Global gaming content revenue is expected to climb to nearly A$330 billion by the end of the decade, with publishers increasingly looking to squeeze more value from existing players rather than relying solely on audience growth.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan, global game content revenue is forecast to rise from A$294.4 billion in 2025 to A$329.9 billion in 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.3%.

S&P expects much of that growth to come from publishers expanding monetisation through live-service games, premium content, subscriptions and in-game purchases.

However, the industry still faces several headwinds. Rising console hardware prices, consumers dealing with inflation, increasing development costs and lengthy production cycles could all weigh on growth over the next few years.

Asia-Pacific is expected to remain the world’s largest gaming market, helped by its sizeable mobile gaming audience, established PC gaming ecosystem and improving broadband connectivity.

PC gaming is forecast to lead growth among the major traditional platforms. S&P expects PC content revenue to increase from A$60.85 billion in 2025 to A$70.90 billion in 2030, representing a CAGR of 3.1%.

The firm attributes that growth to digital distribution, greater cross-platform availability and particularly strong demand across Asia-Pacific.

Cloud gaming is expected to grow considerably faster, albeit from a much smaller base. Global cloud gaming revenue is forecast to jump from A$8.81 billion in 2025 to A$13.98 billion in 2030, a CAGR of 9.7%, as connectivity improves and subscription services become more widely adopted.

The outlook for consoles is more mixed. S&P expects the segment to benefit from major releases including Grand Theft Auto 6 and continued Nintendo Switch 2 sales, but Microsoft’s Xbox business faces greater pressure.

The research firm said the Xbox Series console line has “weakened sharply” and expects the PC market to increasingly cannibalise Xbox software revenue through 2030.

That prediction follows Microsoft’s latest financial results, which showed Xbox hardware revenue falling 29% year over year, while overall Xbox revenue declined by A$2.45 billion.

“Gaming remains a growth market, but the industry’s next phase will increasingly depend on generating greater value from existing players,” said Neil Barbour, an analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan.

“Publishers have demonstrated they can deepen monetisation across major platforms, though they continue to face challenges from higher development costs, rising prices and a more selective consumer.”