Report
Shooter Games on Live Streaming Mini-Report
This analysis explores the landscape of shooter games on live streaming platforms from 2019 through 2025, tracking viewership trends, subgenre shifts, and the impact of esports. While shooters remain a cornerstone of the industry—consistently accounting for at least 20% of all gaming viewership—the genre has seen a 6% decline in market share since 2022. By 2024, shooters represented approximately one-in-five gaming hours watched, totaling 6.1 billion hours. The data reveals a significant transition in subgenre dominance. Tactical shooters overtook battle royale games in 2023 to become the most-watched subgenre. This shift is largely driven by the sustained popularity of Valorant and Counter-Strike, which together claim 90% of tactical shooter viewership. Conversely, the battle royale subgenre has seen its viewership halve since its 2020 peak, despite the continued popularity of Fortnite. Other segments, such as extraction and arena shooters, have maintained stable but smaller market shares, with Escape From Tarkov accounting for nearly two-thirds of all extraction shooter hours. Esports serves as a primary engine for the genre's visibility. By late 2025, nearly half of all Counter-Strike viewership was generated by esports events. Valorant maintains a balanced global presence, holding significant viewership shares across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Southern Hemisphere. In contrast, Counter-Strike remains heavily reliant on the European market, while PUBG Mobile dominates the mobile-centric Asian market. The analysis also highlights the influence of individual creators and variety streamers. In 2024, Gaules emerged as the leading shooter streamer with 79.2 million hours watched. While Twitch remains the dominant platform for top creators, accounting for 73% of the top ten's viewership, the data shows high viewer overlap between franchises. For example, over 40% of Valorant viewers also engage with other tactical shooters, suggesting strong community fluidity across the genre. Methodology for these findings includes data aggregation from all major streaming platforms, excluding TikTok Live, with specific sentiment analysis conducted on Twitch chat data.
Stream HatchetJan 2025
Report
Key Insights into Shooter Games
Shooter games represent the fifth highest‑earning genre worldwide, generating approximately $2.24 billion in 2022 across all platforms. The report focuses on the genre’s popularity, player demographics, engagement patterns, and monetization strategies within a global context that excludes China and India. Data derive from Newzoo’s Global Games Market, Consumer Insights – Games & Esports 2022, and the Newzoo Expert platform, covering 37 markets with a sample of 19,544 recent shooter players and 60,020 broader gamers. Key findings show that shooters dominate PC and console play, with 68 % of monthly active users (MAU) on these platforms also engaging in shooter titles. Player overlap with other genres is high: 56 % of shooter players also play adventure games, while strategy and simulation overlap remains low. The contemporary war theme and level‑based mechanics are the most common in shooter titles. Monetization is overwhelmingly pay‑to‑play; 97 % of shooter players experience in‑app purchases, and advertising is the least used model. Demographically, core personas—Ultimate Gamers and All‑Round Enthusiasts—account for the largest shooter player base, yet nearly all persona groups play shooters. Motivations to spend include social interaction and access to special offers, with 13,659 of the 19,544 shooter players identified as payers. Live‑streaming data indicate that shooters rank highly on Twitch and Facebook Gaming, reinforcing the genre’s strong community presence. The report underscores shooters’ robust revenue streams, broad demographic appeal, and central role in competitive online play.
NewzooJan 2025
Report
Shooter Games
Shooter games represent the fifth highest-revenue generating genre globally as of 2022. This genre, defined by the primary mechanic of defeating enemies via firearms or projectiles, maintains a massive footprint across PC, console, and mobile platforms. While historical titles like Doom and Halo established the genre's foundation, modern success is driven by online competitive play and live streaming engagement. Notably, this analysis excludes Battle Royale and Vehicular Combat titles, which are classified as independent genres. Data from August 2022 indicates that shooters command high engagement, ranking as a top genre for monthly active users on both Steam and consoles. The player base is predominantly male (63%) and young, with 38% of players falling between the ages of 10 and 20. High-intensity "Ultimate Gamers" and "All-Round Enthusiasts" show the strongest affinity for the genre, with 82% of the former group having played a shooter in the six months prior to the study. Beyond the core genre, shooter fans show significant cross-genre overlap with adventure and battle royale titles, while showing the least interest in simulation and strategy games. The genre's ecosystem is heavily influenced by specific themes and monetization strategies. Contemporary war is the most popular theme, utilized by 68% of the player base, while levels and maps remain the dominant gameplay mechanic. In terms of monetization, the market is characterized by a high prevalence of both pay-to-play models and in-app purchases, with 97% of players engaging with titles that feature microtransactions. Geographically, the research covers 37 markets, excluding China and India, and utilizes a sample of over 19,000 active gamers to identify these behavioral and demographic trends.
