Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How many people play video games and for how long, how much gaming video is watched on YouTube, Twitch and TikTok, how the biggest gaming channels publish, what the platforms and publishers report in their own filings, what players spend, the rules that apply to gaming videos, and where the popular gaming numbers came from.
212.3 million Americans aged 5 to 90, or 67%, play video games at least an hour a week, by the industry's own 2026 survey. (Entertainment Software Association)See details
The industry's count fell from 212.6 million players to 190.6 million between its 2023 and 2024 editions, when it changed survey firm, so the drop does not show people giving up games. (Entertainment Software Association)See details
Americans aged 15 and over spent 0.40 hours a day playing games in 2025, 54% more than in 2019. (BLS American Time Use Survey; our calculation)See details
Viewers watched over 100 billion hours of gaming content on YouTube in 2020, about 273 million hours a day. (YouTube; our calculation)See details
Viewers watched more than 8.6 billion hours of gaming on Twitch from January to August 2026, about 35.4 million hours a day. (Twitch; our calculation)See details
Among the most-subscribed YouTube channels, the median gaming channel's long-form videos run 26.2 minutes, against 11.5 minutes for other channels. (Our calculation)See details
The biggest gaming channels post less often: a median of 1.6 uploads a week, against 8.2 for the other top channels. (Our calculation)See details
18% of the English-language videos popular YouTube channels posted in one 2019 week were about video games, and the median one drew 34,347 first-week views, about three times other videos. (Pew Research Center)See details
85% of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 play video games and 41% play every day. (Pew Research Center)See details
U.S. consumers spent $60.8 billion on video games in 2025, just below the $61.7 billion record of 2021. (ESA; Circana)See details
The widely quoted 3.4 billion gamers worldwide is a 2023 Newzoo forecast for that year, not a count; no census counts players worldwide. (Newzoo)See details
Twitch's often-quoted 140 million monthly users is a 2018 advertising count of unique viewers; its current figure is 105 million monthly visitors. (Twitch)See details
How many Americans play video games?
About two in three, on the industry's own count. The Entertainment Software Association's 2026 Essential Facts survey estimates that 212.3 million Americans aged 5 to 90 play video games for at least an hour a week, or 67% of that age group Entertainment Software Association, 2026. YouGov fielded the survey online in February 2026. Among adults aged 18 to 90 the share is 63%, and among children aged 5 to 17 it is 84%ESA 2026 Essential Facts. The ESA is the industry's trade association, so this is the industry counting its own audience.
The ESA's headline count is not a time series. Its 2023 edition, fielded by Circana in April 2023, counted 212.6 million players ESA, 2023. The 2024 edition switched to YouGov and counted 190.6 million, or 61% of Americans ESA, 2024. Then came 205.1 million in 2025 ESA, 2025, 64% of the population ESA 2025 booklet, and 212.3 million in 2026. Because the survey firm changed between 2023 and 2024, the drop does not show 22 million people giving up games. Earlier editions used other designs again: Ipsos surveyed households for the 2015 edition, which counted 155 million players and said 42% of Americans played three hours a week or more ESA, 2015, and the 2020 edition reported more than 214 million players ESA, 2020.
How many Americans play video games depends on the question. Figures link to their sources; bold figures are first cited here.
The spread runs from 10% to 71% because the questions measure different things: identity, any play at all, a weekly habit, or play on a given day. Pew found that men and women were about equally likely to play in 2015 (50% and 48%), but men were more than twice as likely to call themselves gamers (15% against 6%) Pew Research Center, 2015.
Who plays video games in the U.S.?
The average U.S. player is 37 years old, and 46% of players are women and girls, according to the ESA's 2026 survey ESA; ESA 2026 data page. Players under 18 make up 21% of the total and players aged 50 and over 29%ESA 2026 Essential Facts. Over two decades the average has risen, though not in every edition: 29 around 2004, by the ESA's own account ESA, 2024, 35 in 2015 ESA, 2015, lower readings in several editions after that, then 36 in 2025 ESA, 2025 and 37 in 2026. The editions used different survey firms and definitions, so the changes are not a clean trend (see the popular numbers section below).
Gender is the figure most often misquoted. The ESA's 2026 release says 53% of men and 46% of women play; those are shares of players, not the share of each sex who play. Among U.S. teens the gap is wider: in Pew Research Center's fall 2023 survey, 97% of teen boys played video games, against about three-quarters of girls, and 61% of boys played daily against 22% of girls Pew Research Center.
Phones are the most common way to play. In the ESA's 2025 survey, 82% of players aged 8 and over played on a mobile device, 47% on a console and 45% on a PC ESA 2025 booklet; the 2026 report puts mobile at 80%ESA. Parents play too: 75% of U.S. parents play each week, and 81% of parents who play have played with their children ESA, 2026. Asked why they play, 66% of adult players said to pass the time or relax, and 32% to keep their mind sharp ESA 2026 data page.
How much time do Americans spend playing games?
