, an impressive rise of 7.5% over the year before.
It’s a change of fortune for the business, which saw analysts predict slow-to-no growth for games following the delay to Grand Theft Auto 6.
The segment that has grown the most is PC, which is expected to deliver $43 billion in revenue, a rise of 10.4% over the year before. Console gaming is forecast to hit $45 billion, a softer rise of 4.2% (despite the launch of Nintendo Switch 2). Meanwhile, mobile will reach $108 billion, a rise of 7.7%. This represents the mobile game market stabilizing after some disappointing post-pandemic results.
What’s notable is that Newzoo believes most of this growth has come from players spending more deeply on games, rather than any significant increase in the user base.
In terms of the top games (January – November 2025), the PC platform has by far the most interesting games chart (key Western markets only). In terms of revenue, the best-selling games include AAA hits like Battlefield 6, Monster Hunter Wilds, Borderlands 4 and EA Sports FC26, mixed with new IP, indie games and AA titles such as Schedule 1, Arc Raiders and REPO. It’s a real diverse mix of games, all at different price points, and launching at different times of the year.
On console, however, the revenue chart is more traditional, featuring established AAA franchises such as Battlefield, Assassin’s Creed, Ghost of Yotei and Pokémon.
When it comes to most played games, it’s all very familiar. Counter-Strike 2, Minecraft, Roblox and Battlefield 6 are the top performers on PC, while Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto Online and Roblox are top on console.
It’s fascinating to see Roblox so high on PC and console, especially when 80% of its daily users are on mobile. A notable game that sneaks into the engagement chart is Peak, which manages No.10 in the PC chart. Battlefield 6 is the other new release in both Top Ten lists.
PC and console audiences clearly differ, and you can tell that by how dominant sports games are on console vs there near complete absence from the PC charts. However, another interesting thing to note is around shooters. The more arcade-like, accessible shooters performed best on console, while the more technical shooters did best on PC.
Overall, it’s a rosier picture for the games market. But it remains very challenging. We’ve seen some impressive breakout successes, but there were even more big misses, too.
The console market remains challenged, with Circana reporting the worst November on record for console sales. Switch 2 had a strong start, but it’s to be seen if that can reach a broader audience. The current slate of first-party games is lacking in terms of big releases, and we wait to see what Nintendo has planned for the end of 2026.
For PlayStation, all eyes will be on Grand Theft Auto 6, assuming it launches next year. It’s been a long 13-year wait since the last game, and it could provide a significant bump to PS5 (at least in the West). But with continued rising manufacturing and component costs, it remains a challenging market, and prices may yet rise further for all consoles.
On PC, the growth is impressive, but it’s also more competitive than ever with an ever-rising number of big games coming out every week. Meanwhile, mobile is offering more opportunities for developers to go direct-to-consumer, but it is still a very hostile market for anyone outside of the big mobile publishers to compete in.
The video game space has finally eclipsed their COVID peak. It’s a moment to feel optimistic. But there’s still a long and uncertain road ahead for game makers and publishers worldwide.
In today’s edition of The Game Business Show, we were joined by Newzoo’s director for market intelligence Emmanuel Rosier. It’s a genuinely insightful chat where we discuss some of the year’s big moments, from GTA 6’s delay to the Battlefield 6 launch, and all things in-between. You can check out the full interview above, or via our YouTube channel.
Meanwhile…
FIFA has finally announced it has a game coming. FIFA World Cup 2026 is being developed and published by Delphi Interactive, and made available to Netflix subscribers. The game will be playable using the mobile phone as a controller.
1.6 million units of video game hardware were sold in the US in November 2025, which is the lowest number since 1995 (when it managed 1.4 million). Monthly hardware spending hit $695 million, which is a 27% drop compared to last year and the lowest November number since 2025. The aveage selling price of consoles was $439, the highest on record (and 11% up on last year). The PS5 was the top-selling console (units and revenue), followed by Switch 2, NEX Playground and Xbox Series X and S.
Tencent has invested in Drama Studios, the French indie team behind the impressive hyper-real bodycam game called Unrecord. The game’s trailer went viral back in 2023, with over 40 million views. Mark Maslowicz, Tencent’s VP of partnerships, said: “This investment will help the studio unlock their full potential and deliver the first of many outstanding games. We’re excited to be part of Drama Studios journey.”
Annual video game charity event Jingle Jam has surpassed a lifetime total of £30 million. This year’s event, which ran for two weeks ending December 14, raised £3.2 million for Campagin Against Living Miserably, War Child, Autistica, Become, Make-A-Wish, The Trevor Project, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal and WWF.
That’s it for today’s News and Analysis edition of The Game Business. But… what’s this? A bonus interview with the David Lee, the CEO of the company behind NEX Playground? Sounds like an ideal thing to read, listen to or watch before clocking off for the year.
If this is the last we see of you before Christmas, I hope you have a lovely break. We’ll be back in January with more news, analysis and interviews. Thank you for reading.
