Games industry analyst Matthew Ball has published a meticulous report on “The State of Video Gaming in 2026.” The report talks about growth, monetization strategies, the layoff crisis, and how games are losing the war for attention. For that last point about attention, it highlights how eight countries (USA, Japan, South Korea, UK, Germany, France, Canada, and Italy) accounted for 60% of consumer spending on PC, console, and mobile spending.
Ball calls this the “Mature Market 8,” and goes on to highlight how most of these countries lost percentage points in terms of “gamer participation.” In short, the report shows that the number of people who describe themselves as active gamers is considerably lower today, compared to the COVID peak. In fact, the report suggests that Canada, in particular, actually lost players even during the 2020 lockdowns.
Is This Really That Big Of A Deal?
The report itself says that losing a couple of percentage points in player participation is not a big issue in isolation. After all, the COVID era was when everyone was stuck inside, so gaming was at its height of popularity. But Ball brings up an interesting point about this being a compounding problem:
“Growth can only come from greater monetization of (ever fewer) remaining players. This can come from prices being forced up, players buying more, ads, or serving other business models (e.g., Amazon Prime, Google Cloud, etc).”
This explains why we’ve seen so many companies move in different directions. Microsoft is doing a full pivot to a publisher role, nearly every gaming company has a subscription service (EA Play, Ubisoft+, PlayStation Plus, Xbox Game Pass), and everyone wants to make a live-service game for maximum profits. The report rightly highlights that it is tougher for new IPs to find their footing.
Finally, there’s the issue of time and attention. If you’re a gamer who also happens to be a soccer and basketball fan, are you going to play both NBA 2K and EA FC multiple times a week? Probably not. You might just play the game you enjoy more, or you might end up playing the game that does a better job of sucking you in. This is why the grind in a lot of games is more apparent than ever before.