About 24 minutes a day on average, on the government's count. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey found that Americans aged 15 and over spent 0.40 hours a day playing games in 2025, up from 0.37 in 2024 BLS, 2024 and 0.26 in 2019 BLS, 2019, a rise of 54% since the last year before the pandemic (our calculation). The survey counts video, computer, board and card games together. The average is spread over everyone: on a given day in 2025 only 15.3% played at all, up from 11.7% in 2019, and those who did played for 2.60 hours BLS American Time Use Survey, Table A-1. Men averaged 0.55 hours a day and women 0.25.
BLS also reports a wider category, games plus leisure computer use: 37 minutes a day in 2025, against 25 minutes in 2015. Teenagers aged 15 to 19 spent the most time on it, 1.5 hours a day, and people aged 75 and over spent 0.48 hours BLS American Time Use Survey 2025 release.
Players' own estimates run higher. In the ESA's 2023 survey, players said they played 12.8 hours a week ESA, 2023, a self-reported figure among players only that later editions stopped publishing.
How much do kids and teens play?
Most U.S. teens play. In Pew Research Center's survey of teens aged 13 to 17, fielded by Ipsos from September to October 2023, 85% said they play video games and 41% play at least once a day Pew Research Center, 2024. Fewer think of themselves as gamers: four in ten. Consoles were the most common device, at 73%, followed by smartphones at 70%. In Pew's 2018 survey, 90% of teens played some kind of video game Pew Research Center, 2018.
The same 2023 survey recorded the downsides teens report. 41% of teen players said gaming had hurt their sleep, 41% had been called an offensive name while playing, and 80% of all teens said harassment over video games is a problem for people their age.
Time per day comes from Common Sense Media's census, a probability survey fielded by Ipsos. In 2021, tweens aged 8 to 12 spent an average of 1 hour 27 minutes a day gaming and teens aged 13 to 18 1 hour 46 minutesCommon Sense Media, 2021. Boys aged 8 to 18 averaged 2 hours 20 minutes and girls 54 minutesCommon Sense Media, 2021 report. Children aged 8 and under spent 38 minutes a day playing video games in 2024, by their parents' report Common Sense Media, 2025.
How much gaming video is watched on YouTube?
Over 100 billion hours a year by 2020, YouTube's last full-year count. YouTube reported that viewers watched over 100 billion hours of gaming content in 2020, on more than 40 million active gaming channels, and that watch time of live gaming streams grew to over 10 billion hoursYouTube Official Blog, 2020. That is about 273 million hours of gaming video a day (our calculation). YouTube has since moved to counting views: over 800 billion gaming-related views in the first half of 2021 YouTube Official Blog, 2021 and more than two trillion in 2022, in a letter from YouTube's CEO YouTube, 2023 letter from Neal Mohan.
YouTube's own gaming watch-time figures, put on one scale. Each figure is as YouTube published it; the daily rate is our calculation.
Period
As YouTube published it
Hours of gaming video a day
A month in 2015
More than 144 billion minutes of gaming videos and live streams a month YouTube, 2015
79 million
12 months to September 2018
Over 50 billion hours of gaming content YouTube, 2018
On YouTube's own figures, daily gaming watch time grew about 3.5 times between 2015 and 2020 (our calculation). In 2018 YouTube also said more than 200 million people came to YouTube every day to watch gaming videos and streams. Single games run to enormous totals: Minecraft drew 201 billion views in 2020 alone YouTube and more than 1.5 trillion over its first 15 years YouTube, 2024, videos related to Roblox passed 1 trillion views by August 2025 YouTube, 2025, and Five Nights at Freddy's videos drew more than 13 billion views from January 1 to September 25, 2025 YouTube, 2025. In the first half of 2021, creators uploaded over 250 million gaming videos and live streamed over 90 million hours of gaming YouTube. In 2020, more than 80,000 gaming creators reached 100,000 subscribers and over 350 reached 10 million YouTube.
The independent check comes from Pew Research Center, which analysed every English-language video posted by popular YouTube channels, those with 250,000 or more subscribers, in the first week of 2019. 18% of those videos were about video games, and they drew more views than other videos: a median of 34,347 views in the first week, about three times the 11,176 for other videos, and an average of 122,195Pew Research Center, 2019. Fortnite appeared in the titles of 15% of the video-game videos, and 34% of them mentioned Twitch in their descriptions Pew Research Center, 2019.
Why do people watch gaming videos instead of playing?
Many watch to get better, and many watch for its own sake. In a May 2017 survey Google commissioned from Ipsos Connect among U.S. adults aged 18 to 54, 48% of YouTube gamers said they spend more time watching gaming videos on YouTube than playing games, 73% said they enjoy watching others play, 74% said they use YouTube to learn how to get better at a game and 56% said YouTube is where they connect with their gaming community Think with Google. In a December 2015 Google survey with Greenberg, 90% of avid U.S. mobile gamers said they turn to YouTube at least once a week for tips Think with Google, 2016. The audience is wider than self-described gamers: in a 2014 Google Consumer Survey, only 37% of people who watch gaming videos on YouTube considered themselves gamers Think with Google. These are surveys by the platform's owner about its own platform.
