The Market
Video Game Insights (Sensor Tower) data: 140,000+ games in 50+ countries. Only Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox are included. Revenue is gross. Units sold include all copies of premium games, including subscription giveaways (PS Plus, Game Pass).
Over 12 months (H2'25-H1'26), premium games on PC and consoles earned $30 billion. PlayStation accounted for 45.1% of revenue, Steam for 38.6%, and Xbox for 16.3%.
In H1'26, revenue grew 5.3% YoY to $13.8 billion (up from $13.1 billion a year earlier). All of the growth came in the second quarter: the market earned $6.9 billion in Q1'26 (-2% YoY) and $6.94 billion in Q2'26 (+13% YoY). Sensor Tower attributes this to strong releases, including Forza Horizon 6 and 007 First Light.
❗️In its August report, Sensor Tower estimated Steam revenue in H1'26 at $5.36 billion (-5% YoY). So, consoles seem to be driving growth in the premium games market.
PlayStation led by share of units sold in four of the last six quarters, peaking at 46.6% in Q4'25. In Q2'26, its share fell to 39.2%, the lowest since the beginning of 2025. Steam has held at 39-40% for three quarters in a row and slightly overtook PlayStation in Q2'26 (39.6%).
From concept art to launch-day marketing, most game studios rely on contractors in multiple countries. Mellow makes it simple to hire, pay, and stay compliant with talent in 150+ countries — no legal entity required.
Xbox had 21.2% of units sold in Q2'26, up six percentage points from a quarter earlier. Sensor Tower notes that unit counts include Xbox Game Pass giveaways, so Xbox's share of units is less consistent than its share of revenue.
By units sold on Steam, the US (139 million) and China (126 million) lead. Russia is third (50.9 million).
Action is the top genre by revenue on every platform. Over 12 months, it earned $4.81 billion on PlayStation, $4.05 billion on Steam, and $1.34 billion on Xbox.
Second place on PlayStation goes to Sports ($2.82 billion), on Xbox to Shooter ($1.06 billion), and on Steam to RPG ($1.81 billion), just slightly above Shooters ($1.8 billion).
The leaders differ too. On PlayStation, EA SPORTS FC 26 leads in both units and revenue. On Xbox, Forza Horizon 6 leads in units (including subscription), and Battlefield 6 in revenue. On Steam, the sales leaders include AAA hits like Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders, as well as smaller titles like PEAK and MECCHA CHAMELEON.
Time spent in premium games on Steam grew ~13% YoY in H1'26. Action (+28%) and Strategy (+24%) grew fastest, and Shooters grew by 14%. RPG playtime, on the other hand, fell (-14%).
If F2P games are included, Shooters lead Steam in time spent.
Most of Steam's revenue comes from games released in previous years; their share is usually 60-80%, depending on the quarter. In the first half of 2026, new releases accounted for 26% of revenue in the first quarter and 31.3% in the second. Back-catalog revenue is gradually growing and approaching $2 billion per quarter, while new-release revenue depends on how strong the releases are.
The number of premium releases on Steam (only games with 20+ reviews are counted) has grown since 2023, but the new-release share of revenue has not kept pace. In H1'26, 3,800 new games with 20+ reviews came out (-4% YoY). For comparison, Sensor Tower estimates that 11,800 games in total came out on Steam in H1'26, more than in any other half. More and more games are on the market, but they are fighting for the same, fairly limited, segment of the market.
Publishers and Games
The top three publishers by premium revenue over 12 months have not changed: Electronic Arts, Take-Two, and Sony.
Five of the top 10 publishers earned more than half of their premium revenue from games released in the past 12 months. For EA, that is 69.5% (Battlefield 6, FC 26, Madden 26); for Xbox, 62.3% (Forza Horizon 6); for Capcom, 54.3% (Resident Evil Requiem); and for Take-Two, 53.4% (NBA 2K26). At Nexon, ARC Raiders alone brought in 96.2% of revenue.
Xbox Game Studios climbed six places (to 5th) on Forza Horizon 6, and Capcom two places (to 4th) with Resident Evil Requiem. Nexon rose from 59th to 7th on ARC Raiders alone.
Ubisoft, on the other hand, earned just 5.9% of its revenue from new releases and slipped two places (to 6th). Bandai Namco also lost two places.
