Market Analysis

The playbook outlines a systematic approach for mobile gaming publishers and investors to identify, evaluate, and acquire high‑growth developers. It argues that the mobile gaming market—projected to reach $138 billion in 2025—has become a prime arena for mergers and acquisitions, citing recent deals such as Zynga’s $2 billion purchase of Peak Games, EA’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Glu Mobile, and Embracer Group’s multi‑year funding round for future buys. The document stresses that M&A serves dual purposes: portfolio diversification and the acquisition of talent, expertise, and new IPs that can accelerate growth beyond a publisher’s core genres.

Key findings highlight the importance of data‑driven target selection. Sensor Tower’s Game Intelligence platform is promoted as a tool for tracking genre trends, revenue trajectories, and market share across regions. The playbook recommends establishing clear acquisition criteria—budget limits, company size, geographic focus—and using custom alerts and taxonomy filters to surface promising titles. It also advises building structured lead‑tracking workflows, labeling qualified versus unqualified prospects, and continuously monitoring portfolio performance to spot strategic shifts or revenue declines that may signal acquisition opportunities.

The scope covers the global mobile gaming industry, with particular emphasis on North America and Southeast Asia, over a recent five‑year period marked by accelerated M&A activity. Methodologically, the playbook relies on Sensor Tower’s proprietary analytics, supplemented by industry news feeds from outlets such as Pocket Gamer, VentureBeat, and Crunchbase. The conclusion urges publishers to leverage analytics, maintain rigorous criteria, and stay alert to market movements in order to secure advantageous acquisitions that align with long‑term growth objectives.

India is positioned as the world’s largest mobile‑gaming market, with 8.45 billion downloads recorded in FY 2024‑25 yet only $400 million in in‑app purchase (IAP) revenue, underscoring a pronounced monetization gap despite high engagement. Downloads have stabilized post‑pandemic while IAP spending has accelerated, largely driven by Google Play’s dominance and an expanding share of higher‑spending iOS users. Demographic analysis shows that 77 % of players are aged 18‑34, 86 % are male, and lifestyle titles uniquely attract a larger female audience.

Genre‑level insights reveal that casual, family‑oriented categories—Simulation (driving/flight), Arcade (platformer/runner), and Tabletop board games—generate the bulk of download volume. In contrast, monetization is concentrated in competitive, engagement‑heavy segments such as Shooter (Battle Royale), Casino, and Strategy (4X). Publishers are advised to pair mass‑appeal casual titles with monetization strategies that target the growing cohort of high‑value, competitive gamers.

India‑based publishers maintain robust domestic download volumes through culturally resonant titles like Ludo King and Dream11, yet monetization remains modest. To offset this challenge, publishers are expanding overseas revenue streams, with the US, Saudi Arabia, and the UK emerging as key markets. The dual strategy of leveraging local appeal for mass reach while pursuing international growth is presented as a pathway to enhance overall profitability in India’s mobile‑gaming ecosystem.

The China Game Industry Report for 2025 presents a comprehensive assessment of the domestic and overseas gaming markets, highlighting sustained growth driven by youth protection initiatives, technological innovation, and cross‑sector integration. In 2025, China’s self‑developed mobile games generated US$20.455 billion in overseas revenue, a 10.23% year‑on‑year increase and the sixth consecutive year surpassing RMB 100 billion. Strategy games, including SLG, dominated overseas earnings at 49.97%, followed by shooters (9.69%) and RPGs (9.39%). The United States remains the largest market, contributing 32.31% of overseas revenue, with Japan (16.35%) and South Korea (9.15%) also significant.

Domestically, mobile games accounted for 73.29% of total sales, with MOBA leading at 19.45%, followed by shooting (18.29%) and RPG (15.10%). The domestic console market expanded sharply, reaching RMB 8.362 billion (US$1.18 billion) in 2025, a 37.38% year‑on‑year rise, driven by both software and hardware sales.

