Geo-Economics and Politics

Asian countries make up 40% of the world’s top 10 video gaming markets

video gaming, as shown here, is currently a very profitable industry

China's 2025 video game industry turnover is expected to reach $71.2 billion in 2025. Image: Unsplash/Glenn Carstens-Peters

Katharina Buchholz
Data Journalist, Statista
  • Video gaming is a very lucrative and popular industry around the world, with a global revenue of $154.6 billion expected in 2021.
  • China has the biggest market in this industry with an estimated 2021 turnover of $49.3 billion.
  • Globally, mobile games make up a vast 70% of overall video game revenue.


The top 10 of the world’s biggest markets for video games
feature four Asian countries, Mexico and Russia, leaving space for the U.S. and only three European countries. The data from the Statista Digital Market Outlook shows that video gaming is in fact a hugely popular and profitable industry around the world, with a global revenue of $154.6 billion projected for 2021.

The biggest market, China, will have an estimated industry turnover of $49.3 billion in 2021, which is expected to rise to $71.2 billion in 2025 – far ahead of the second-placed United States, where games are expected to bring in $42.5 billion that year. Japan, in rank three, also remains an exceptional market for video games, expected to turn over $24 billion in 2025, four times as much as revenues in South Korea, the UK or India.

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Around the world, mobile games already make up the majority of video game revenue – around 70 percent. This share was even higher in China at 84 percent or Mexico at 74 percent.

a chart showing the world's top 10 gaming markets
China has the biggest global gaming market Image: Statista
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