10 Numbers That Prove Gaming Is Bigger Than Ever

League of Legends world championship continued its dominance in 2024 as the most popular esports competition, with a peak viewership of 6.94 million, a significant rise from 6.4 million in 2023. The final game, which was between T1 and Bilibili Gaming, recorded over 50 million viewers on and off throughout its run, a record number since 2021.

In total, more than 611 million people watched esports both occasionally and consistently in 2024, a steady increase from just over 430 million in 2021 and expected to continue growing. The high turnout proves that more people now enjoy watching esports just like any other sport, proving it as an essential player in the entertainment industry.

According to Esports charts, there are currently over 73,000 professional esports players registered around the world. While not all of them are active, the number is a significant indicator of just how much gaming has evolved as an entertainment platform. With more user-friendly games being produced and more people playing esports than ever before, it is no surprise that more people now consider being professional gamers.

Esports charts also show a record number of earnings for professional players, with almost everyone in the top 10 having earned over $5 million. The highest-earning player, Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein, has earned over $7 million, a figure that continues to attract more players to esports.

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The uptake of gaming among women has always been a matter of concern for the industry. The population of female gamers was stuck below 40% for many years until 2011, when a survey revealed that women made up 42% of gamers. That number has continued to grow through the years, reaching an astounding 48% in 2022 and now expected to be closer to 50%.

A further breakdown of the numbers revealed that at least 72% of women around the globe play video games on a console, mobile phone, or PC. The survey also revealed that at least half of female gamers pay for video games, making women a lucrative market for gaming industries.

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Acquiring Activision Blizzard was a key step in Microsoft achieving Xbox Live’s full potential. This was proven when the CEO, Satya Nadella, announced a record number of Monthly Active Users at the end of 2024: more than 500 million across multiple devices and platforms.

The company also recorded a 61% increase in revenues from gaming despite a 42% drop in hardware sales as gamers showed little interest in the latest Xbox S series. PlayStation also recorded a record-high number of MAUs at 129 million, which is a huge indicator of growth in the industry.

As players continue to demand higher quality accessories and more interesting games, developers have proved that they are up to the task, with more video games being released in 2024 than at any other time in history. Steam, which is still the biggest online video game store, saw a record of 19,000 new games released on the platform.

Steam primarily serves PC gamers, who now make up more than a third of the total global gaming population. The record number of new games shows the commitment by developers to keep bringing new products into the market. Unfortunately, nearly 80% of these games didn’t get enough engagement to be upgraded from the platform’s limited status.

The release of GTA 6 and other gamer favorites is set to immensely boost PS5 sales in 2025. However, the world’s most popular console is already enjoying the best time since its release despite the latest version, PS5 Pro, costing over $700. Sony confirmed that it sold over 9.5 million units in Q3 of 2024. These record sales pushed the total number of PS5s sold since its launch in 2020 to over 75 million.

PlayStation also continued to record an increase in the number of monthly active users, which currently stands at 129 million. These high sales saw Playstation services record a whopping $30.8 billion in revenues, beating Xbox and Nintendo’s combined earnings in the same period.

The Game Awards is gaming’s version of the Oscars, and while the latter continues to struggle with viewership numbers, TGA recorded a sustained increase in livestreams for the 11th year in a row. The Oscars 2025 recorded 19.7 million viewers according to Nielsen, a 1% increase from the previous years.

TGA, on the other hand, had a combined 154 million streams across Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms. The number represents a 31% jump from 2023 when 118 million live streams were recorded.

The gaming industry’s combined revenue in 2024 was just over $200 billion, with a big portion of it being raised by Console and PC gamers. According to the latest data, PC and console gamers are both likely to subscribe to at least one gaming service, which makes them a lucrative market, especially for cloud-based gaming. However, with more people now spending most of their time on mobile phones, mobile gaming has a big role to play in the future of the industry.

Over 2.5 billion people play video games on their mobile phones, and they have proved that they are also a paying market. Mobile gamers spent just over $107 billion in 2024, which is more than half of the industry’s total revenue. Tencent’s Honor of Kings was the year’s biggest earner with $1.5 billion, followed by PUBG Mobile with $1.2 billion, and finally, Genshìn Impact closed the $1 billion mark with $1.1 billion in revenue.

Esports prize money pools have seen an all-time increase thanks to the entry of mega-money sponsors such as Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Intel, and Pepsi. In 2024, that number hit an all-time high of $320 million, according to esports charts. The number represents an 8% increase from 2023 when esports prize pools had an estimated $295 million.

Dota 2 had a prize pot of over $40 million, maintaining its dominance as the most valuable esports championship. It was closely followed by PGL, which had $25 million, and League of Legends World Championship 2024, with $20 million.

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The biggest proof yet that gaming is bigger than ever before is that nearly half of the human population is playing video games in one form or another. According to the latest data, there were 3.3 billion gamers at the end of 2024, projected to grow to 3.5 billion by the end of 2025. Of that number, Asia continues to dominate with a gamer population of 1.5 billion, followed by Europe with 715 million, Latin America with 420 million, and then North America with 285 million.

The number of gamers has also continued to grow by over 100 million since 2015, indicating that the industry won’t be slowing down any time soon. The gender distribution among gamers also continues to favor the industry as female gamers approach the 50% mark. The future of gaming is also bright as the majority of gamers are aged between 18 and 34 years, with over 600 million being under the age of 18.