Global market projections indicate the worldwide gaming industry will reach RMB 130.17 billion in 2025, with mobile gaming contributing RMB 66.69 billion—a growth rate of 4.93%, slower than previous years but still positive.

Methodologically, the report aggregates data from CADPA’s industry surveys and market analyses, covering 2020‑2025 for domestic sales and 2019‑2025 for overseas performance. The findings underscore a resilient Chinese gaming sector, poised to maintain strong export growth while deepening domestic diversification across mobile and console platforms.

Collective work under the direction of dr Jakub Marszałkowski dr Jakub Marszałkowski, Indie Games Poland, Poznan University of Technology (chapters 3, 5, 8, 9) Eryk Rutkowski, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (chapters 2, 4, 6) Wojciech Trusz, Creative Industries Institute (chapters 1) Piotr Milewski, Sirius Game Studio, Gdynia Maritime University (chapters 7) Game Industry Conference team: Olga Matej, Agnieszka Wołoszyn, Kacper Żubryk, Hanna Marszałkowska, Dominik Latos Extra data minin...

The German games industry navigated a period of significant contraction in 2024, with total market revenue falling 6% to €9.4 billion. This downturn, driven by a decline in mobile revenue and console hardware sales, resulted in the first recorded reduction in the number of active companies and industry employees in recent years. Despite these headwinds, Germany maintains its status as the largest games market in Europe and the fifth largest globally. The domestic player base remains robust and increasingly diverse, encompassing 37.5 million individuals with an average age of 39.5 years, reflecting the deep integration of gaming into the national cultural fabric.

Strategic instability during this period stemmed largely from restrictive federal funding guidelines and project application freezes, which disproportionately impacted smaller studios. However, the outlook for 2025 is increasingly positive, anchored by a new coalition agreement that pledges to increase federal funding to €125 million annually by 2026 and introduce competitive tax incentives. These policy shifts aim to bolster Germany’s international standing, which industry leaders currently view as suboptimal despite the nation’s strong infrastructure, academic training programs, and successful startup initiatives like the "Press Start" grant.

To secure long-term growth, the industry is prioritizing a hybrid funding model, the establishment of a dedicated "Games University," and the expansion of digital cultural heritage projects, such as the AI-driven archiving of over 40,000 titles. Professionalization efforts continue through the game association, which represents over 500 members and manages critical networking platforms like gamescom. By integrating esports development, sustainability commitments, and structured career pathways, the German ecosystem is positioning itself to transition from a period of market correction toward a more resilient and internationally competitive future.

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The global games market reached a record $199.4 billion in 2024, cementing its status as the preeminent force in the entertainment sector. Despite this scale, the industry faces a period of moderated growth, with projections for 2025 hovering at approximately 1%. This deceleration stems from a combination of high-profile release delays, such as the postponement of major titles, and a tightening early-stage funding environment. To navigate this landscape, firms are shifting their focus from aggressive expansion toward operational efficiency, lean development cycles, and the optimization of existing intellectual property.

Strategic growth in 2025 will rely heavily on geographic diversification and demographic expansion. Emerging markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asia represent significant frontiers, while developers are increasingly targeting underserved cohorts, including older gamers and young adult females. Furthermore, the industry is leveraging user-generated content platforms like Roblox to maintain engagement among younger audiences. Hardware cycles, particularly the anticipated launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, remain a critical catalyst for consumer spending, providing a necessary boost to the broader market ecosystem.

To combat the dual pressures of escalating AAA development costs and fragmented consumer attention, publishers are adopting more conservative financial models. This includes a heavy reliance on remakes, remasters, and multi-platform porting to extract maximum value from established assets. Simultaneously, companies are pursuing margin expansion through diversified monetization strategies, such as hybrid mobile models and direct-to-consumer web shops that bypass traditional app store fees. By transitioning toward holistic franchise management that spans licensing, subscription services, and cross-media integration, the industry aims to stabilize revenue streams and ensure long-term sustainability in an increasingly competitive global environment.