TikTok reports the same pattern. In an April 2024 TikTok survey of gamers on TikTok aged 18 and over, 56 percent said watching gaming content can be as entertaining as playing, and 41 percent said they had made their own gaming videos TikTok newsroom, 2024. TikTok counted over 3 trillion views of gaming content in 2022 TikTok newsroom, 2023, while its advertising blog put the same year at 3.6 trillion game-related videos watched, and it says half of its daily active users watched some form of gaming content that year TikTok for Business. Gaming live streams on TikTok drew an average of over 76 million views a day in the 30 days to August 8, 2024 TikTok newsroom, 2024. Platform counts like these are unaudited, and a "view" is defined by each platform.
For U.S. teenagers, online video is daily: 77% of teens aged 13 to 18 watched online videos every day in 2021, for an average of 1 hour 22 minutes, and tweens aged 8 to 12 watched 57 minutes a day, in Common Sense Media's census Common Sense Media, 2021. The census does not split out gaming videos.
How do the biggest gaming channels on YouTube publish?
Longer and less often than the rest of YouTube's top channels. In Mark Studios' October 2026 measurement of the 99 most-subscribed YouTube channels, 7 are gaming channels by Wikipedia's category. The median gaming channel's latest long-form videos ran 26.2 minutes, against 11.5 minutes for the median channel in every other category, and 65% of the gaming channels' latest long-form videos ran 20 minutes or more, against 36% for the rest (our calculation from the public data of our YouTube video length study).
They post less often: the median gaming channel put up 1.6 uploads a week, against 8.2 for the median non-gaming channel. Shorts made up 43% of their latest uploads, about the same share as for other channels, and 0 of their 105 latest uploads were live streams, against 4.6% of uploads for the other channels. In the thumbnails of their latest long-form videos, 86% showed a human face, against 78% for other channels, and 34% carried headline text, against 46% (our calculation from our YouTube thumbnail study).
Seven channels is a small group, and Wikipedia's category is broad: it includes a challenge channel (MrBeast Gaming) and channels in Hindi, Indonesian, Spanish and Turkish. These figures describe the very top of YouTube, not the typical gaming creator. The channel lists, video lengths and thumbnail labels behind them are public CSV files on the two study pages, so anyone can recompute them; the formulas are in the methodology below.
How big is live game streaming on Twitch, YouTube and Kick?
On Twitch, viewers watched more than 8.6 billion hours of gaming content between January 1 and September 1, 2026, according to Twitch's State of Gaming 2026 report Twitch, 2026. That is about 35.4 million hours of gaming a day (our calculation). Sandbox games such as Minecraft accounted for 831 million of those hours, and streams tagged for in-game rewards ("drops") for 1.6 billion, up 46% on the same months of 2025. For comparison, YouTube's last full-year figure was about 273 million hours of gaming video a day in 2020, live and recorded together, of which live streams were over 10 billion hours for the year (see the YouTube section above).
Twitch's whole site, not only games, recorded over 1.3 trillion minutes watched in 2023 and averages 105 million monthly visitors, on its advertising site Twitch Advertising; nearly 70% of its viewers are aged 18 to 34. Twitch's State of Engineering 2023 put average concurrent viewers at over 2.5 million and individual streamers at 7 million a month Twitch, 2023. Total minutes watched were 292 billion in 2016, when 2.2 million unique streamers broadcast Twitch 2016 Year in Review, so minutes watched grew about 4.5 times by 2023 (our calculation).
How Twitch has described its own audience, by date. Each line is a different measure; the archived pages are Internet Archive captures of Twitch's advertising site.
Date published
What Twitch said
March 2013
More than 28 million unique viewers in February 2013; more than 600,000 unique broadcasters Twitch
February 2014
13 billion minutes watched a month; 45 million viewers a month Twitch
The September 2020 line is the outlier: 400 million unique streamers a month conflicts with every other count Twitch has published, from 2.2 million streamers in 2016 to more than 8 million a month in March 2023, in a post by Twitch's outgoing chief executive Twitch, 2023. We show it as Twitch printed it and treat it as an error. In 2018 Twitch said more than 220,000 streamers joined its Affiliate program in its first year Twitch, and in 2022 streamers earned over $1 billion across Twitch Twitch. The number of channels going live rose 40% from the first to the second half of 2020 Twitch transparency report, 2020. Amazon bought Twitch in 2014 for about $842 million in cash, and its annual reports give no Twitch audience figures Amazon 10-K, 2014.
Kick, a newer rival, lets streamers keep 95% of subscription and tipping revenue Kick Help Center and says its Partner Program has paid creators more than $400 million since 2024 Kick. Among U.S. teens, Twitch use is modest and slipping: 20% used it in spring 2022 Pew Research Center, 2022 and 17% in fall 2023, 22% of boys against 11% of girls Pew Research Center, 2023.
How many people watch esports?
