Ever since the Pandemic, people have lost the opportunity to socialize and to network. Trapped within the confines of their own homes, their only escape was to play video games and interact with other people online.

And it’s no wonder why the online gaming industry has been predicted to be worth $79 billion by the year 2025. But what else are the numbers showing for online gaming statistics? How many people are playing video games online right now? We’ll answer all of those questions and more in this article.

Key Statistics

• More than 3 billion people are playing video games worldwide (1).
• Digital games revenue account for 83% of video game sales (2).
• Consumer spending in the US alone skyrocketed to $60.4 billion in 2021 (3),(4).
• Free-to-play games account for 85% of all gaming revenue globally (5),(6) .
• There was a total of 14.1 billion mobile game downloads during the first quarter of 2021.
• The PC gaming sector is expected to generate $46.7 billion in revenue by 2025.
• Nintendo is the largest company in the video game industry with a net worth of $85 billion (7).
• 22% of people who play online spend 61% to 80% of their time playing multiplayer video games (8).

An Overview of the Online Gaming Industry

Highlights of video game industry statistics that explain the growth of the online gaming industry:

• The Gaming Market currently has a value of $198.4 billion as of 2021, and is expected to hit $339.95 billion by the end of 2027, citing a 8.94% CAGR between 2022 and 2027 (9).
• 4.95 billion people all over the world use the Internet, which is 62.5% of the entire global population (10).
• 63.1% of Internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 own a laptop or computer (10).
• 20.3% of Internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 own a gaming console (10).
• 96.2% of Internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 own a smart phone, while 34.8% own a tablet (10).
• 4.8% of Internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 own a VR device (10).
• An average of 6.58 hours was spent using the Internet for people between the ages of 16 and 64 (10).
• An average of 1.12 hours was spent playing video games online on a console (10).

When countries implemented nationwide lockdowns because of the pandemic, a lot of people, gamers and non-gamers alike, took to video games to spend time with friends and to ride the tide of the Pandemic.

Several video gaming platforms generated hundreds and thousands of new users and online traffic, with several video game companies experiencing a spike in player count and revenue for 2020 and 2021.

What’s The Current Online Gaming Behavior of Users?

Positive experiences were reported by US gamers while playing video games online, citing the common experiences as follows (11):

• Helping other people, or receiving help
• Making new friends
• Felt a sense of belongingness within a gaming community
• Discovered new interests
• Learned interesting topics

On the other side of the spectrum, negative experiences were just as common when playing video games online. According to a survey, these were the common forms of harassments in the gaming industry (12):

• Being called offensive names
• Targeted by trolling or griefing
• Personally embarrassed
• Discrimination
• Physical threats

Gamers who were on the receiving end of harassments experienced the following (13):

• Feeling upset after playing
• Feeling less social or isolated
• Contacted the game company to report the harassment
• Had depressive or suicidal thoughts
• Personal relationships disrupted
• Called the cops/authorities

Surely, playing video games online is not without its risks. While the upside of forming bonds with strangers from around the world is the biggest draw of playing online games, video gaming harassment is equally prevalent in online multiplayer games.

Another risk in playing online games is gaming addiction, and there have been several studies already exploring the complexities and downsides of being an online gamer, or just as a PC gamer in general. It’s worth noting that gaming addiction has been added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual For Mental Disorders-V (DSM-V) by the American Psychiatric Association (19).

According to the DSM-V, Internet gaming must cause “significant distress or impairment” in a person’s life, but this condition is only limited to the gambling aspect of gaming. It doesn’t necessarily include Internet usage, social media use, and smartphone use.

The proposed symptoms for Internet gaming disorder (or gaming addiction) are as follows:

• Experiencing withdrawal symptoms when gaming or Internet is taken away or not possible (irritability, sadness, anxiety)
• Spending more time to play video games to satisfy the urge
• Inability to quit or reduce time playing video games
• Giving up of other activities, or loss of interest to other activities enjoyed prior to taking up gaming
• Lying to family members about time spent playing video games
• Playing video games to relieve negative emotions such as hopelessness, feelings of depression, or guilt
• Lost a job or relationship because of gaming

Internet gaming disorder, together with caffeine use disorder, is still subject to further research. But even without these conditions, gambling remains to be one of the biggest problem for the global console market, and now several governments are taking up arms to regulate the video game industry.

For example, one of the biggest issues that an average gamer faces in China is the absence or removal of loot boxes in their video games.

While loot boxes can be earned as you play certain games like Overwatch, there are instances where loot boxes are made for sale by those who create games themselves. The Chinese government has considered loot boxes in video games as gambling (17), and have regulated them accordingly. In most cases, loot boxes reward you with aesthetic features like skins, in-game currency, and other items. Spending money on loot boxes to get skins doesn’t really change the way you play the game.

On the other hand, those who played games to continuously earn these loot boxes face a disadvantage when they’re faced against those who’ve spent money on these digital items. The recent controversy of Diablo Immortal being a huge pay-to-win video game and the tendency for their users to spend a lot of money on them is a good example. One Diablo Immortal player has been reported to spend $50,000 (18) or so for the video game, giving them a huge advantage over those who play the game for free.

The Impact of Covid-19 On The Online Gaming World

A survey from 2020 reported that a significant portion of new gamers from different countries played video games as a form of social activity (14). Gamers in Europe reported that playing online multiplayer games made them happier and reduced their feelings of anxiety and isolation (15).

A Look At Online Gaming Industry Statistics

• Digital market revenue is expected to hit $360 billion by the end of 2022 (16).
• The digital market’s largest segment is video games, with a market volume of $208.60 billion (projected) (16).
• Most of the revenue generated by the digital market is projected to come from the United States at $110.3 million by 2022 (16). Most likely this will be a combination of game purchases for mobile devices, casual games, social network games,

Within the video gaming industry, it doesn’t come off as a surprise to say that the most popular genres, or shall we say the biggest contributors to the video gaming addiction statistics, are MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games), FPS or first person shooter games, and different console games (e.g. fighting, platforming, puzzles).

Gamers spend a lot of time in any one of these video games:

1. Fortnite
2. League of Legends
3. World of Warcraft
4. Call of Duty

How Many Gamers Are There In The World?

• There were 2.94 billion active video gamers reported in 2021 (20).
• That number is set to increase to 3.09 billion by the end of 2022 (20).
• Asia Pacific holds the biggest share of gamer distribution in the entire world at 55% (21).
• As of November 2020, the average age of female gamers with the highest share worldwide is 21 to 35 years old (17%) (22).