The Big Game Engine Report 2025 examines the shifting landscape of game development technology, focusing on the transition from proprietary in-house tools to third-party public engines. The analysis covers over 13,000 games released on Steam, tracking market share trends from 2012 through 2024 with projections reaching 2030. Findings are based on proprietary estimations and tagging methodologies that categorize engines into three tiers: dominant public engines (Unity and Unreal), smaller public engines (Godot, GameMaker, RPG Maker), and custom in-house engines used by major AAA studios.

The central thesis posits that the era of dominant in-house engines is ending as major studios increasingly adopt Unreal Engine 5 to reduce maintenance costs and access a broader talent pool. While custom engines powered over 70% of Steam releases in 2012, they accounted for only 13% of releases in 2024. In terms of commercial performance, custom engines still represent 42% of units sold, but this is the first time they have fallen below the 50% threshold. Unreal Engine has capitalized on this shift, particularly in the AAA space, while Unity remains the leader in sheer volume, powering 51% of all 2024 releases.

The data highlights a clear correlation between game size and engine choice. Unity dominates the "Tiny" and "Small" categories (under 100k units), whereas custom engines and Unreal Engine control the "Large" segment (over 1M units). Emerging trends show Godot as the fastest-growing smaller engine, driving over two-thirds of the growth in its tier since 2020. Looking forward, the industry expects a continued migration toward Unreal Engine 5, with Unity projected to face increasing pressure from open-source alternatives like Godot in the indie sector while struggling to gain further ground in the high-end AAA market.

Global mobile app growth remains resilient in 2025, characterized by an 11% year-over-year increase in installs and a 10% rise in user sessions. This expansion is increasingly defined by a shift from pure volume-based acquisition toward a value-driven model that balances cost efficiency, engagement, and long-term retention. The Asia-Pacific region has emerged as the primary engine of this global momentum, achieving the highest regional growth score of 45, with India specifically leading all individual nations with a score of 49. While established markets like North America show more modest growth metrics, they remain critical hubs for high-value user monetization and sophisticated optimization strategies.

Gaming continues to be the dominant vertical worldwide, particularly within the hyper-casual and hybrid-casual subgenres. This sector is especially potent in emerging markets; India’s gaming growth score of 52.2 underscores its status as a premier expansion target, while the Latin American and Middle Eastern markets are projected to reach significant revenue milestones of $35.9 billion and $3.73 billion respectively by 2030. Beyond gaming, the publications and utilities sectors have demonstrated consistent strength across Western markets, indicating a diversified landscape where functional and content-driven apps maintain high engagement levels.

The current mobile ecosystem requires a strategic pivot toward sophisticated analytics and retention-focused operations. In regions like North America, where user acquisition costs are higher, success depends on maximizing average revenue per user and leveraging artificial intelligence to refine marketing spend. Meanwhile, specific regional opportunities, such as the rise of card and arcade games in Türkiye, highlight the importance of localized content strategies. Ultimately, the global market is transitioning into a phase where sustainable growth is achieved through the integration of high-quality user experiences and data-driven efficiency rather than simple install volume.

Japan remains the world’s third-largest mobile app market, characterized by a resilient consumer spend of $16.5 billion in 2024 and a 7% year-over-year increase in total installs. While the gaming sector remains a foundational pillar, the market is undergoing a significant diversification into finance, entertainment, and digital comics. User trust is also on an upward trajectory, evidenced by App Tracking Transparency opt-in rates rising to 21.4%, with the gaming vertical leading at 31%. This shift suggests a maturing ecosystem where users are increasingly comfortable with data sharing in exchange for personalized experiences.

The gaming sector demonstrated notable stability in the first half of 2025, with a 3% increase in installs that outperformed global trends. Card games experienced a 127% surge in sessions, while role-playing games maintained the highest engagement levels with average session lengths of 40 minutes. Simultaneously, the finance sector emerged as a high-growth vertical, with installs rising 50% driven by payment and banking apps. Although average revenue per monthly active user has seen declines in some sectors, engagement metrics remain strong, particularly in entertainment where short-form drama apps have achieved a high revenue-per-download of $4.13.

