Game Subscription revenues to exceed $27 Billion by 2028

 Game subscriptions industry will surpass $27 billion (€24.3bn) in revenue by 2028, as predicted by Omdia. In 2024, around $19 billion is expected to be spent on game subscriptions, marking the second consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth following a decline in 2022 after the pandemic.

Omdia’s updated Game Subscriptions and Cloud Gaming Market Forecast offers insights into the global game subscriptions landscape, analyzing 43 markets. Subscriptions are divided into three key segments: games library services, which provide access to a rotating selection of games (projected to generate $8 billion in 2024), in-game or single-game subscriptions linked to specific titles ($7.4 billion), and platform access subscriptions, which mainly offer online capabilities ($3.7 billion). The forecast also includes eight additional sub-categories, eight companies, and ten services.

The total number of paid game subscriptions is projected to reach 168 million by the end of 2024, increasing to 203 million by 2028, not including in-game subscriptions. The $27 billion spent on game subscriptions in 2028 will represent 14% of the total global spending on games.

Sony and Microsoft remain leaders in the games library services segment, with a combined total of 82 million subscriptions anticipated in 2024. Cloud gaming, a prominent part of the subscription market, is expected to bring in $3.7 billion in 2024, growing to $5.8 billion by 2028. This growth will largely be driven by hybrid services like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PlayStation Plus Premium, while cloud-only platforms like Amazon Luna+ are predicted to capture just 3% of the total subscription revenue by 2028.