The global games market will return to growth in 2026 and reach $350 billion in annual revenue by 2030, according to a Boston Consulting Group forecast carried by GamesIndustry.biz.

BCG frames 2026 as the year the industry emerges from the post-pandemic demand cooldown that followed the 2020-2021 consumer spending peak. The trajectory implies a roughly four-year ramp to the $350bn figure, with the curve running through the end of the decade rather than snapping back to pre-pandemic baselines.

What does the forecast change for studios?

The headline numbers matter most for publishers planning headcount, content roadmaps and capital expenditure against a multi-year horizon. A 2026 recovery followed by growth to $350bn by 2030 would outrun pre-pandemic baselines for several segments, particularly mobile and live-service titles that absorbed most of the post-2021 correction.

For corporate development and strategy teams, the forecast also reshapes the underwriting case for M&A. Strategic acquirers and financial sponsors can now value targets against a recovered, growing market rather than a contracting one — a meaningful shift after several years of retrenchment, restructurings and studio closures across the listed publisher base.

Operations leads get a clearer planning signal. Live-service teams that absorbed the brunt of the 2022-2024 spend reset can begin staging content roadmaps, regional expansions and engine migrations against a 2026 turning point rather than another year of single-digit comparable growth.

What segments need watching?

BCG's top-line figure does not break out platform or geography, leaving the platform mix as the operative question for the next 24 months. The broader industry has tracked mobile, console and PC on diverging paths since 2022. Mobile remains the largest revenue segment and has carried the bulk of the post-pandemic correction. Console has held steadier on a narrower slate of tentpole releases, while PC has oscillated with live-service churn and continued catalog expansion on storefronts like Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Monetization mechanics will also face a stress test. Hybrid-casual, ad-funded and subscription models have continued to pull share from premium and traditional free-to-play, and a $350bn 2030 base implies that mix-shift compounds rather than reverses.

What decision points come next?

The first concrete read on whether 2026 is tracking as the recovery year will come from the public fiscal 2025 results cycles at the major listed publishers — Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Embracer Group, Ubisoft, Tencent and Sony's PlayStation segment — due through mid-2026. Guidance from those calls will determine whether BCG's timeline holds or pushes right by 12 months.

Two signals worth flagging: the Q4 2025 holiday comparable from the mobile publishers, which sets the read on consumer re-engagement, and any update to the BCG dataset itself, since the firm's prior industry outlooks have been a recurring reference point for boards weighing M&A and live-ops investment in a still-fragile demand environment.