The organizers' own counts are large but measured in different ways. The Esports World Cup Foundation says its 2026 event in Paris reached 850 million viewers and 440 million hours watched, with a peak of 4.3 million during the League of Legends tournament and a $75 million prize pool Esports World Cup Foundation, 2026. Its 2025 event in Riyadh recorded 750 million viewers, 350 million hours and a peak of 7.98 million, with more than $70 million in prizes Esports World Cup Foundation, 2025. Riot Games says the 2019 League of Legends World Championship final peaked at 44 million concurrent viewers, with an average minute audience of 21.8 millionRiot Games fact sheet, and that new formats and co-streaming drove 65% year-over-year growth in average minute audience at the 2023 championship Riot Games.
Counter-Strike's biggest events are smaller but well documented. ESL FACEIT Group says the IEM Cologne Major 2026 recorded over 100 million hours watched and a peak of more than 2,750,000 viewers ESL FACEIT Group, and BLAST says its 2025 Austin Major peaked at 1,789,038 viewers over 76,107,382 hours watched BLAST. Headline "viewers" totals are not unique people: ESL's 232 million for IEM Katowice 2019 added up daily viewers across the event ESL, 2019, against 34 million unique viewers it reported for the same event in 2016 ESL, 2016. Prize money has fallen in places: Valve's Dota 2 site lists $40,018,195 for The International 2021 Valve and $2,881,791 for 2025 Valve, after Valve scaled back the crowdfunding that had built the earlier pools.
How big are the consoles and game platforms, by their own filings?
The platform owners report audiences in different units, so their numbers do not add up to one total. Roblox reported an average of 138 million daily active users in the quarter to September 30, 2026 Roblox 10-Q, up from 127 million across 2025 Roblox 10-K, 2025 and 82.9 million across 2024 Roblox 10-K, 2024. Sony estimates 125 million monthly active PlayStation users as of June 30, 2026 Sony Interactive Entertainment. Microsoft said it had 500 million monthly active users in gaming across platforms and devices as of mid-2025 Microsoft earnings call, FY2025 Q4. Valve's stats page showed 38,962,912 people using Steam at the same moment in the 48 hours before an Internet Archive capture on October 14, 2026 Steam, and Valve said in March 2026 that Steam had reached 42 million peak concurrent users Valve, Steam Year in Review 2025.
Audience figures from the platforms' own filings and posts. Each counts something different; compare within a row, not across rows.
Time spent is where Roblox stands out. Its users spent 123.9 billion hours engaged on the platform in 2025, an average of 2.7 hours per daily user each day, up from 73.5 billion hours in 2024 Roblox 10-K. Roblox paid creators 1,503,106 thousand dollars, about $1.5 billion, in developer exchange fees in 2025, up 63% Roblox 10-K. Attention is concentrated: 51% of hours in December 2025 went to the top 50 experiences. Roblox spent 246,173 thousand dollars on sales and marketing in 2025, 4% of revenue, and describes its go-to-market as organic and community- and influencer-led. Even so, its bookings fell to $1,697 million in the quarter to September 2026 from $1,922 million a year earlier, while daily users kept rising Roblox 10-Q.
Console revenue is moving the other way at Microsoft. Its Xbox revenue was $21,790 million in the fiscal year to June 30, 2026, down 7%Microsoft 10-K, FY2026; Xbox content and services fell 5% and hardware 29%. A year earlier Gaming revenue had been $23,455 million Microsoft 10-K, FY2025. Microsoft said Game Pass brought in nearly $5 billion in annual revenue for the first time in fiscal 2025, and that players streamed more than 500 million hours through Xbox Cloud Gaming that year. Sony shipped 16.0 million PlayStation 5 consoles in its year to March 2026, down from 18.5 million Sony Interactive Entertainment. Its Game & Network Services segment had sales of 4,685,651 million yen Sony 20-F, of which 2,415,305 million yen was digital software and add-on content and 763,126 million yen network services, mainly PlayStation Plus. Nintendo sold 19.86 million Switch 2 consoles in the year to March 2026, the console's launch year, and its net sales rose to 2,313,051 million yen Nintendo, FY2026 results.
The best-selling games keep selling. Take-Two says Grand Theft Auto V has sold in more than 230 million units Take-Two 10-Q, up from 225 million in its annual report for the year to March 2026 Take-Two 10-K, and Red Dead Redemption 2 more than 85 million. These are units shipped to retailers and digital storefronts, not players. Recurrent spending (virtual currency, add-ons, in-game purchases and ads) made up 78.1% of Take-Two's net revenue in fiscal 2026, and digital live services 71 percent of Electronic Arts' Electronic Arts 10-K. On Nintendo's own count, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold 71.53 million units Nintendo.
How much do people spend on video games?
U.S. consumers spent $60.8 billion on video game content, hardware and accessories in 2025, on the final figures Circana and Sensor Tower published through the ESA Entertainment Software Association. As first published, the total was up 1.4% on 2024, and it sits just below the $61.7 billion record set in 2021. Content, meaning full games, add-ons and subscriptions including mobile, accounted for $52.4 billion, hardware $5.4 billion, and mobile games alone $26.7 billion, per Sensor Tower. Subscription spending grew 20%, the main source of growth. Circana, a market-research firm that sells this tracking to the industry, revises its totals often: the same releases put 2024 at $59.9 billion, 2023 at $59.3 billionESA, January 2025 and 2014 at $28.4 billion.