Gone are the days when gamers were simply a minority, no more than the population of people who’re interested in stamp collecting or any other niched hobby. Gone are the days when the industry itself was dominated by male gamers.

Nowadays, female gamers are on the rise and contribute to the global gaming revenue in terms of game purchases, subscriptions, and more. As of November 2020, the share of gamers worldwide by gamers is at 50% male gamers and 50% female gamers (22). Just see how big Candy Crush is amongst older women.

How Many People Play Online Games?

• Tencent’s annual revenue for online gaming alone reached $174 billion in 2021 (23).
• The online PC gaming market value is projected to hit $45.6 billion by 2022, and projected to reach $46.7 billion by 2027 (24).
• The free-to-play video game market is expected to generate $106.3 billion in revenue by 2022 and $112.02 billion by 2023 (25).

It’s hard to put an exact number of how many people play video games online, mostly because one person could end up playing more than just one video game. But to paint a picture of just how many gamers are there playing online, we’ll look at the online gaming statistics for revenue and market value instead.

It’s not exactly the number that we want to figure out how many play video games online, but the amount of money being spent on mobile games, PC games, and console games should be more than enough to let you know that the gaming industry has a lot of gamers right now playing online.

What Is The Most Popular Online Game?

The top PC games in the world right now as of April 2022 in terms of monthly active users are:

• Fortnite
• Minecraft
• CS:GO
• League of Legends
• Valorant

Most of these video games, like Fortnite and Minecraft, are also included in console gaming statistics as one of the most popular console games in the market right now. You can see for yourself how big Minecraft is with our article on Minecraft statistics.

Of course, mobile gaming is also relatively huge as we’ve seen from the revenue that Tencent’s generated over the last year.

Mobile gamers were known to hover towards games such as:

• PUBG Mobile
• League of Legends: Wild Rift
• Hearthstone
• Diablo Immortal

What Are The Biggest Movers and Trending Games Right now?

The top ranking video games in the gaming industry is fairly consistent all throughout the year. While there were some games that moved up and down frequently, these titles were consistent enough to stay at the top (26):

• Minecraft
• Fortnite Battle Royale
• Fall Guys
• League Of Legends
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Valorant
• Roblox
• Call of Duty: Warzone/Vanguard
• Grand Theft Auto V
• APEX Legends

The video gaming industry wouldn’t be where it’s at right now if it wasn’t for any of these video games. Roblox and Minecraft are big amongst children, so much so that parents play video games right alongside them.

Call of Duty franchise, Fortnite, and Apex Legends are the top shooter games right now, be it PC gaming or gaming consoles. League of Legends in itself dominates the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre

What Are The Most Played Online Games?

1. PUBG – 1.20 billion players
2. CrossFire – 1 billion players
3. Dungeon Fighter Online – 850 million players
4. Minecraft – 738 million players
5. QQ Speed / GKART / Speed Drifters – 700 million players
6. Pac-Man Google Doodle – 505M players
7. Candy Crush Saga – 500M players
8. Among Us – 500 million players
9. Microsoft Solitaire – 400 million players
10. Mini World – 400 million players

This list is based on player count and registered accounts per game (27). It also considers the highest number of players logged in any given day since the game was released. The actual count of these video games may or may not reflect the actual number of people play video games on this list.

What Are The 10 Most Popular Games Played Online?

These are the 10 most popular online games for 2022 (28):

1. PUBG – 100+ million active players – PUBG Corporation – Released 2018
2. Minecraft – 95+ million active players – Mojang Studios – Released 2011
3. Apex Legends – 50+ million active players – Respawn Entertainment – Released 2019
4. Fortnite Battle Royale – 45 million active players – Epic Games – Released 2017
5. CS: Global Offensive – 35 million active players – Valve Corporation – Released 2012
6. Hearthstone – 30 million active players – Blizzard Entertainment – Released 2012
7. League of Legends – 27 million active players – Riot Games – Released 2009
8. Call of Duty Mobile – 15 million active players – TiMi Studios – Released 2019
9. Among Us – 8 million active players – InnerSloth LLC – Released 2018
10. Call of Duty Warzone – 6 million active players – Activision – Released 2020

There’s no doubt that PUGB remains one of the most popular games for 2022, be it on PC or on Mobile. Dubbed as the king of battle royale shooter games, PUBG is famous for its huge playerbase for a single map (at 99 players maximum). Combined with sandboxing elements and real-life scavenging, the players take up arms against other players by raiding and killing with whatever items they have.

Fortnite and Apex Legends follow in the same footsteps as PUBG and are two of the most popular battle royale shooter games of all time. Fortnite has its appeal with the building aspect, while Apex Legends has you playing different toons with different abilities. Much like PUBG, the goal is to survive the entire round against an entire army of people playing the same video game.

Reference:

(1) https://www.emarketer.com/content/gamers-make-up-more-than-one-third-of-world-population

(2) https://www.globalxetfs.com/video-games-esports-building-on-2020s-rapid-growth/

(3) https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-consumer-video-game-spending-totaled-60-4-billion-in-2021–301462631.html

(4) https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/newzoo-games-market-numbers-revenues-and-audience-2020-2023

(5) https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/

(6) https://www.tweaktown.com/news/64532/free-play-made-80-2018-digital-game-revenues/index.html

(7) https://www.gamedesigning.org/game-development-studios/#:~:text=Nintendo&text=Nintendo%20is%20the%20world’s%20largest,value%20of%20over%20USD85%20Billion.

(8) https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/process-addiction/video-game-addiction/gaming-addiction-statistics/

(9) https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/global-gaming-market

(10) https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-global-overview-report

(11) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1133150/positive-experiences-video-gaming/

(12) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1133182/harassment-online-video-games/

(13) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1133207/impact-harassment-online-video-games/

(14) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1219595/new-mobile-gamers-social-gaming/

(15) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1222964/multiplayer-gaming-attitudes-lockdown-covid-europe/

(16) https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/digital-media/worldwide

(17) https://www.mondaq.com/china/gaming/672860/a-middle-ground-approach-how-china-regulates-loot-boxes-and-gambling-features-in-online-games

(18) https://www.gamesradar.com/diablo-immortal-player-uses-dollar50000-worth-of-wow-gold-to-absolutely-flatten-cash-whales/

(19) https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/internet-gaming#:~:text=The%20DSM%2D5%20notes%20that,of%20social%20media%20or%20smartphones.

