The game subscription industry is set to surpass $27 billion (€24.3 billion) by 2028, with spending expected to reach $19 billion in 2024, marking a second year of strong growth after the pandemic’s impact in 2022.
Omdia’s forecast, covering 43 markets, segments subscriptions into three areas: games library services ($8 billion), single-game subscriptions ($7.4 billion), and platform access subscriptions ($3.7 billion). Paid game subscriptions are anticipated to grow from 168 million in 2024 to 203 million by 2028.
Sony and Microsoft are projected to dominate the games library services with a combined 82 million subscriptions in 2024. Cloud gaming is expected to earn $3.7 billion in 2024 and $5.8 billion by 2028, driven by hybrid services like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PlayStation Plus Premium, while cloud-only platforms like Amazon Luna+ are forecasted to capture just 3% of the revenue by 2028.