2026 is running behind. Circana forecast in February that spending would rise 3% to $62.8 billionCircana, but its September 2026 tracking had the year to date at $41.0 billion, 3% behind the 2025 pace, with September itself at $4.8 billion and non-mobile subscription spending down 5% on the year, its first monthly fall since February 2024 Circana, September 2026.
The industry employs fewer people than its revenue might suggest. An economic impact study by TEConomy Partners for the ESA counted 82,930 direct U.S. jobs at video game companies in 2025, and 250,838 jobs once suppliers and spending ripple effects are added ESA Economic Impact Report, 2026. The 2024 edition had counted 104,080 direct and 350,015 total jobs for 2023 ESA Economic Impact Report, 2024. The 2026 report says its method stayed largely the same, with better coverage of small studios, and that employment still fell by more than 21,100 workers, mostly in software and retail. TEConomy puts the industry's contribution to U.S. GDP at $65.5 billion in 2025 and average pay and benefits per direct worker at $217,982.
Consumer spending on video games, as each market's trade body reports it. Not comparable across rows: each covers different products and uses different data suppliers.
In the UK, Ukie, the industry's trade body, valued the 2025 market at £8.76 billion, 7.4% more than 2024, with game software at £6.03 billion and hardware at £2.17 billionUkie. Digital console games came to £2.49 billion, mobile games £2.07 billion and digital PC games £1.15 billion, from Omdia data. Ukie restated 2024 at 8,158 million pounds in the same edition Ukie valuation report. Across 16 European countries, 91% of 2025 revenue was digital and phones and tablets accounted for 49%, but revenue in the five largest markets fell 4%Video Games Europe key facts report. Australians' spending on game subscriptions rose 16% in 2024 IGEA, and Australian studios earned AU$608.5 million in the year to June 2025 IGEA developer survey. Canada's industry employed an estimated 34,010 full-time equivalents in 2023-24 across 821 companies, earning 88% of its revenue from exports ESAC study by Nordicity.
Advertising inside games is its own market. An Apple-commissioned study by Analysis Group cites Omdia's estimate that developers earned about $31 billion in 2025 from ads placed in their iOS games Apple.
How many people play video games outside the U.S.?
About half the population in the European markets the industry tracks. Video Games Europe, the European publishers' association, estimates that 199 million people aged 6 to 75 played video games in 2025 across 16 European markets, 51% of that age group, from Ipsos survey data Video Games Europe, 2025 Key Facts. The average player was 34, 46% of players were women and 77% were adults. Players spent an average of 8 hours 59 minutes a week playing Video Games Europe report, and 82% played on a phone or tablet against 47% on a console. The 2025 edition expanded from five markets to 16, so its total does not continue the earlier series.
The government's measure is narrower and lower. Eurostat's household survey found that 34% of EU internet users aged 16 to 74 played or downloaded games online in 2024, the least common of the online cultural activities it tracks Eurostat. The two figures measure different things (any play by ages 6 to 75 against online play by internet users aged 16 to 74), so they should not be compared directly. Eurostat's share was highest in Denmark, at 52%, and the Netherlands, at 50%; it was 37% for men, 30% for women and 64% for students. Only 6% of EU internet users subscribed to a game streaming service in 2025.
Video game players by country, as each national survey owner reports them. Definitions and age ranges differ; compare within a row.
Italy stands out in Video Games Europe's data, with fewer than a third of people playing against more than half in France, Germany and Spain Video Games Europe report. South Korea's share is falling: the 50.2% who played in the past year in the Korea Creative Content Agency's 2025 Game User Survey is the lowest since the series began in 2015. Of the Korean non-players who said they had taken up another leisure activity instead, 86.3% named watching video. Korean PC players still averaged 117.9 minutes a day of PC gaming on weekdays KOCCA. In China, the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association counted more than 495 million esports users in 2025, and live streaming made up 80.81% of esports industry revenue, ahead of events and clubs CADPA esports report. The domestic Chinese game market's actual sales revenue was 350.789 billion yuan CADPA.
In Canada, 7.9 hours a week was the average play time in 2022, and 23% of adult players and 17% of players aged 6 to 17 had watched esports tournaments online in the past year ESAC Essential Facts 2022. In the ESA's 2025 Power of Play survey of active players aged 16 and over, 51% of Canadian players were women and 52% chose a phone or tablet as their first device ESAC; the global survey gathered 24,216 responses in 21 countries ESA Power of Play 2025. In New Zealand, video games were played in nine out of ten households in 2025, the average player was 36, 47% of players were female and 85% of working-age adults played. In Australia, women and girls were 51% of players in 2025, the first time they outnumbered men and boys in the Australia Plays series, and the typical player was around 35IGEA, Australia Plays 2025.
