Inflation, ads, and webstores reverse nearly every trend in gaming—and then reverse it again.
These aren’t rounding errors either—they’re GDP-level phenomena (literally), and the inability to account for them is warping our perception of reality in the gaming industry.
– Adjusting for inflation completely reverses the growth in mobile spending between 2020 and 2023, from +8% to -9%.
– Adjusting for inflation slashes Newzoo’s 2026 PC & Console forecast by 39%, from +15% to +9%.
– Ads revenue is likely a double-digit percentage of gaming revenue, and all we have to estimate is King’s quarterly earnings.
– Adjusting for webstores completely reverses the revenue decline in some midcore genres, casting cold water on the “move to the middle” thesis.