NewzooJan 2022
Report
Shooter Genre Snapshot: September 2021
**Shooter Genre Snapshot – September 2021 (GameRefinery)** --- ### 1. Market Overview | Metric | Insight | |--------|----------| | **Genre rank (US iOS)** | 6th largest mobile genre, ~6 % of total iOS revenue. | | **Revenue share** | The “Big Three” – **Call of Duty: Mobile**, **PUBG Mobile**, and **Garena Free Fire** – generate > 84 % of shooter revenue. | | **Impact of Fortnite removal** | Apple‑Epic lawsuit (Fortnite removed Aug 2020) erased a game that once held ~30 % of the shooter market on iOS. | | **Growth leader** | Garena Free Fire doubled its iOS revenue in 2021, climbing from ~10 % to ~30 % market share and now rivals CoD Mobile for the top spot (Q2 2021). | | **New‑entry stagnation** | No shooter launched in the last **2 years** cracked the top‑grossing 200; only **Bullet Echo** (May 2020) entered the top‑500. | --- ### 2. Top‑Performing Titles (US iOS – Q2 2021) | Rank | Game | Publisher | Sub‑genre | Share | |------|------|-----------|-----------|-------| | 1 | **Garena Free Fire – 4th Anniversary** | Garena International | Battle‑Royale | **28.56 %** | | 2 | **Call of Duty: Mobile** | Activision | Classic FPS/TPS | **28.17 %** | | 3 | **PUBG Mobile – Ignition** | Tencent | Battle‑Royale | **26.55 %** | | 4 | **War Robots** | Pixonic | Tactical Shooter | 3.5 % | | 5 | **Sniper 3D** | Fun Games | Sniper | 3.5 % | | 6 | **Pixel Gun 3D** | Cubic Games | Classic FPS/TPS | 2.12 % | | 7 | **War Machines: Tank** | Fun Games | Tactical Shooter | 1.9 % | | 8 | **Zooba: Zoo Battle Royale** | Wildlife Studios | Battle‑Royale | 1.88 % | | 9 | **World of Tanks Blitz** | Wargaming | Tactical Shooter | 1.61 % | | 10| **Tacticool** | – | – | ~1 % | *Key takeaway:* The top three dominate ~83 % of the genre’s revenue; the rest of the field is highly fragmented. --- ### 3. Why the “Big Three” Stay on Top | Driver | How It’s Implemented | |--------|----------------------| | **Battle Pass** | Seasonal “free + paid” tracks that reward playtime, cosmetics, and progression. | | **Limited‑time Gachas** | Time‑bound loot‑box style draws with increasing price/odds, often tied to events or milestones. | | **Live Events & New Modes** | Frequent, high‑visibility updates (e.g
GameRefinerySept 2021
Report
Shooter Genre Snapshot
The report examines the mobile shooter genre in the United States, positioning it as the sixth‑largest segment on iOS and accounting for roughly six percent of total revenue. It attributes recent shifts to the removal of Fortnite from the App Store, which created a vacuum that Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, and Garena Free Fire filled. Garena’s title has experienced the most dramatic growth, doubling quarterly revenue and capturing a share comparable to Call of Duty. Market data show that no new shooter has entered the top 500 in two years, underscoring stagnation and a lack of fresh IPs. Key monetization patterns are identified: battle passes, limited‑time gacha events, and frequent cosmetic drops drive revenue. The analysis highlights the high content cadence of leading shooters, with regular updates that introduce new maps, modes, and seasonal rewards. It also notes the strategic use of social features such as guilds and clan wars to increase player retention. The document projects potential disruption from upcoming titles tied to major IPs—Valorant Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile, Battlefield Mobile, and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier—while questioning whether these will generate the sustained content pipeline required to compete with the entrenched “Big Three.” The report concludes that, despite a current lull, the shooter market remains highly competitive and poised for potential renewal if new entrants can match the monetization sophistication of existing leaders.
GameRefineryJan 2021
Report
Aktualizacja Strategii: Nowe Otwarcie
The updated strategy for People Can Fly (PCF Group) marks a transition toward a self-publishing model while maintaining its core expertise in developing high-end shooter games. Having successfully completed its post-IPO objectives, including the expansion of production capacity and the establishment of multiple creative studios across Europe and North America, the company now aims to scale its operations to support the simultaneous development of several ambitious projects. The primary thesis centers on leveraging internal intellectual property and proprietary technology, specifically the PCF Framework and Unreal Engine 5, to deliver high-quality gaming experiences while capturing a larger share of revenue through self-publishing. Key operational findings highlight a shift from a single-project focus to a multi-project production model supported by over 600 employees. The company has implemented agile methodologies and Centers of Excellence to improve efficiency and risk management. Financial targets are aggressive, with a goal of reaching 3.0 billion PLN in total revenue between 2023 and 2027. To achieve this, PCF plans to release six games over the next four years, focusing on the Games-as-a-Service (GaaS) model to ensure long-term player engagement and recurring revenue. Projects currently in development include Gemini, Dagger, Bifrost, Victoria, and Thunder, with a mix of work-for-hire and self-published titles. The scope of this strategy covers global operations across seven studios, including locations in Warsaw, Rzeszów, Kraków, Katowice, Newcastle, Montreal, and New York. To fund this expansion, the company intends to raise between 205 million and 295 million PLN through a new share issuance. This capital will be directed toward scaling development teams and supporting the production of its self-published portfolio, with no dividend payments expected before 2025.
PCF Group