What rules apply to gaming videos?
Sponsorship disclosure is the rule with the longest enforcement record, and gaming video is where the FTC built it. In its 2015 Machinima case, the FTC said Machinima guaranteed Microsoft's ad agency that paid Xbox One videos would be viewed at least 19 million times, and paid two endorsers $15,000 and $30,000 for videos without requiring them to disclose the payment FTC, 2015. In 2016 the FTC said paid "Shadow of Mordor" gameplay videos in a Warner Bros. campaign lacked adequate disclosure and were viewed more than 5.5 million times, 3.7 million of them on PewDiePie's video alone FTC, 2016. In 2017 it brought its first case against individual influencers: the owners of the skins-gambling site CSGO Lotto promoted it without saying they owned it, and Thomas Cassell's videos about it were viewed more than 5.7 million times; they had also paid other gaming influencers between $2,500 and $55,000 to promote the site FTC, 2017. The FTC's Endorsement Guides, last revised on July 26, 2023, include the example of a student paid by a developer to live stream its new game: the stream is an endorsement even without an express recommendation eCFR, 16 CFR Part 255.
YouTube's monetization rules set the entry bar and the gaming-specific limits. A channel can apply to the YouTube Partner Program with 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months, or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days YouTube Help, archived. Under its advertiser-friendly guidelines, unedited gameplay violence after the first 7 seconds of a video can earn ads, while graphic game violence in the thumbnail or the first seven seconds earns none YouTube Help, archived. Age-restricted videos, which can include graphic game violence, cannot be watched by anyone under 18YouTube Help, archived. YouTube tightened its gambling rules twice in 2025: from March 19, 2025 it barred directing viewers to gambling sites Google has not certified YouTube, archived, and from November 17, 2025 it extended enforcement to wagers on digital goods such as game skins and began age-restricting games focused on realistic torture or mass violence against non-combatants YouTube, archived. On July 15, 2025 it renamed its "repetitious content" monetization policy "inauthentic content" YouTube Help, archived.
On Twitch, copyright strikes fall mostly on small streamers. Twitch received 50,219 DMCA notifications in 2025 and applied 81,441 copyright strikes, about 76% of them to streamers who were not yet Affiliates or Partners; it terminated 2,041 accounts that reached three strikes Twitch copyright transparency report, 2025; Twitch DMCA Guidelines. Until May 2020 Twitch streamers received fewer than 50 music-related DMCA notifications a year, and of the notifications it analysed from May to October 2020, more than 99% concerned background music Twitch, 2020.
Game publishers set their own terms for footage. Nintendo's guidelines, updated on September 2, 2024, allow individuals to monetize gameplay videos and streams only through approved programs such as the YouTube Partner Program and Twitch Affiliate and Partner, and bar plain copies of game content without commentary or creative input Nintendo. Microsoft's Game Content Usage Rules, last updated in January 2015, grant a personal, noncommercial licence to use footage from its games Microsoft. Riot Games' policy bars commercial fan projects with three exceptions, including passive ad revenue on videos and streams Riot Games. On the PS5, a manually started recording can run up to 1 hourPlayStation, and only clips up to 3 minutes at up to 1080p upload automatically to the PlayStation App PlayStation.
Children's privacy has produced the largest penalties. Under the COPPA Rule a child is anyone under 13eCFR, 16 CFR 312.2. Google and YouTube paid $170 million in 2019 to settle FTC and New York charges over data collected from viewers of child-directed channels FTC, 2019. Epic Games agreed in December 2022 to pay $520 million over Fortnite FTC, 2022, including a $275 million COPPA penalty, and Microsoft paid $20 million in 2023 over Xbox sign-ups by children FTC, 2023. This section summarizes rules as published; it is not legal advice.
What the popular gaming numbers really say
Most gaming statistics roundups repeat a handful of figures without a date or a source. We traced seven to where they started.
"There are 3.4 billion gamers in the world"
This is a forecast, not a count. Newzoo, a firm that sells games-market forecasts, projected in August 2023 that the world would have 3.4 billion players that year Newzoo, archived, and in September 2025 it projected 3.58 billion for 2025, "over 60%" of the world's online population Newzoo, archived. Newzoo does not publish the model, and one person can count on several devices. In 2022 Jon Peddie Research, a graphics-hardware analyst, called the "3 billion gamers" figure inflated and traced it to Newzoo's forecast of 3.09 billion players Jon Peddie Research. By 2024 an advertising group's report was saying the gamer population "currently sits at" 3.38 billion, a year-old forecast restated as a present count MediaCat, reporting dentsu. No census counts gamers worldwide. Cite national surveys instead, with their definitions: 212.3 million U.S. players (ESA), 199 million in 16 European markets (Video Games Europe), 683 million game users in China (CADPA).