Leaders by paid units sold (H2'25-H1'26): Battlefield 6 (33.7 million), EA SPORTS FC 26 (29 million), and ARC Raiders (20.2 million). The first two cost $70, and ARC Raiders $40.
Cheap games sell well. PEAK ($8) sold 14.3 million copies, MECCHA CHAMELEON ($6) 9.27 million, RV There Yet? ($8) 7.38 million, and R.E.P.O. ($10) 7.12 million.
❗️In its August report, Sensor Tower counted 13.1 million copies of MECCHA CHAMELEON for H1'26 alone. I'm not sure why the number of copies went down, given that the developers officially reported the game has sold more than 20 million copies.
In 2025, franchises on Steam earned more than a year earlier. AAA franchise revenue grew to $3.98 billion (from $3.13 billion in 2024), AA franchises also grew (to $1.23 billion), and indie stayed flat ($0.64 billion).
Remake and remaster revenue is growing too: AAA at $408 million (+23% YoY), AA at $108 million, and indie at $78.9 million.
At the same time, the number of franchise and remake releases did not grow, and it even declined among indie projects. Sensor Tower believes publishers are betting on existing audiences. And the lack of big new IPs may have contributed to the rise of the indie scene.
By share of units sold among sports games, EA SPORTS FC usually leads. It gives way only in the months when competitors launch: Madden in August (51.4% in August 2026), MLB The Show in spring, and NBA 2K in June.
In July 2026, EA FC's share of sales rose to 67.8% on the back of the FIFA World Cup.
By the end of its first month on Steam, Madden NFL 27 is selling slightly worse than Madden NFL 26. The start was much weaker, but the gap almost closed within 30 days. Sensor Tower suggests early sales may have been affected by the EA Sports MVP+ subscription, which bundles Madden and College Football.
The Sims 4 went free-to-play in October 2022. Still, according to Sensor Tower, in 2026 alone the game earned more from DLC on Steam than the base game did over all its years of sales.
❗️It's important here that VGI (Sensor Tower) only counts Steam figures. The Sims 4 came to Steam only six years after its global release. Before that, the game was distributed through Origin.
DLC revenue grows during Steam's seasonal sales. The game's best sale of 2026 was Lunar New Year. Sensor Tower explains this by the fact that China is The Sims 4's top market by players.
Sensor Tower compared how the split between copy sales and in-game purchases changes after launch on Steam. For Battlefield 6, 93.3% of revenue is copy sales; after the October 2025 peak, revenue drops sharply. For ARC Raiders, in-game purchases account for 26.3%, and in December they nearly matched copy sales. For NBA 2K26, the figure is already 41.8%, so revenue holds up as long as the game stays relevant.
Wishlists
❗️Conversion is calculated from all pre-launch wishlists plus those added in the first 30 days after launch.
Sensor Tower calculated what share of wishlists converts into purchases in the first 30 days after launch (January 2025 - July 2026). Among AAA games, Battlefield 6 leads (23.6%); among AA, Hollow Knight: Silksong (34.1%); and among indie, Slay the Spire 2 (38.7%).
Indie and AA games generally convert more consistently than AAA. Sensor Tower analysts suggest that wishlisting a little-known game is a more deliberate decision than wishlisting a AAA release that everyone already sees.
Some games pick up wishlists after launch. R.E.P.O. had 178,000 wishlists before launch and added 2.21 million in the first 30 days. PEAK had 28,200 and 1.61 million, and Liar's Bar 65,500 and 1.17 million.
Games get the most wishlists during Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards. The leaders: Resident Evil Veronica (+799,000 during Summer Game Fest) and Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 (+725,000 during The Game Awards 2025).
Steam Next Fest gives a smaller boost, and more indie projects rank at the top. At the February 2026 festival, Windrose led (+268,000).
In September 2026, three new releases sold more than a million copies each, with 1M+ wishlists and 75%+ positive reviews. WARDOGS: 3 million copies, 1.3 million wishlists, 79% positive reviews. Onimusha: 1.9 million copies, 1.5 million wishlists, 90%. The Blood of Dawnwalker: 1.4 million copies, 1.9 million wishlists, 87%.
