How Many Gamers Are There? (New 2025 Statistics)

Gaming has quickly gone from a niche hobby into one of the biggest markets in the entertainment industry. In fact, the gaming market has a current valuation of $522.46 billion.

And numbers continue to grow with each passing year. By 2029, the gaming industry is set to be worth over $691 billion.

We’ll take a deep dive into the latest data on the number of people that consider themselves “gamers”.

Contents

• How Many Gamers Are There? (Editor’s Picks)
• How Many Gamers Are There in 2025?
• Gamers By Region
• Gamer Demographics
• Gamer Subscriptions
• Gamer Preferences

How Many Gamers Are There? (Editor’s Picks)

• Globally, there are approximately 3.32 billion active video game players.
• The US has over 3,000 esports players.
• Asia is home to almost 1.5 billion gamers.
• 53% of males are gamers.
• 52% of gamers subscribe to at least one gaming service.

How Many Gamers Are There in 2024?

According to the latest data, there are approximately 3.32 billion active video gamers worldwide.

That figure has risen by well over 1 billion in just nine years.

Here’s a full breakdown of global active gamers over time:

Year	Number of Gamers	Increase Over Previous Year	Increase Over Previous Year (%)
2015	2.03 billion	-	-
2016	2.17 billion	140 million	↑ 6.9%
2017	2.33 billion	160 million	↑ 7.37%
2018	2.49 billion	160 million	↑ 6.87%
2019	2.64 billion	150 million	↑ 6.02%
2020	2.81 billion	170 million	↑ 6.44%
2021	2.96 billion	150 million	↑ 5.34%
2022	3.09 billion	130 million	↑ 4.39%
2023	3.22 billion	130 million	↑ 4.21%
2024	3.32 billion	100 million	↑ 3.11%

The video game market is worth an estimated $522.46 billion. And esports players are increasingly contributing to that figure.

The latest data shows that the US has over 3x more active esports competition players than any other nation. This is perhaps no surprise, given that the US video games industry alone is worth an estimated $107.6 billion.

In fact, the US has more than twice as many active esports players (3,430) as the second and third-highest nations combined (3,471).

Here’s a detailed look at active esports competition players by country:

Country	Esports Players
US	3,430
China	1,582
Brazil	1,398
South Korea	933
France	918
Australia	884
Russia	884
UK	880
Germany	821
Saudi Arabia	689

Sources: VentureBeat, Statista, IBISWorld, eSportsEarnings

Gamers By Region

Asia has over 2x as many gamers as any other region (1.48 billion). In fact, Asia has more active gamers than Europe, Latin America, and North America combined (1.42 billion).

Here’s a closer look at the regional breakdown:

Region	Number of Gamers
Asia	1.48 billion
Europe	715 million
Latin America	420 million
North America	285 million
MENA	168 million
Sub-Sahara African	144 million
Oceania	32 million

By nation, Japan and the UK have the joint-highest video game user penetration rate (58%).

As of 2027, the UK is expected to be the frontrunner, with 70% of the population playing video games.

Here’s a look at the top five biggest gaming nations by user penetration:

Country	2017	2022	2027
Japan	53%	58%	67%
UK	50%	58%	70%
Sweden	47%	51%	64%
South Korea	45%	57%	64%
France	43%	-	-
Mexico	-	53%	-
Nigeria	-	-	63%

Sources: DFC Intelligence, Statista

Gamer Demographics

The majority of gamers in the US are male (55%).

In terms of raw numbers, there are approximately 1.7 billion male gamers. And 1.39 billion female gamers worldwide.

Here’s how the distribution of gamers by gender has varied in the US each year since 2006:

Year	Male Gamers	Female Gamers
2006	62%	38%
2007	62%	38%
2008	60%	40%
2009	60%	40%
2010	60%	40%
2011	58%	42%
2012	53%	47%
2013	55%	45%
2014	52%	48%
2015	56%	44%
2016	59%	41%
2017	59%	41%
2018	55%	45%
2019	54%	46%
2020	59%	41%
2021	55%	45%
2022	52%	48%
2023	53%	46%

According to the latest data, 4 in 5 (80%) gamers are over 18. That accounts for 2.47 billion adult gamers. And 618 million under-18 gamers.

Here’s a more detailed look at gamers by age in the US:

Age Group	Proportion	Number of Gamers
Under 18s	20%	618 million
18-34 years	38%	1.17 billion
35-44 years	14%	433 million
45-54 years	12%	371 million
55-64 years	9%	278 million
65+ years	7%	216 million

Sources: Theesa, Statista

Gamer Subscriptions

According to US gaming statistics, 52% of gamers subscribe to at least one gaming service. That accounts for around 1.61 billion gamers globally.

Console gamers (74%) are more likely to subscribe to a gaming service than PC gamers (66%) in the US. Extrapolating the data, 2.29 billion console gamers will likely subscribe to a gaming service. In comparison, 2.04 billion PC gamers are likely to do the same.

Looking specifically at subscription services, the latest available data shows that there are approximately 100 million Xbox Live users worldwide.

This figure has more than doubled from just 39 million at the start of 2016.

Meanwhile, major competitor Sony has accrued just shy of 50 million (47.3 million) PlayStation Plus subscribers as of June 2022.

That figure has also grown by over 2x since 2016 (20.8 million).

Sources: Morning Consult, Microsoft, Sony

Gamer Preferences

Two-thirds of gamers (66%) agree that relaxation is the most popular reason for playing video games in the US. Globally, that would account for 2.04 billion people playing video games to unwind.

Here are the top six reasons given for playing video games as of February 2021:

Reason	Share of Respondents	Number of Gamers (Global)
Unwind, relax, and decompress	66%	2.04 billion
Fill time while taking a break, waiting, or commuting	52%	1.61 billion
Escape and be highly entertained	51%	1.58 billion
Spend time by myself	48%	1.48 billion
Solve a problem, use my brain, and think logically	37%	1.14 billion
Be comforted by something familiar	32%	0.99 billion

The most popular video games in the US are casual games, with 63% of people claiming to play these regularly. This is followed by action games (39%) and shooter games (39%).

Here’s how these figures translate to gamers on a global scale:

Type of Game	Share of Respondents	Number of Gamers (Global)
Casual games	63%	1.95 billion
Action games	39%	1.21 billion
Shooter games	39%	1.21 billion
Racing games	37%	1.14 billion
Family games	33%	1.02 billion
Adventure games	31%	0.96 billion

Source: Ipsos

Key Takeaways

The number of active gamers continues to grow year over year.

Gaming has become a multi-billion dollar market that caters to virtually every type of gamer imaginable.

And the industry shows no signs of declining.

Check out our other related pages: 7 Huge Gaming Industry Trends and 45 Soaring Video Games Startups.