Midia Research: Video games to pass $300bn revenue, 3.8 billion players by 2030

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The video games industry is expected to reach global annual revenues of over $300 billion and a worldwide audience of 3.8 billion active players by 2030.

That's according to a new report by Midia Research, which forecasts the industry's growth for the rest of the decade and the factors that will drive it.

But the report's authors, Karol Severin and Perry Gresham, warn that the growth pace of the global games industry has "arguably peaked."

"The grand finale of its growth heyday was artificially fuelled by the COVID bounce in 2020 (26.3% growth) and 2021 (9.8%), followed by a 5% decline in 2022," they wrote.

"While global revenue will return to growth in 2023, it will remain under the rate of inflation. Furthermore, against the inflationary backdrop, the games industry will not see more than low- to mid-single digit percentage growth for the remainder of the decade."

The authors added: "The games industry needs a new growth driver if it is to thrive once again. The saving grace could come in the form of in-game spending (especially the cosmetic part thereof).

"As consumers spend increasingly larger portions of their lives in digital environments, their need to define their image, personality, and identity in digital grows too. Unlike paying for a game, paying for image and identity definition can be largely uncapped, providing larger potential upside to developers and publishers who can find their ‘fandom hook’."

GamesIndustry.biz has scoured the full report, and here's an overview of how Midia believes the industry will reach those landmark figures by 2030.

Midia forecasts that following a slight decline in 2022, the industry will return