(20) https://www.statista.com/statistics/748044/number-video-gamers-world/

(21) https://www.statista.com/statistics/297874/number-mobile-gamers-region/

(22) https://www.statista.com/statistics/272327/mobile-social-and-traditional-gaming-users-by-gender/

(23) https://www.statista.com/statistics/527280/tencent-annual-online-games-revenue/

(24) https://www.statista.com/statistics/292516/pc-online-game-market-value-worldwide/

(25) https://www.statista.com/statistics/324129/arpu-f2p-mmo/

(26) https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-20-pc-games

(27) https://gamertweak.com/most-played-popular-games/

(28) https://sportsbrowser.net/most-popular-online-games/

How Big Is The Video Game Industry?

For decades, video games have entertained young children and adults alike. Going back to the time when video games where nothing more than pixels and blips, the thought of video game industry being a billion dollar industry was but a dream.

It was pretty hard to imagine that companies would spend millions of dollars on hardware and software so people could play little shapes and hear beeping sounds right from the comforts of their own home.

Then the 80’s happened, and arcades changed the way people thought of video games. You weren’t looking at blips and shapes anymore. You were now looking at animated, colorized, and even moving human beings/animals on the screen. It didn’t take long for the video game industry to become as big as they are now.

Today, the video game industry is larger than the movie and music industries put together. And the industry is still growing.

Key Statistics

• Tencent earned $32.2 billion in gaming revenue, making them the highest earning gaming company (1).
• The mobile gaming market generated $91.1 billion in revenue as of June 2022, followed by the console gaming market with a revenue of $58.6 billion (2).
• Consumer spending on in-game purchases is projected to hit $74.5 billion by 2025 (3).
• Advertising spending for the mobile gaming industry is expected to hit $61.3 million by the end of 2022, and projected to hit $130 million by 2025 (4).
• The US Gaming Market is worth $95.4 billion (5)
• By 2023, there will be more than 3 billion active gamers (6)
• In the US, 79% of gamers are adults according to the Entertainment Software Association (7).
• It’s estimated that 64% of adults in the USA play video games regularly while 70% of people under 18 years of age play regularly (7).
• 3 out of 5 gamers are male, according to the Entertainment Software Association (7).

The Video Game Market In 2022

• Global video game consumer spending is expected to generate $200 billion in revenue for 2022 (8).
• The mobile game market is expected to grow 5% year on year and projected to hit $103.5 billion in revenue.
• Console titles will earn $57 billion to form part of that $200 billion revenue, which indicates an 8% growth from 2021.
• PC gaming is expected to hit $47 billion in sales in 2022.

Source (8)

USA Will Beat China In Video Game Spending For 2022

Gamers from the USA will spend more than gamers in China, making the region the highest revenue generator for the entire video game industry (9).

Gamers in the USA will generate close to $50.5 billion in revenue, while gamers in China will generate $50.2 billion. This small overtake can be attributed to the Chinese government’s crackdown on gaming by reducing the younger population’s time spent playing video games and limiting new releases.

Regardless, the Asia-Pacific will still continue to be the biggest region in terms of revenues by a huge margin.

How Many People Video Games?

• As of 2022, there are 3.09 billion gamers worldwide. In 2020, the population of gamers worldwide sat at 2.77 billion (10).
• Asia Pacific holds the largest share of gamers worldwide as of 2021 at 55%, followed by Middle East and Africa at 15%, Europe at 14%, Latin America at 10%, and North America at 7% (11).
• To put it in perspective, Asia Pacific has 1.5 billion gamers, Europe with 391 million, Middle East and Africa with 388 million, Latin America with 274 million, and North America with 200 million.
• By 2024, the number of gamers will increase to 3.24 billion.

Video games are growing in popularity. That’s a fact, and we don’t need surveys and statistics to prove that claim. More people are getting involved with the hobby because the stigma of video gaming being for “nerds” and “geeks” is gone. It’s no longer something to be ashamed of.

Consider people like Henry Cavill, who’s always been open to the media about his gaming hobby. Remember that time he broke the Internet by recording a video of himself building a PC?

Or what about the time when Terry Crews built his own gaming PC just so he can game together with his son?

The growth of the number of gamers is exponential to say the least.

The number of gamers for 2015 was 2.03 billion. Within a span of 7 years, it grew by a billion. To put it into perspective, there are 7.753 billion people on Earth right now so that means 39% of the global population are gamers (3.09 billion out of 7.753).

But what’s exactly the cause of the sudden growth of the video gaming industry? The answer: Mobile games industry. In 2021, the global gaming industry generated a revenue of $180.3 billion (12), with the mobile game segment earning $93.2 billion (more than 50% of the entire global gaming industry). Console gaming segment earned $50.4 billion while the PC gaming segment earned $36.7 billion.

Age and Video Gaming Industry Statistcs

Age plays a huge role in terms of determining the video games industry’s audience, and the numbers might surprise you.

In the USA, 80% of gamers are aged 18 years and older, while the number of gamers aged under 18 are 20% (13). This is contrary to the thought that video games are “just for children”.

Video Game Preferences

The preference for gaming genres between different age groups is diverse, as you can see from the chart (14).

• Gamers between the ages 16 and 24, gamers between the ages of 25 and 34, and gamers between the ages of 35 and 44 all prefer shooting games
• Gamers between the 45 and 54 prefer either shooting games or action games
• Gamers between the ages of 55 and 64 prefer puzzle games

In the USA alone, the best selling game franchise is Call of Duty. In 2021, Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Black Ops were the top selling video games (15). These games were followed by Madden: NFL, Pokemon: Brilliant Pearl/Diamond, and Battlefield 2042 in 3rd, 4th, and 5th place respectively.

Gaming Stats and Demographics for PC Gamers

There is an estimated 1.77 billion of PC gamers worldwide, with Asia accounting for 1/3 of global PC gamers (16).

There’s an estimated 687 million PC gamers just in Asia alone, with Europe coming in second at 468.4 million as of 2021.

Taiwan had the highest gaming reach for PC back in 2020, with 46% of their population playing video games on PC. China and Philippines came in at second and third place at 45% and 44% respectively.

Gaming Stats and Demographics for Console Gamers

Gaming revenue for the console segment is expected to decline by 6.6% in 2022 after hitting a 10% growth last year (17).