Among unreleased games, Deadlock leads Steam wishlists (3.44 million). A year ago, the game had 2.97 million wishlists. Light No Fire (2.32 million) and Phantom Blade Zero (2.19 million) follow.
Deadlock also leads in followers (428,000). Phantom Blade Zero, however, is only 15th by followers. Sensor Tower believes such games have high commercial intent but a weaker community. The opposite example is Operation Lovecraft: Fallen Doll: third by followers (223,000) and 30th by wishlists.
From concept art to launch-day marketing, most game studios rely on contractors in multiple countries. Mellow makes it simple to hire, pay, and stay compliant with talent in 150+ countries — no legal entity required.
Advertising
Pathmatics data. Each country includes only select ad channels, not the entire digital market. YoY changes are calculated only for channels with data available since August 2024.
Over 12 months (H2'25-H1'26), PC/console publishers spent $1.2 billion on digital advertising across 44 countries. In H1'26, they spent $535 million (-0.4% YoY).
In the US, publishers spent $558 million on PC/console game advertising over 12 months (August 2025 - July 2026) (-24% YoY), with 80.5 billion impressions (-28% YoY). Microsoft is the largest advertiser, as it was a year ago, followed by EA and Take-Two. By genre, Shooter leads, followed by RPG and Action. Instagram is the largest channel ($108 million).
More than half of US social ad spend by PC/console publishers goes to Meta: Instagram has 28.4%, and Facebook 24.4%. YouTube has 23.5%, and TikTok 14.6%.
Reddit also stands out (4.8%). Sensor Tower notes that the platform's share in the PC/console segment is several times higher than Reddit's share among mobile games. On Meta and YouTube, short-form formats (Reels and Shorts) are growing.
The four biggest US advertisers among premium releases of the past 12 months are all shooters: Battlefield 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Borderlands 4, and Marathon. Sports, action, and other genres spend noticeably less.
All nine games in the sample were revealed at events, and seven of them launched paid media the same week, almost entirely on social. Budgets are small: Battlefield 6 spent $372,000 in the week after its reveal, Black Ops 7 $344,000, and everyone else under $60,000.
Wishlist volume doesn't directly correlate with money spent. ARC Raiders got the most in the week after Summer Game Fest: 2 million wishlists on $57,000 of advertising. Borderlands 4 had 0.93 million, and Battlefield 6 0.86 million.
Most games start advertising 10-14 days before launch, and spend grows after release. Eight of the nine games spent more in the first two weeks after launch than in the two weeks before it.
The channel mix differs for everyone. Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7 bet on TV, Marathon on TikTok the day after launch, and Borderlands 4 spent steadily on TikTok and Twitch. Resident Evil Requiem started buying heavily on Facebook only after launch.
Video ads get shorter after launch: from ~25 to ~22 seconds on average. TV spots shrink the most, from 33 to 22 seconds. Battlefield 6 strongly influences this data, though: nearly $920,000 of its pre-launch TV budget went to 60-second spots.
Resident Evil Requiem's creatives changed over the campaign. At the reveal, Capcom used creator reactions to the trailer with a call to wishlist the game. Before launch, the top creative was a live-action spot that conveyed the game's atmosphere without showing the main characters. After launch, it was a PlayStation co-branded cutscene; two weeks later, it was a review-based cut.
Upcoming Releases
By early September, the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 open beta had been downloaded ~4 million times on Steam and Xbox alone: 2.17 million on Xbox, and 1.89 million on Steam. Players were split between Asia (29.6%), Europe (29.5%), and North America (25.6%).
By early September, GTA VI pre-orders on PlayStation and Xbox had brought in ~$523 million (5.3 million copies): ~$402 million on PlayStation (4.1 million copies), and $121 million on Xbox (1.2 million copies).
89% of pre-orders are the $100 Ultimate Edition; the base version accounts for 10%.
After the Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay showcase premiered on Netflix on August 27, daily pre-order revenue jumped ~6x: from $2.4-3.8 million on average in August to $16.3 million the next day. By mid-September, sales had dropped to ~$5.9 million, but that is still almost double the August level.
PlayStation's share of pre-order revenue grew from ~71% to ~76% over that period. Sensor Tower specifically notes that the trailer was captured on PlayStation 5.