In a new report by DFC Intelligence, they reported that the video game industry is projected to have a significant turnaround in 2025. DFC Intelligence is the longest-standing research and advisory firm focused exclusively on the video game industry, and their new report suggests that 2025 will be a new beginning for the industry, with a long period of significant growth ahead. The full report will be available in December, but for today, DFC revealed some of the initial significant details of their report.
The details include a forecasted 15% growth in the PC and console game software market over the next four years. If this is true, that will take it from $72 billion in 2024 to $83 billion in 2028. This would be a significant change for the video games industry, which has been dealing with awful circumstances for a long time now. This year alone has seen the most layoffs out of recent years in a short period of time, as well as a mass amount of studios being closed. Many people have left the industry as a result of insecure conditions, as the number of jobs available has slimmed down significantly due to layoffs, company restructurings, or even company closures.
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"We've been monitoring and analyzing the video game industry since 1995, and over the past 30 years, it's grown twenty-fold," said DFC Intelligence Founder and Principal David Cole. "While the pandemic initially boosted the market tremendously, it's been trending downward since early last year, with 2024 representing a chaotic nadir that included mass layoffs, extensive closures, and acquisitions of small and mid-sized studios."
Not only has there been the issue of closures and layoffs, but both software and hardware sales haven't gone the way most companies expected. All of the major console brands have noticed considerable declines in their revenue, with Nintendo experiencing the biggest loss due to the lack of recent hardware updates. However, when the Nintendo Switch 2 eventually releases, they'll likely see a huge spike.
Back to the stats, 2023 saw high-end game consumers spend more on game-related hardware than on software for the first time. This includes console systems, gaming PCs, and other related accessories. DFC is expecting this to continue for the foreseeable future. This would make sense for the coming years, with the release of the PlayStation 5 Pro and the Nintendo Switch 2. At the moment, there is barely any news about upcoming consoles from Microsoft, but according to DFC, it's expected that only two upcoming systems will be successful in gaining meaningful market penetration.