In North America, there are 106 million console gamers, which account for 42% of the console gaming worldwide. Europe comes in second place with 99.6 million gamers.

As for the consoles themselves, even with the advent of next-generation consoles such as the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series One, the Playstation 2 remains the best-selling console of all time, hitting sales of 157.67 million units, and the best-selling game for console is Wii Sports selling 82.65 million units.

Gaming Stats and Demographics for Mobile Gamers

In 2021, the number of mobile games rose to 2.6 billion (18). Of that 2.6 billion, the market share per region are as follows:

• 1.293 billion gamers are from Asia
• 551.7 million gamers are from Europe
• 309.2 million gamers are from Latin America
• 207.7 million gamers are from North America
• 145.8 million gamers are from MENA (Middle East and North Africa)
• 126.7 million gamers are from Sub-Sahara Africa
• 25.3 million gamers are from Oceania (Australia and New Zealand)

Free to Play Games (F2P) within the mobile gaming industry generated a global revenue of $75.64 billion as of 2021 and is projected to hit $78.74 billion by the end of 2022.

This doesn’t come as a shock, given that the mobile gaming content market value was worth $131.1 billion in 2021 and projected to hit $140.5 billion by 2022. Ten years ago, the market value of mobile gaming content was $8.6 billion, which is a significant increase of more than 100% to date (19).

Between Google Play Store and App Store, the latter had the highest mobile app store revenue with $52.3 billion (the total app revenue for Apple App Store was $85.1 billion for all apps, gaming and otherwise). Meanwhile, Google Play Store earned $37.3 billion for gaming apps, out of the $47.9 billion total (20).

What’s The Most Popular Gaming Platform?

The gaming market is divided into five parts: PC, console games, browser games, smartphone games, and tablet games.

Mobile games take up close to half, or 49%, of the global market with the combined tablet and smartphone gaming revenue. Boxed or downloaded PC games followed in third place with 21% share of market revenue, and Browser PC games account for 2% of market share (21).

But in terms of title availability and variety, PC gaming has it in the bag. The PC gaming industry has access to distribution platforms like Steam, Epic Games, EA Games, Ubisoft, and more. There are also video games that are highly popular worldwide but only available to PC. These games are League of Legends and World of Warcraft, to name a few. Multiplayer games on PC are also expanding to cross-platform functionality, meaning players from other platforms (e.g. consoles and smartphones) will be able to play with PC players.

References

(1) https://www.statista.com/statistics/421848/game-revenues-global-companies/

(2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/292751/mobile-gaming-revenue-worldwide-device/

(3) https://www.statista.com/statistics/558952/in-game-consumer-spending-worldwide/

(4) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1240471/mobile-game-ad-spend-market-value/

(5) https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/market-size/video-games-united-states/

(6) https://www.sporthiatus.com/news/tqgzk8oofy2f539fncovsb2d054x2p

(7) https://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-ESA_Essential_facts_070820_Final_lowres.pdf

(8) https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/games-market-revenues-will-pass-200-billion-for-the-first-time-in-2022-as-the-u-s-overtakes-china

(9) https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/global-games-market-to-generate-175-8-billion-in-2021-despite-a-slight-decline-the-market-is-on-track-to-surpass-200-billion-in-2023

(10) https://www.statista.com/statistics/748044/number-video-gamers-world/

(11) https://www.statista.com/statistics/297874/number-mobile-gamers-region/#statisticContainer

(12) https://www.statista.com/statistics/278181/global-gaming-market-revenue-device/

(13) https://www.statista.com/statistics/189582/age-of-us-video-game-players/

(14) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1263585/top-video-game-genres-worldwide-by-age/

(15) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1285658/top-ranked-video-games-sales-annual/

(16) https://playtoday.co/blog/stats/pc-gamer-demographics/#Asia%20accounts

(17) https://www.statista.com/study/41961/game-consoles/

(18) https://www.statista.com/statistics/512112/number-mobile-gamers-world-by-region/

(19) https://www.statista.com/statistics/292512/mobile-contents-market-value-worldwide/

(20) https://www.statista.com/statistics/266489/earnings-forecast-for-mobile-apps-providers/

(21) https://financesonline.com/number-of-gamers-worldwide/

Video games are great and they’re one of the best hobbies to have. The industry is booming, and there’s just so many new games, consoles, accessories, and content that it’s becoming more and more difficult to keep up.

People should’ve seen it coming. Back in the 1980’s, the video game industry was already worth more than $5 billion dollars (1). This was the onset of arcade games and shops, and in a couple of years, the number of arcade machines doubled. And this was just in the United States alone.

Today, the gaming industry is a titan in itself. From video games to gaming consoles to gaming accessories, the rate of the industry’s growth just keeps going higher.

Key Statistics

• The global gaming industry now exceeds $300 billion in value. (5)
• More than 2.9 billion active players are reported worldwide (6).
• The gaming industry in the Asia Pacific is predicted to be worth $197 billion by the end of 2022
• The VR (virtual reality) gaming market reported that $4.5 billion was spent by players in 2020 (7)
• Nintendo’s Net Worth is $56.6 billion (8)
• Tencent earned $32.2 billion in 2021
• Latin American gamers experienced a 52% growth in time spent playing video games
• $50.86 billion was spent by users in the video game industry in 2022
• The highest grossing mobile game in the market is PUBG Mobile, generating $2.014 billion in revenue in 2021.
• Gamers in the video game industry already spent $50.86 billion in 2022.

How Much Was The Global Revenue For Gaming Companies In 2021?

Let’s look at the gaming revenue of companies in 2021 that make up the video game industry (2):

• Tencent raked in $32.2 billion and was the highest earning company in 2021
• Sony followed with $18.2 billion in revenue
• Apple comes in with $15.3 billion in gaming revenue
• Microsoft bags the 4th spot with $12.9 billion
• Google takes 5th place with $11 billion

Game developers such as Activision Blizzard, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts were also in the top 10 highest gaming revenue for 2021. Both Activision Blizzard and Nintendo earned $8.1 billion while Electronic Arts (EA) earned $6.5 billion.

In 2022, How Much Is The Video Game Industry Worth?

The gaming industry is expected to go strong in 2022, and this was all because of the Pandemic. At the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic, there was significant growth in time spent playing video games by region (3):

• Gamers in Latin America experienced a 52% growth in time spent in video games
• Gamers in Asia-Pacific followed a close second with a 42% growth
• Gamers in Europe and Middle East had a 34% growth
• Gamers in North America had a 15% growth

This growth can be attributed to the fact that people were stuck at home, stressed and bored. Heading into 2022, you would think that the industry’s growth would slow down because places were opening back up and again, and life was returning to normal.