"Video games are bigger than movies and music combined"
True only if "movies" means cinema tickets. An early version is a June 2015 trade report of IHS data forecasting $92bn of consumer spending on games that year against $18bn on recorded music and $62bn on movies, where movies meant all consumer spending on films, not just the box office MCV, reporting IHS. By February 2016 a local news story had swapped in box office alone, the MPAA's $36.4 billion for 2014 KFVS. The common modern form sets a $184 billion games market against a global box office of $33.9 billion and recorded music of $28.6 billion MediaCat, reporting dentsu. Count film the way the film industry does and the gap narrows, or reverses once pay TV is included, though the years differ: the Motion Picture Association put cinema plus home and mobile entertainment at $99.7 billion in 2021, and $328.2 billion including pay TV, when the box office alone was $21.3 billionMotion Picture Association, THEME report 2021. We searched the exact phrase and its variants and the trade press of the time; the method notes in the evidence table list the searches, and an older version may exist.
"The average gamer is 35, and 46% of gamers are women"
Both come from the ESA, but from different editions and definitions. An average age of 35 appears in the 2008 edition, which surveyed households owning a console or games PC and found 40% of players were female ESA, 2008, archived. The 2017 edition also said 35, with 41% women ESA, 2017, archived. The female share rose to 45% in 2018 ESA, 2018, archived and 46% in 2019 ESA, 2019, archived. In 2020 the ESA gave an age range, 35-44, instead of an average ESA, 2020, archived, and from 2022 it has defined a player as someone who plays at least an hour a weekESA, 2022, archived. The recent editions say 46% women in 2023 ESA, 2023, an average age of 36 in 2024 ESA, 2024, 47% women in 2025 ESA, 2025 and, in 2026, an average age of 37 with 46% women and girls. Cite the edition and year.
"200 million people watch gaming on YouTube every day"
YouTube said it, in September 2018: "more than 200 million of you" came every day to watch gaming videos and streams. In December 2018 YouTube's head of gaming told GamesBeat the figure was 200 million logged-in users a day GamesBeat, which leaves out logged-out viewing. Roundups still print it without a year: a YouTube statistics page dated October 28, 2026 lists "200 million people: watch gaming videos daily" with no source Bits From Bytes. It is an eight-year-old daily figure for logged-in viewers. The latest full-year measure YouTube has published is over 100 billion hours of gaming content watched in 2020.
"Gaming video content reaches 665 million viewers and makes $4.6 billion"
These were SuperData Research forecasts for 2017, published in April 2017 from a paid report: 665 million viewers and $4.6 billion in revenue SuperData, archived. SuperData did not publish the method on the page, and its own platform audiences in the same release added up to more than the total, so viewers overlap. Its last figures we found, in its 2019 year in review, were 944 million viewers and $6.5 billionSuperData, a Nielsen company, archived.
"The esports audience is over 600 million"
This is a Newzoo projection that roundups now print as fact. Newzoo forecast 385 million esports viewers for 2017, about half of them occasional viewers Newzoo, 2017, archived, and 532 million for 2022 Newzoo, 2022, archived, of whom 271 million were occasional viewers who watch esports less than once a month. The same 2022 release projected more than 640 million by 2025. In March 2026 a roundup said the global esports audience "hits" 640.8 million, with no source or year SQ Magazine. For an actual measurement, use an organizer's figure with its definition, such as the Esports World Cup's 440 million hours watched in 2026, or a peak like Riot's 44 million concurrent viewers for the 2019 final.
"Gamers spend X hours a week watching other people play"
Most versions trace to Limelight Networks, a company that sold content-delivery services to game companies, and its State of Online Gaming surveys of people who already play at least weekly. The figure moved with the countries surveyed: one hour and 48 minutes a week in 2018 Limelight Networks, 2018, archived, just under two and a half hours in 2019 Limelight, 2019, archived, 2.29 hours in 2020 Limelight, 2020, archived and two hours and 48 minutes in 2021, when the country list changed again Limelight, 2021, archived, the last edition we found. Name the edition and the countries, and say that only players were asked.
"Twitch has 140 million monthly users"
This is Twitch's own mid-2018 advertising figure of 140 million-plus unique monthly viewers. Twitch's current figure is 105 million monthly visitors, a different measure. The full trace is on our livestream video statistics page.
We started from the questions people search for about gaming video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 353 figures from 44 publishers.
On October 29, 2026, each of the 336 sourced figures on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording. 326 matched on that pass, from the publisher's page or file or a dated Internet Archive capture. The other 10 are on pages that load only in a browser (Valve's Steam and Dota 2 pages, Twitch's copyright transparency report, two YouTube announcements and IGEA's Australia Plays release) and matched in a headless browser the same day. 75 figures cite Internet Archive captures: FTC press releases and YouTube Help pages, which refuse or rate-limit scripts; Sony's and Nintendo's sales pages, which are overwritten each quarter; BLS time-use tables; and old Twitch advertising pages and forecaster releases traced in the popular-numbers section. We left out what we could not read or check: Ofcom's reports, which refused every request; Sony's investor supplements; Meta's gaming figures, whose pages no longer load; the charts in Valve's Steam Year in Review, whose figures are not in the text; and the U.S. Census Bureau's Economic Census figures for game publishing, held for a later edition. The 17 figures marked as our calculations are listed with their formulas below.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
Count of videos with minutes >= 20 among videos.csv rows whose channel is Gaming (135) divided by those rows (209); same for other channels (941 / 2650)
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Most player surveys belong to the industry. The Entertainment Software Association, Video Games Europe, Ukie, IGEA and the Entertainment Software Association of Canada represent game companies. Their surveys are online panels fielded by YouGov, Ipsos or Circana, and their counts move when the survey firm or the definition of a player changes, as the ESA's did between 2023 and 2024.
