Key Gaming Industry Trends for 2025

As the gaming industry regains its stride post-pandemic, trends emerging in 2023 and 2024 will continue to reshape the landscape into 2025 and beyond. Staying ahead of key trends has never been more important. Understanding these shifts allows studios to adapt, innovate and stay in the game. It’s not enough to simply observe – actively engaging with these changes is essential to shaping the future of the industry. At Frima, our Business Intelligence team analyses market shifts and player behaviour to provide insights that guide our decisions and those of our partners on every project. Below, we explore five of the key trends that are currently redefining the gaming world.

1. Handheld Devices Renaissance

As the PC and console market is expected to grow at a slower rate than pre-pandemic levels until 2026 (Newzoo), and with the rise of cloud-based gaming platforms (Consegic), several new portable gaming devices are expected to be released in the near future. 

Tech giants Microsoft and Sony are both rumoured to be developing handheld devices in a bid to extend their gaming’s platform reach and capture some of Nintendo and Steam’s success in the category. Meanwhile, Nintendo is set to launch the Nintendo Switch 2 later this year (GameIndustry). Advanced technical skills are required to meet the specific requirements of portable devices, including touch screens, game controllers and portability.

2. Leveraging Established IPs

IPs remain central to the game industry, with studios preferring existing franchises to minimize risk in an unstable market. This is particularly true in the PC and console sectors, where both AA and AAA studios now rarely create new IPs, opting instead for familiar brands that ensure higher player engagement from the start (Newzoo). Popular IPs also have a significant advantage when it comes to advertising, tapping into the loyalty of long-time followers while diversifying the audience (Layer). We have seen this evolution first-hand through our many collaborations with renowned IPs over the past 20 years.

3. Shift to Hybrid-Casual Features on Mobile

In response to the rising costs of mid-core game development and the retention challenges of casual games, the mobile gaming industry is increasingly shifting towards hybrid-casual experiences. This shift goes both ways: while mid-core games are adopting more casual features, casual games are borrowing mechanics from mid-core to improve player retention.

Hybrid-casual games are expected to grow in popularity and dominate the market in 2025 and beyond, thanks to their ability to attract and engage high quality audiences. Because these games are great at holding players’ attention, they’re becoming a coveted tool for advertisers looking to create more effective ad campaigns. In the long run, this could reshape the way ads are presented in mobile games (Unity).

4. Emerging Markets

Although the Asia-Pacific market continues to dominate with 1.809 billion players, new markets are emerging. The Middle East and Africa region is now the second-largest market behind Asia-Pacific with 559 million players, or 16% of players worldwide (Newzoo). This represents more players than North America (244 million) and Europe (454 million) markets. Between 2023 and 2024, growth in the number of players in the Middle East and Africa was also the highest, at 8.2%. By comparison, the Asia-Pacific region grew by 4% (Newzoo). Currently estimated at USD 7.04 billion, the Middle East and Africa market is expected to continue its growth at a CAGR of 11.02% until 2030 (Mordor Intelligence). In contrast to Western markets where casual games are most popular, players in the Middle East and Africa prefer mid-core games (Sensor Tower).

5. The Rise of AI

AI is making waves in many industries, including the video game industry. It’s already being used by game developers, and it’s here to stay. With the pressure to bring games to market faster while staying within budget, studios need to find smarter ways to work. AI offers a powerful opportunity to optimize processes.  It can help enhance game ‘intelligence’, enable easier and less predictable gameplay experiences, and  improve overall efficiency in the face of rising development costs (Engati). 

To stay ahead, it’s in the studios’ benefit to learn how to integrate AI into their methodology sooner rather than later. AI technology has taken off very quickly and should be approached with diligence to prevent data quality and legal issues (GameIndustry). While AI can help, studios also need to understand its limitations and the challenges it poses, and use the technology responsibly.

Would you like to know more or discuss these exciting topics? Feel free to contact us to continue the conversation. Your perspective is valuable and helps enrich the collective reflection on these forward-looking themes.