But that’s not the case here. In fact, there was a sudden spike in the industry’s growth.

The video game industry was valued at $198.41 billion and was expected to increase up to $339.95 billion by the end of 2027 with a 8.94 compounded annual growth rate spanning 2022-2027 (4).

Let’s dissect these statistics:

The Gaming Industry Is Worth More than $300 Billion

Accenture reported that the global gaming industry has now exceeded $300 billion based on their data from 4,000 gamers around the largest gaming markets in the world. These markets include gamers from China, UK, USA, and Japan.

The Gaming Industry In Asia Is A Giant!

The gaming industry in Asia increased by half a billion players spanning three years. The report from Accenture states that 400 million new players are jumping into the video game industry before 2023 ends.

What Are The Top Money Spending Games Of All Time?

These are the highest grossing games from the mobile gaming market (9):

• PUBG Mobile – $2.014 billion
• Honor of Kings – $1.654 billion
• Genshin Impact – $1.338 billion
• Roblox – $1.001 billion
• Coin Master – $936 million

Annual spending of mobile video game industry has reached $116 billion by the end of 2021 (10).

That’s a whopping $42.22 billion increase since 2018. App Store spending was close to $170 billion for all apps, which meant that games were a significant proportion of mobile spending.

And yes, for anyone playing multiplayer games, they’ll know that these are just some of the biggest titles in the mobile gaming industry.

What’s The Most Popular Video Game In The World?

As of May 2022, League of Legends is the most popular game in the world right now based on average Twitch weekly viewership. League of Legends reports 216,000 concurrent streamers spanning 7 days on Twitch for their game alone. It comes as no surprise given that most people right now are playing on a budget PC build, and LoL has amazing performance even on a budget build.

This was followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Grand Theft Auto V with 193,000 and 176,000 concurrent viewers respectively.

How Much Money Is Spent on Video Games?

Here’s how much money was spent in the video game industry in 2020 up to 2022 (11):

• $51.91 billion was spent by users in the video game industry in 2020
• $52.37 billion was spent by users in the video game industry in 2021
• $50.86 billion was spent by users in the video game industry in 2022

The video game industry during the time of the Pandemic was one of the few industries that experienced a huge surge in growth. From console games to mobile games, game developers had to make sure that they were doing enough to keep their consumers well entertained during the lockdown.

During the lockdown, it wasn’t a complete surprise to find out non-gamers wanted to play video games. The inability to enjoy entertainment outside of the comforts of one’s own home was simply too much.

How Much Does The Average Person Spend on Video Games As Of 2022?

• The average gamer from America spends about $76 monthly, or $912 a year on gaming.
• In a survey with 1,000 participants, 22.3% of gamers spend between $1 and $30 for gaming.
• 18% of participants spent anywhere between $120 and $150.

This expenditure covers Internet service, new games, gaming equipment (video game consoles, console games, etc.) and in-app purchases (online gaming purchases, subscriptions, and so on) according to a survey from PollFish. The survey was conducted by All Home Connections With 1,000 gamers spanning the ages of 16 to 56.

22.3% of participants say that they spend anywhere between $1 and $30 on gaming while 18% of participants reported spend more than $120 and up to $150.

How Much Money Does The Average Person Spend In Gaming For Their Lifetime?

TheGamer conducted a survey to calculate how much their readers were spending on average for online gaming, mobile games, or just within the gaming industry in itself.

Shockingly, the number was $58,000. $58,000 was spent on average by a gamer to fuel their hobby. This puts it at about $76 a month if you want to be more specific. Millennials were reported to spend more with at least $86 per month, or $66,000 in their lifetime in the gaming industry.

What Country Plays The Most Video Games?

The gaming industry is growing at a rapid pace. One of the reasons why this growth is tremendous is because people love the feeling of enjoying new releases for game content. The frequency of new game content release in the gaming industry is high, meaning gamers playing console games or mobile games or those into PC gaming enjoy fresh content for at least one of the video game titles they release.

With that said, let’s take a look at the top countries in the world with the most number of gamers.

China

China is at the top of the least for the most number of gamers in the gaming industry. It’s not because of their large population, but it’s because their citizens have the biggest passion for gaming. As of 2022, it’s projected that the gaming population in the country will reach 322 million and this is just for PC gaming (12).

It can’t also be denied that there are a lot of professional e-sports athletes and teams from China dominating console games, mobile games, PC gaming, and more. These athletes are inspiring other gamers to pursue the career path of becoming a professional gamer.

When it comes to the largest video games market, China is the king.

United States

Coming close to China is the United States of America, and the gaming industry wouldn’t be where it’s at today if not for the North American gaming market.

In 2018, the percentage of gamers in the USA is 30% of its population and that number has increased by now. In a report by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) made in 2020, 64% of adults (aged 18 and older) play video games (13). That’s 163 million out of their entire US population. 70% of kids (aged 17 and younger) play video games, or about 51.1 million. That brings the total gaming population to 214 million.

Republic of Korea

South Korea may not be as large as China or the USA in terms of gaming population, but it doesn’t mean they’re not big contributors to the global gaming market. Let’s take a look at the three previous years (14):

• In 2019, 65% of their population played video games (Country’s population: 51.71 million)
• In 2020, the peak of Covid-19, 70.5% of their population played video games (Country’s population: 51.78 million)
• In 2021, 71.3% of their population were playing video games (Country’s population: 51.30 million)

The share of South Korea in the global gaming market is just as impressive. These numbers show the country’s share in the gaming market in terms of sales revenue as of 2020 (15):

• 12.4% for PC gaming
• 10.3% for Mobile gaming
• 1.7% for Console gaming
• 0.7% for Arcade Gaming

What Are The Most Popular Video Games By Country?

The following video games are popular for each country (17).

North America

The most played game in the country was Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. This was followed by Overwatch, Persona 5, Fortnite, and Minecraft (17).

South America

In South America, the most popular video games found by the same survey were League of Legends, Persona 5, World of Warcraft, and CS: Global Offensive.

Africa

Africa is not without its gamers, so don’t even think twice about them lagging behind. The most popular video game in the second largest continent is FIFA and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Horizon Zero Dawn also has a dominating grasp of the African gamer community as well.