Platforms count their own audiences, unaudited, and change the unit. YouTube reported gaming in minutes a month (2015), hours a year (2018, 2020) and then views (2021, 2022); Twitch moved from monthly viewers to monthly site visitors. Our daily-rate conversions put each figure on one scale but cannot make the definitions the same.
The newest platform-wide watch-time figures are old. YouTube has not published a full-year gaming watch-time figure since 2020. Twitch's 2026 figure covers gaming on Twitch only, and its 2023 figure covers all content.
Esports "viewers" are not people. Organizers add up daily viewers or count peak concurrent viewers in their own way, and some include Chinese platforms while others do not.
The government's time-use measure counts every kind of game. The BLS American Time Use Survey's "playing games" includes board and card games as well as video games.
Spending figures come from a market-research vendor. Circana, which sells its tracking to the industry, revises its U.S. totals often; we show the latest restated figures and say where an earlier edition differed.
Our own figures come from a small group. Only 7 of the 99 most-subscribed YouTube channels are gaming channels by Wikipedia's category, so the comparisons describe the top of YouTube, not typical gaming creators.
Figures from different countries are not comparable. Each national survey uses its own age range, definition of a player and year.
Rules and policies are summaries, not legal advice, and platforms change them without notice; each is dated to the version we read.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/gaming-video-statistics#DRV-002. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Gaming Video Statistics." Last verified Oct 29, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/gaming-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, October 29). Gaming video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/gaming-video-statistics
MLA
“Gaming Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 29 Oct. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/gaming-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Gaming Video Statistics.” Last modified October 29, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/gaming-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_gaming_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Gaming Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/gaming-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-10-29}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is January 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Oct 29, 2026: First published with 353 figures from 44 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many people play video games in the US?
About two in three Americans, depending on the definition. The Entertainment Software Association's 2026 survey estimates 212.3 million Americans aged 5 to 90 play at least an hour a week, 67% of that age group. Far fewer call themselves gamers: 10% of adults in Pew Research Center's 2015 survey. On an average day in 2025, 15.3% of Americans aged 15 and over played a game of any kind, according to the BLS American Time Use Survey.
How much gaming content is watched on YouTube?
YouTube's last full-year watch-time figure is over 100 billion hours of gaming content in 2020, about 273 million hours a day, on more than 40 million active gaming channels. YouTube has since reported views instead of hours: over 800 billion gaming-related views in the first half of 2021.
How many people watch Twitch?
Twitch says it averages 105 million monthly visitors, based on 2023 data; its 2023 engineering report put average concurrent viewers at over 2.5 million. Its viewers watched more than 8.6 billion hours of gaming content between January 1 and September 1, 2026. The widely quoted 140 million monthly users is a 2018 advertising figure that counted unique viewers.
How long are gaming videos on YouTube?
Longer than most. Among the 99 most-subscribed YouTube channels in October 2026, the median gaming channel's latest long-form videos ran 26.2 minutes, against 11.5 minutes for the median channel in other categories, and 65% of the gaming channels' latest long-form videos ran 20 minutes or more, by our calculation from public data.
What is the average age of a gamer?
37 in the United States, according to the Entertainment Software Association's 2026 survey, and 46% of U.S. players are women and girls. The average player across 16 European markets was 34 in 2025, according to Video Games Europe.
How much time do people spend playing video games?
Americans aged 15 and over averaged 0.40 hours a day playing games in 2025, counting board and card games, according to the BLS American Time Use Survey. That average includes everyone; people who played on a given day played for 2.60 hours. U.S. teens aged 13 to 18 spent 1 hour 46 minutes a day gaming in 2021, in Common Sense Media's census.
Do gaming YouTubers and streamers have to disclose sponsorships?
In the U.S., yes. The FTC's Endorsement Guides, last revised on July 26, 2023, treat a paid live stream of a new game as an endorsement even without an express recommendation. The FTC has brought gaming cases since 2015: paid Shadow of Mordor gameplay videos without adequate disclosure were viewed more than 5.5 million times, and an owner of the skins-gambling site CSGO Lotto promoted it in videos viewed more than 5.7 million times without saying he owned it. This is not legal advice.
How often is this page updated?
Every figure is re-checked against its original source each quarter, and sooner when a major source publishes a new edition, such as the Entertainment Software Association's Essential Facts each summer, the BLS American Time Use Survey each June, or a platform's year-in-review report. The Last verified date changes only after that check, and each change is recorded in the change log.
