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Video Games Industry

$220 billion — bigger than movies and music combined, and still growing.

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About

The video game industry, with $220 billion in annual revenue, is larger than the global film ($100B) and music ($26B) industries combined. It began with Pong (1972, Atari), Space Invaders (1978), Pac-Man (1980), Donkey Kong (1981), and Super Mario Bros (1985) — games that created the industry's cultural foundation. The Atari VCS/2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Xbox each defined gaming eras. Modern gaming encompasses AAA console and PC games (Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, The Legend of Zelda); mobile gaming (Candy Crush, Pokémon GO, Genshin Impact — $100B/year); esports (Dota 2's The International prize pool exceeded $40M); live-service games (Fortnite has 350M accounts); and virtual reality. Minecraft (sold 238M copies) is the best-selling video game in history. Gaming's cultural influence now rivals film — Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Hidetaka Miyazaki (Dark Souls, Elden Ring) are considered auteurs.

# Top 10 video games

  1. 1Minecraft (238M copies)
  2. 2Tetris (500M+ mobile)
  3. 3Grand Theft Auto V (185M)
  4. 4Wii Sports (82M)
  5. 5Super Mario Bros (40M original)
  6. 6Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
  7. 7PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (75M)
  8. 8Elden Ring
  9. 9The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  10. 10Red Dead Redemption 2

Fascinating Facts

  • ◆Grand Theft Auto V has sold 185 million copies and generated $8 billion in revenue — making it one of the most profitable entertainment products in history
  • ◆Minecraft has sold 238 million copies — the best-selling video game in history — and is played by 140 million people monthly
  • ◆The Dota 2 International championship in 2021 had a prize pool of $40 million — entirely crowd-funded by player purchases, more than any tennis Grand Slam or golf major
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