Europe

Europe has a diverse gaming preference, so it’s no surprise that their popular video game titles include Battlefield, Horizon Zero Dawn, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and World of Tanks.

Australia/Oceania

From the land down under, Australia and New Zealand’s gaming population is just as impressive as the next country on this list. Their most popular video game titles happen to be Horizon Zero Dawn, Mortal Kombat 11, and Battlefield.

Asia

With the largest video gaming market in the world for console games, mobile gaming, and PC gaming, it comes as no surprise that Asia does not have any fixed preference for video games in terms of genre. For countries like Mongolia, Myanmar, and Philippines, the most popular video game is Dota 2.

For countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, you have Persona 5 as the most popular title. South Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan have Overwatch and Call of Duty: Infinite is preferred by India and Iran.

How Much Money Is Spent on Consoles and Accessories?

In the USA, consumer spending for video game accessories, hardware, and content is projected to hit $55.5 billion. This is an 8.7% decline compared to 2021 (16).

This decline can be attributed to several factors such as:

• Inflation
• Everyday spending for food and fuel
• Uncertainty of supply for video game products (consoles, hardware, accessories, and more)

As expected with the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020 and 2021, there was a surge in video game spending with $56.1 billion and $60.8 billion reported respectively. However, this surge has flattened as people in the USA are now going back to their normal lives.

For video game hardware, the console market has yet to normalize in terms of demand due to the supply constraints experienced not just by the country, but for pretty much the rest of the world. The shortage of the next generation gaming consoles such as Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X have caused a significant surge in retail pricing. It doesn’t help that scalpers are taking out all the stocks for the next-generation consoles and increasing the retail pricing by as much as 200%.

Here are some predictions from the same report for 2022 (16) at the halfway mark:

• Nintendo Switch will lead the console hardware sales for 2022, however the dollar leadership is too close to call between Playstation 5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch.
• Xbox Series is the only console hardware to show sales growth compared to their sales in 2021.
• Elden Ring will no doubt bag the best-selling game in the US Market. This would be the third time since 2009 that a Call of Duty video game does not dominate the market.
• Hardware shortages will still continue up until 2023, noting the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X. Other components such as VR might also be affected.
• Even if Elden Ring bags the best-selling game title in the USA, Call of Duty will still remain as the country’s best-selling premium franchise for 14 consecutive years.
• With the increase in GPU availability and decrease in retail pricing, more PC gamers will be motivated to upgrade or switch over.

References

(1) https://www.rediscoverthe80s.com/2020/09/how-1980s-influenced-modern-gaming.html#:~:text=Arcade%20games%20were%20in%20great,in%20the%20United%20States%20alone.
(2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/421848/game-revenues-global-companies/
(3) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1188545/gaming-time-spent-covid/
(4) https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/global-gaming-market#:~:text=Market%20Overview,8.94%25%20over%202022%2D2027.
(5) https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/global-gaming-industry-value-now-exceeds-300-billion-new-accenture-report-finds.htm
(6) https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/global-games-market-to-generate-175-8-billion-in-2021-despite-a-slight-decline-the-market-is-on-track-to-surpass-200-billion-in-2023/
(7) https://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2020/07/22/2065574/0/en/Global-Virtual-Reality-In-Gaming-Market-2020-to-2025-Growth-Trends-and-Forecast.html
(8) https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NTDOY/nintendo/net-worth#:~:text=Nintendo%20net%20worth%20as%20of%20July%2012%2C%202022%20is%20%2455.65B.&text=NINTENDO%20LTD%20is%20the%20acknowledged,the%20creation%20of%20interactive%20entertainment.
(9) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1179913/highest-grossing-mobile-games/
(10) https://www.appannie.com/en/insights/market-data/state-of-mobile-2022/
(11) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1240266/video-game-consumer-spending-worldwide/
(12) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1311168/china-pc-game-user-size/
(13) https://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-ESA_Essential_facts_070820_Final_lowres.pdf
(14) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1073781/south-korea-share-of-gamers/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20survey%20conducted,in%202015%20at%2074.5%20percent.
(15) https://www.statista.com/statistics/825171/south-korea-share-of-gaming-industry-on-global-scale-by-category/
(16) https://www.npd.com/news/blog/2022/2022s-video-game-market-declines-expected-to-continue/
(17) https://www.cabletv.com

It wasn’t long ago when we could remember how pro gamers, streamers, and e-sports athletes made barely enough from their gaming careers. It wasn’t something that you’d decide to do just because you could make a full-time income out of it. On the contrary, making money from gaming was something more of a hobby than anything else a couple of decades ago.

Today, you’re now seeing professional players from different games earning millions of dollars per championship, video game content creators earning thousands of dollars a month on their YouTube channel, and even professional streamers from every streaming platform earning six figures a month, or even landing an exclusive streaming deal.

But it wasn’t only e-sports athletes, professional gamers, and streamers who’ve made it big decades ago. Video game publishers such as Electronic Arts (EA) and Activision Blizzard are constantly releasing content to their growing market, so much so that they’re expected to reach $196 billion by the end of 2022 (1).

Now, gamers are getting themselves a slice of the pie too but trust us, it’s easier said than done. Much like other professional sporting events, professional video game competitions are comprised of e-sports athletes. These are the top 1% of the entire gaming community for their given games. These are the Lebron James, the Tiger Woods, the Tom Brady, and pretty much every star athlete you could think of. When professional gamers earn a ton of money from a single event, it comes off as one of the biggest surprises for the person outside looking in.

How can someone who’s into video gaming be earning close to what professional athletes are earning? How can someone who’s streaming 8 hours a day have close to millions of dollars of endorsements from the big brands in the game industry?

