IGN Leisure has launched Gaming Trends, a data-driven insights platform that utilises the firm’s huge attain to foretell the future path of gaming and leisure.
With 500 million month-to-month guests throughout 110 nations, IGN’s attain offers it an expansive temperature examine of what is trending. In its preliminary research, IGN’s management attracts just a few conclusions on what that knowledge reveals – a abstract of these key learnings is under.
Signing up to Gaming Trends is free. Watching the video, hosted by IGN’s SVP of publishing, John Davison, affords many more knowledge factors that knowledgeable the research than we have captured under, however right here are just a few highlights.
Cell gaming is king
The prominence of cell amongst youthful gamers most likely will not be an enormous shock to anybody studying this – 93% of Gen Alpha choose enjoying on cell, based on IGN’s segmentation research. However desire for cell is definitely rising for Millennials, too, with 32% calling it their most popular gadget.
The research additionally makes the assertion that Fortnite has been a key think about the Nintendo Change’s latest success, particularly as the sport hadn’t been obtainable on the App Retailer since August 2020 (that modified not too long ago, in fact, because of the Epic vs Apple fallout).
Davison says an estimated 81 million individuals have performed Fortnite on Change – a quantity that eclipses the gross sales of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at 68 million copies offered.
It is also why, regardless of the Change 2’s huge launch success, cell will stay a menace to Nintendo.
UGC development
Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) has resulted in nearly 200,000 video games being made by creators inside the Fortnite ecosystem. However this determine is dwarfed by the numbers in Roblox, which is residence to round 40 million user-made experiences.
Every day concurrent consumer numbers have grown in Roblox from 3.8 million in June 2022 to more than 25 million in June 2025. Over the identical interval, Fortnite has grown from 1.2 million to 1.77 million concurrents – with occasional blips, like when 15.3 million gamers logged on for the Marvel Galactus occasion.
On Roblox, Develop a Backyard has to date peaked at 21.3 million gamers, turning into the hottest sport of all time by concurrent consumer rely. For context, that is more individuals than the prime 100 Steam video games mixed.
Video games powering popular culture
A Minecraft Film has proved to be an infinite success, raking in $950 million at the field workplace at the identical time as driving participant curiosity in the sport. Month-to-month energetic consumer figures for Minecraft throughout PlayStation and Xbox reached a brand new excessive of 20 million because of this.
Equally, 5 Nights at Freddy’s turned Blumhouse’s highest grossing film ever in 2023, passing $297 million at the field workplace. A sequel is due in December this 12 months.
One key distinction between earlier makes an attempt at motion pictures and TV exhibits based mostly on common video video games and the ones being made now’s that the individuals in cost are devoted followers of the video games they’re adapting, or are even the authentic creators – as seen with Amazon’s Fallout TV present and the upcoming Elden Ring movie adaptation. Author and director Alex Garland says he has performed by way of Elden Ring seven instances.
Video games merchandise is now massive enterprise. Oracle knowledge confirmed that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was trending effectively with gamers again in January, and IGN secured rights for unique Expedition 33 merch because of this. In the finish, this merchandise offered 16% more throughout 60 days than did IGN’s common Fallout TV present merchandise, regardless that it was based mostly on a brand new IP.
Loyalty has modified
Millennials and Gen X are typically loyal to platforms or genres – now, the youthful generations are typically more loyal to particular experiences. They not establish as avid gamers – they establish as gamers of a selected sport.
Recreation communities now behave very similar to sports activities followers, and have a good time content material drops in video games like League of Legends very similar to the launch of fully new video games. And since the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a rebound in curiosity in eSports, led by one-on-one combating video games, which are the best for audiences to observe and perceive.
The upcoming 2D combating sport Marvel Tokon: Combating Souls proved to be a giant hit with IGN’s viewers when it was revealed this summer season, and the wi-fi PlayStation combating stick, Mission Defiant, garnered an infinite 6 million views on IGN social media.
Nostalgia and new IP
Each two years, IGN conducts a research into viewers attitudes in direction of older video games, and the findings have proven that folks are more and more wanting again. Now, 71% agree that they are feeling more and more nostalgic for franchises that have been round once they have been youngsters.
However there’s nonetheless room for brand spanking new IP to breakthrough, as proven by the success of video games like Cut up Fiction and Black Fantasy: Wukong – the latter peaking at 2.2 million concurrent gamers on Steam.
The place Winds Meet and Blood Message are prone to be the subsequent two massive hits from China on the foundation of Oracle knowledge, probably reaching the identical scale of success as Black Fantasy: Wukong.
Subscription providers are getting greater and greater, and outdated video games on these providers will at all times be new to somebody, identical to how the nineties sitcom Associates attracted an entire new era of followers when it got here to Netflix. Gen Z and Gen Alpha now anticipate each tune and TV present to be obtainable to them immediately, and they anticipate the identical for video video games.
IGN has discovered that nostalgia-based content material has been large on Humble, together with Tomb Raider, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, which have pushed massive will increase in subscriptions.
The most important upcoming video games
There have been 770 video games introduced in the 2025 summer season showcases, and the motion of GTA 6’s launch date into 2026 has meant video games have flooded into the September to November launch window that publishers have been beforehand making an attempt to keep away from.
A few of the new titles that drove the greatest visitors on IGN have been Resident Evil: Requiem, Metallic Gear Stable Delta, Silent Hill F, 007 First Light, Pragmata, Marvel Tokon: Combating Souls, Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 7, and Ghost of Yotei.
IGN Leisure guarantees there’s a lot more to return from Gaming Trends – its subsequent report will look again on the predictions above to see in the event that they have been really proper. So, popcorn at the prepared.
IGN Leisure is the father or mother firm of GamesIndustry.biz.