A defining trend across the Japanese landscape is the strategic shift toward paid user acquisition. This is most visible in the comic app market, which reached a record paid-to-organic ratio of 1.03. Despite a decline in new installs for comics, the vertical remains a global revenue powerhouse due to deep user loyalty and session lengths averaging over 17 minutes. Across finance, entertainment, and comics, the market is transitioning from a phase of rapid expansion to one focused on maximizing the lifetime value of a culturally invested and highly engaged user base.

The 2025 digital gaming market is defined by a strategic pivot toward user quality and high-velocity creative iteration, with global advertising expenditure reaching $8.7 billion. Despite a year-over-year decline in total mobile and PC downloads, the industry remains robust through the resurgence of the shooter genre and the continued dominance of 4X Strategy and Casual titles. Geographically, growth is concentrated in North American and Asian markets, fueled by high-profile releases such as Battlefield 6 and Valorant Mobile. This landscape reflects a shift where major publishers like Microsoft and Dream Games utilize aggressive spending to maintain market share in an increasingly competitive environment.

Advertising strategies have evolved to prioritize "instantly legible" gameplay and the rapid deployment of creative assets to combat audience fatigue. Static image ads remain a resilient tool due to their cost-effectiveness, while generative AI is increasingly employed to test and iterate high volumes of creative concepts. Intellectual property collaborations, featuring franchises like Naruto and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, serve as a primary mechanism for lowering acquisition costs. Furthermore, platforms like YouTube have become essential for reaching PC and console audiences, while Apple Search Ads are leveraged tactically to capture competitor keywords and dominate search visibility.

The digital ecosystem also highlights the growing influence of internal discovery and content creators. Roblox maintains a massive web presence with over 187 billion visits, driven largely by organic traffic and internal discovery mechanisms rather than traditional external advertising. Meanwhile, viral indie titles and major releases like Marvel Rivals achieve commercial success by leveraging creator-led marketing. Ultimately, the industry in 2025 is characterized by a sophisticated blend of data-driven acquisition, aggressive platform-specific tactics, and a reliance on established IPs to navigate a market where engagement quality has surpassed sheer scale as the primary metric for success.

The African games industry is undergoing a period of rapid expansion, with total revenues projected to surpass $1 billion in 2024. This growth is primarily fueled by a mobile-first market that accounts for nearly 90% of the sector’s revenue, driven by a young, tech-savvy population and increasing smartphone penetration. While South Africa remains the most lucrative individual market, Nigeria has demonstrated the most significant momentum, with mobile revenues increasing fivefold since 2019. On a global scale, the Middle East and Africa region has emerged as a growth leader, maintaining an 8.9% year-on-year increase despite the historical dominance of North American and Asian markets.

The developer ecosystem has matured significantly, expanding from a handful of entities to approximately 250 studios by 2024. West Africa has emerged as the primary regional hub, experiencing a nearly fivefold increase in the number of active studios over the past year. Development is characterized by a youthful, male-majority demographic that favors the Unity engine to create entertainment-focused content for mobile platforms. High-profile international partnerships with brands like Microsoft Xbox, Disney, and Gameloft, alongside the success of global titles like Candy Crush and PUBG Mobile within the region, signal increasing integration into the global gaming economy.

Despite these advancements, the industry faces substantial structural and financial hurdles. Infrastructure remains a critical concern, as developers struggle with unstable power and high-speed internet access. Furthermore, a significant performance gap exists in funding and institutional support; only 3% of developers receive government funding, and over half of the continent's developers currently earn no income from their work. This has led to a trend of conservative, small-scale investment. To transition from early-stage prototyping to commercial acceleration, the sector requires a collaborative model focused on building talent pipelines, implementing rebate programs, and establishing localized payment methods to unlock the continent's full economic potential.