Key Statistics

Here are the players with the highest overall earnings as of Jul 2026 (those who earned the most prize money) (2),(3):

1. N0tail (Johan Sundstein) $7,184,163.05 Dota 2
2. JerAx (Jesse Vainikka) $6,486,948.78 Dota 2
3. ana (Anathan Pham) $6,004,411.96 Dota 2
4. Ceb (Sébastien Debs) $5,813,909.40 Dota 2
5. Topson (Topias Taavitsainen) $5,690,417.57 Dota 2
6. KuroKy (Kuro Takhasomi) $5,230,947.73 Dota 2
7. Miracle (Amer Al-Barkawi) $4,833,885.26 Dota 2
8. MinD_ContRoL (Ivan Ivanov) $4,614,959.74 Dota 2
9. Matumbaman (Lasse Urpalainen) $4,526,049.04 Dota 2
10. GH (Maroun Merhej) $4,229,254.27 Dota 2

There’s also a reason why the top 10 are comprised of professional Dota 2 players. Listed below are the top e-sports games worldwide in 2021 based on cumulative tournament prize pool (4),(5):

1. DOTA 2 – $47.73 Million
2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – $21.17 Million
3. PlayerUnknown`s Battlegrounds Mobile – $17.16 Million
4. PlayerUnknown`s Battlegrounds – $ 16.03 Million
5. Arena of Valor – $13.34 Million
6. Fortnite Million – $9.47 Million
7. League of Legend – $7.68 Million
8. Valorant – $6.44 Million
9. Rainbow Six Siege – $6.22 Million
10. Call of Duty: Warzone – $6.12 Million

Source: (4), (5)

Who Earned The Highest Prize Money Earned For A Single Event?

• Johan “N0tail” Sundstein – $7.2 million – DOTA 2
• Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf – $3.2 million – Fortnite
• Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen – $1.9 million – Counter-Strike Global Offensive
• Ian “C6” Porter – $1.3 million – Call of Duty
• Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok – $1.3 million – League of Legends

Every single professional gamer on this list are recognized by gamers in the world for their skills, personality, and of course, their prize money earned for major tournaments. Games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends are known for drawing in huge crowds on top of large cash prizes.

Listed below are players from the most popular games with major tournaments who earned the highest prize money for a single event. Note that for this list, we’ll only be including the highest paid player from a single game.

Johan “N0tail” Sundstein – $7.2 million – DOTA 2

N0tail is a man who needs no introduction. Considered as the best Dota 2 player right now, this Danish athlete became the highest paid athlete in e-sports after winning The International for the second time in a row. His payday back in TI8 and TI9 weren’t the only things that were impressive. He also had a massive payout during his stint with Fnatic.

Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf – $3.2 million – Fortnite

Fortnite became one of the most popular video games within a short period of time, so it wasn’t a complete surprise for its players when Fortnite burst into the e-sports scene. With Epic Games, the developer behind Fortnite, investing millions of dollars into tournaments, only one professional gamer rose to the top: Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf”.

Coming from Sentinels, Bugha dominated everyone by playing Fortnite World Cup back in 2019 and earned $3.2 million in prize money.

Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen – $1.9 million – Counter-Strike Global Offensive

Fortnite isn’t the only FPS game out there with huge payouts. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the few and most popular FPS games in the e-sports scene right now with several professional icons. Among them is Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, dubbed as the Frag Master. Having won four Valve Major tournaments, he helped Astralis rose to fame by pushing them to the top of the Counter-Strike standings.

Ian “C6” Porter – $1.3 million – Call of Duty

If you’ve ever played any of the FPS games mentioned above, then you’ve probably played Call of Duty. The franchise is not only known for its multiplayer content but also for its single player content as well.

However, CoD isn’t as popular as CS:GO or Fortnite when it comes to the professional e-sports scene but it doesn’t mean that the game doesn’t have professional gamers. Among them is Ian “C6” Porter, who you might consider as the N0Tail or Faker of the game.

He’s won three world championships with 37 major tournaments under his belt. Having said that, he’s earned more than $1 million in prize earnings.

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok – $1.3 million – League of Legends

Professional gamers aren’t exactly known outside of the gaming circuit, and it’s rare for non-gamers to recognize some of them. However, one such professional gamer has made his mark in the gaming scene, so much so that even those who’re not playing League of Legends recognize him.

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is that gamer. Probably considered as the most celebrated gamer in South Korea and in the world, Faker is literally a god when it comes to League of Legends. A constant Mid laner for SKT T1, Faker has helped his team win three world titles. What’s even more impressive here is that he won his first World Championship during his debut.

When he’s not playing major tournaments, Faker is also a full time Twitch streamer and his fans from all over the world flock to his stream for his amazing plays.

Who Are The Richest Gamers In The World?

• Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg ($60 million)
• Tyler “Ninja” Blevins ($40 million)
• Daniel “DanTDM” Middleton ($35 million)
• Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach ($35 million)
• Evan “VanossGaming” Fong ($25 million)

Gamers in the world will recognize pretty much all of the names listed on here. These are the richest gamers in the world right now, accounting for their income from streaming, views, endorsements, tournament wins, and so on.

Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg ($60 million)

PewDiePie, or Felix Kjellberg, is at the top of the list of the richest gamers with close to a net worth of $60 million as of 2022. Unlike most of the YouTube channels, PewDiePie plays a lot of video games. This is probably the biggest reason why he draws in a lot of viewers, on top of his quirky and funny personality. He also made his mark on YouTube by playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent and recording his over the top reactions. This was probably the start of his gaming content.

He earns close to $20,000 from each video, and with hundreds of videos uploaded, well you do the math. He also earns money from his mobile app and his bestselling book called “This Book Loves You.” As of this writing, the book sold more than 112,000 copies worldwide.

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins ($40 million)

Tyler Blevins, a.k.a Ninja, is one of the biggest Fortnite streamers on YouTube and Twitch. His antics and plays have garnered him millions of viewers and subscribers respectively. Celebrity Net Worth reported that Ninja has about 24 million subscribers on Twitch and gets about 2.5 billion views on his uploaded videos. Twitch streaming earns him about $5 per subscription, so he hits close to $500,000 to $1,000,000 a month on the platform alone.

He signed an exclusive deal with Microsoft, which increased his net worth further. This meant that he only had to stream exclusively on their platform, Mixer. Because of this buyout, Ninja earned $40 million from this exclusive deal.

Daniel “DanTDM” Middleton ($35 million)

Daniel Middleton hosts a YouTube channel for Minecraft, but he does cover different games here and there. His channel, now known as DanTDM, was formerly known as The Diamond Minecart (in reference to two items found in Minecraft).

His videos have garnered 10 billion views in total. Back in 2017, he earned $16.5 million just from the gaming videos. It’s reported that he earns close to $12 million or so annually from videos.

He is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most views for his Minecraft channel. His other accolades include scoring the most number of goals for Rocket League in a team of 2-3.

Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach ($35 million)

Mark Fischbach, or Markiplier, is considered as a jack of all trades and master of none. He’s probably the second biggest variety streamer and content creator, next to PewDiePie. His YouTube channel has about 30 million subscribers with a total views of 17 billion for all of his uploaded videos.

Like PewDiePie, Markiplier is known for not taking himself seriously. He’s known for his funny antics and commentary for every game he plays. It’s reported that he earns about $10 million and up to $20 million a year just from gaming. When he’s not gaming, he’s also an actor, director, producer, and writer.

Mark Fischbach, or Markiplier, also became popular when he recorded his over the top reactions for the Freddy’s series (a video game about carnival mascots coming to life and murdering you). Over the last year, Markiplier and his friends where last seen streaming and recording for Phasmophobia, a game that lets you play as one of the members of a paranormal action squad that investigates haunted houses.

Evan “VanossGaming” Fong ($25 million)

Evan Fong does not have any fancy alias, but he’s still widely recognized for his channel, VanossGaming. The channel boasts of 21 million subscribers and rising, with an average of 8 billion views for his uploaded videos.

He mostly plays Grand Theft Auto V and Call of Duty: World at War. In his gaming videos, he is usually accompanied by his friends and it’s mostly just about random conversations here and there.

He was nominated for Shorty Award for Tech and Innovation in 2016 and The Game Award for Trending Gamer in 2014. Because he won these awards, he decided to drop out of college to pursue a full-time career in YouTube gaming. It’s reported that he earns close to $12 million a year from his YouTube content.

Who Are The Richest Streamers In The World?

Whether it’s on YouTube or Twitch, these are the richest streamers in the world right now as of 2022. The biggest streamers have earned close to seven figures from their subscriptions, donations, and more.

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins

Ninja is widely considered to be the most viewed streamer back in the day, but that doesn’t mean he’s not as popular as before. He’s still one of the biggest names in streaming, so much so that your grandparents might recognize him for his colored hair.

But he wasn’t a big streamer when he started. Tyler Blevins’ gaming career started back when he was playing Halo competitively for many of the big named sports teams such as Cloud9, Team Liquid, and Renegades. In 2017, he started to stream Fortnite and his popularity pretty much grew overnight. He quadrupled his Twitch following in less than 6 months after being a former pro player for Halo.

In 2019, he signed a deal with Microsoft for exclusively streaming in Mixer, their proprietary streaming platform. However, he returned to Twitch a year later after Mixer shut down the year after. He still streams Fortnite, but he admitted to becoming addicted to Apex Legends.

Michael “Shroud” Grzeziek

Much like Ninja, Shroud, or Michael Grzesiek, needs no introduction. He’s the second biggest Twitch streamer as of this writing with a net worth of $24 million. As of August 2021, Shroud has the 5th most followed channel on Twitch with 9.5 million followers. He also signed exclusively with Mixer together with Ninja, but returned to Twitch. This time, Twitch made sure to lock him in through an exclusivity contract.

Like Ninja, Michael Grzesiek started his career playing CS:GO professionally for different e-sports teams, such as Manajuma and Exertus eSports. He recently signed a deal to play Valorant for Sentinels as part of their e-sports team earlier last week.

Shround plays a lot of FPS games, mostly Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, and CS:GO. He was heavily streaming PUBG at the peak of its popularity and gained followers from the mobile side of things as well with his sick plays.

Turner “Tfue” Tenney

Turner Tenney, or Tfue, is the third wealthiest streamer with a net worth of $20 million and second most followed Twitch channel with more than 10 million followers.

He started his streaming career playing Destiny, H1Z1, and Call of Duty. He later switched to Fortnite in 2018 and joined an e-sports clan called FaZe. It was a short-lived endeavor as Tfue decided to sue FaZe for pressuring him into illegal gambling and underage drinking. It was also reported that FaZe took out a large percentage from his earnings from different brand deals.

In the end, FaZe decided to redo his contract where he would receive 100% of his revenues, but Tfue declined. Once the dust settled, Tfue went on to resume streaming Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Call of Duty: Warzone to name a few.

Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter

The fourth streamer on this list is not only one of the richest streamers in the world, but she also owns an e-sports team. Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter comes in with a net worth of $15 million (estimated) and 3.5 million subscribers on YouTube. Needless to say, she’s one of the most popular female streamers in the world with a large fan base.

Valkryae got into streamer after she was encouraged by one of her followers on Instagram and other friends. In 2018, she was the first content creator and female gamer to sign with 100 Thieves, which eventually led to her co-owning the organization last April 2021. She signed an exclusive deal with YouTube to stream on their platform.

Timothy John “TimTheTatman” Betar

Timothy John Betar, or TimTheTatman, slides into this list with a net worth of $10 million. He has 4 million subscribers on YouTube and counting. But he’s not just all numbers. TimTheTatman is good at what he does, and it shows on his streaming content.

Known for being a variety streamer, TimTheTatman started his career back in 2011 creating content for YouTube. He streamed games such as CS:GO and World of Warcraft when he first started. But like Ninja, TimTheTatman grew in popularity when he also started playing Fortnite. He went on to grow to 6.5 million followers on Twitch before signing exclusively with the platform on Sept 2021. He also earns from his extensive clothing line, which focuses on body positivity and his brand.

Recently, he’s been streaming and creating content for Call of Duty: Warzone but he does dabble with other games.

Which Platform Hosts the Most Richest Streamers?

According to Statista (6):

• Twitch leads the number of hours watched during the first quarter of 2022 with 6.129 million.
• YouTube follows after a large gap with 1.29 million hours.
• Facebook comes in last with 803,000 hours.

Twitch is home to most of the richest streamers and gamers worldwide, boasting close to about 2.5 million unique active channels streaming monthly and 15 million active users clocked in daily.

YouTube comes to a close second after Twitch, so it doesn’t come off as a surprise when it comes to their aggression for landing exclusivity deals with other popular streamers such as DrLupo. Facebook Gaming still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up to YouTube alone, even more for Twitch. But it doesn’t mean that they’re lacking. Like YouTube, Facebook Gaming is aggressive in landing exclusive deals. They’re even beginning to attract the big streamers such as Disguised Toast of Hearthstone fame and StoneMountain64.

References

(1) https://www.businessinsider.com/video-game-industry-120-billion-future-innovation-2019-9
(2) https://www.esportsearnings.com/players
(3) https://www.statista.com/statistics/518010/leading-esports-players-worldwide-by-earnings/
(4) https://www.esportsearnings.com/games
(5) https://www.statista.com/statistics/501853/leading-esports-games-worldwide-total-prize-pool/
(6) https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030795/hours-watched-streamlabs-platform/