- Reach Gaming Audiences With Effective Data Signals
- The Global Gaming Market Will Reach $213.9 Billion in 2026
- 3.7 Billion Players Does Not Mean One Gaming Audience
- September Opens a Busy Gaming Season
- October Brings Shooters and Major Entertainment Franchises
- GTA VI Could Become the Biggest Gaming Moment of 2026
- Gaming Spending Extends Far Beyond Games
- Player Interest Changes as Launch Day Gets Closer
- Turn Gaming Signals Into Actionable Audiences
- Build Gaming Audiences Around the Campaign, Not Just a Category
- Reach the Players Behind $213.9 Billion in Gaming Spend
- Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ
Gaming is one of the world’s largest entertainment categories. The global games market is expected to generate $213.9 billion in 2026, while the number of players worldwide is forecast to reach 3.7 billion. And some of the biggest releases of the year are still ahead.
September brought the launches of Marvel’s Wolverine and EA SPORTS FC 27, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled for October 23 and Grand Theft Auto VI for November 19. Together, these releases are creating several major moments for player attention and spending.
For advertisers, however, the opportunity is not simply to reach gamers. Different games attract different players, platforms and purchase behaviors, and understanding those differences can help brands reach audiences when interest starts moving from general entertainment toward research, consideration and purchase.
Reach GTA Fans and Gaming Audiences with Effective Data Signals
Reach Gaming Audiences With Effective Data Signals
Gaming has become mainstream entertainment, but the market is far from uniform. Newzoo expects the global games market to reach $213.9 billion in 2026, up 6.1% year over year. Mobile remains the largest part of the market at $121.1 billion, while console gaming is expected to generate $46.9 billion and PC gaming another $45.9 billion.
At the same time, the global gaming audience is expected to reach around 3.7 billion players. That gives advertisers enormous potential reach, but those billions of players do not behave in the same way.
A PC gamer upgrading a graphics card may look very different from a PlayStation player waiting for a new exclusive. A football gamer may follow different content and brands from an RPG player, while someone researching GTA VI may suddenly become relevant not only to a game publisher but also to electronics, accessories, broadband or entertainment brands.
The opportunity is therefore to understand more than whether someone simply “likes gaming.”
The Global Gaming Market Will Reach $213.9 Billion in 2026
Gaming continues to grow despite already being one of the largest entertainment industries in the world. Newzoo forecasts growth across all three major gaming environments in 2026, with mobile revenue expected to reach $121.1 billion, console $46.9 billion and PC $45.9 billion.
The differences between those platforms matter for advertisers. Mobile provides enormous scale, while PC gaming is closely connected with spending on hardware, displays and peripherals. Console ecosystems bring their own games, subscriptions, accessories and upgrade cycles.
The games players are waiting for can also reveal something about the devices and ecosystems they already use. Marvel’s Wolverine, for example, launches on PlayStation 5, while Gears of War: E-Day is closely connected with Xbox and PC. GTA VI initially launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
For advertisers, gaming interest can therefore provide more context than a broad demographic profile alone.
Turn Gaming Demand Into Measurable Performance
3.7 Billion Players Does Not Mean One Gaming Audience
The size of the gaming population makes broad targeting attractive, but it can also hide major differences. Newzoo estimates that –, equivalent to around 62% of the world’s online population.
Gaming also crosses age and gender groups much more widely than old stereotypes suggest. The more useful distinction for advertisers is often what people play, how they play and how engaged they are.
A competitive shooter player may care about low-latency displays, controllers and headsets, while a sports gamer may also follow football leagues, clubs and sports content. An RPG fan might spend months following trailers, previews and reviews before a major launch, while a casual mobile player may spend very little on hardware but regularly make in-game purchases.
That is why gaming campaigns can benefit from looking at genre interest, platform usage, content consumption, device ownership and recent shopping behavior together, rather than treating every player as part of the same broad audience.
The Biggest Games Still Coming in 2026
The final months of 2026 contain several major launches across very different genres. Rather than creating one gaming season, these releases are likely to produce a sequence of attention peaks throughout Q4.
| Game | Release | Genre / Opportunity |
| The Blood of Dawnwalker | September 3 | RPG / fantasy |
| Halloween: The Game | September 8 | Horror / multiplayer |
| Marvel’s Wolverine | September 15 | Action / superhero |
| CONTROL Resonant | September 24 | Action / sci-fi |
| EA SPORTS FC 27 | September 25 | Sports / football |
| Gears of War: E-Day | October 6 | Shooter / Xbox |
| Star Wars: Galactic Racer | October 6 | Racing / entertainment IP |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 | October 23 | Shooter / multiplayer |
| Phantom Blade Zero | October 29 | Action RPG |
| Grand Theft Auto VI | November 19 | Open-world / mainstream gaming |
| DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Withered World | December 3 | RPG / Nintendo |
Each launch brings a slightly different audience into the market. That makes the final part of 2026 particularly interesting for advertisers, because attention will move between sports, shooters, action games, RPGs, horror and some of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world.
September Opens a Busy Gaming Season
September already shows how varied gaming demand can be. The Blood of Dawnwalker, launching September 3, targets players interested in dark fantasy and action RPGs, while Halloween: The Game, arriving September 8, brings together horror, multiplayer and survival gameplay at exactly the time when wider seasonal interest in Halloween starts to rise.
Then comes one of PlayStation’s biggest releases of the year. Marvel’s Wolverine launches on PlayStation 5 on September 15, combining a major gaming release with one of the most recognizable superhero properties in entertainment.
That crossover is particularly interesting for advertisers. Gaming IP increasingly sits alongside movies, streaming, merchandise and wider entertainment culture, which means interest in a title does not always start with traditional gaming behavior. Someone following Marvel content, for example, may become highly relevant to a Wolverine-related campaign without being a heavy gamer.
Later in the month, CONTROL Resonant arrives on September 24, followed by EA SPORTS FC 27 on September 25. FC is another good example of gaming moving beyond traditional gaming audiences because its players often overlap strongly with football fans, sports viewers and consumers already highly engaged with clubs, leagues and players.
The game someone follows can therefore provide clues about much broader interests.
October Brings Shooters and Major Entertainment Franchises
October becomes even more competitive. Gears of War: E-Day launches October 6, bringing one of Xbox’s best-known franchises back to players, while Star Wars: Galactic Racer arrives on the same day.
The two releases illustrate how different gaming audiences can be. Gears is closely tied to Xbox, PC and shooter audiences, whereas Star Wars can reach well beyond gaming into one of the world’s largest entertainment franchises.
Later in the month, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23. Major multiplayer releases such as Call of Duty can influence more than game sales because competitive players may also research new headsets, controllers, monitors, PC hardware or connectivity around launch periods.
That makes a large gaming release relevant to a much wider group of advertisers than publishers alone. Phantom Blade Zero, arriving October 29, then closes the month with another major action release aimed particularly at PlayStation and action-RPG audiences.
GTA VI Could Become the Biggest Gaming Moment of 2026
November brings the release that has dominated gaming conversations for years. Grand Theft Auto VI launches November 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
The scale of consumer interest is already unusual. Circana says GTA VI has generated the highest purchase intent it has ever recorded in its tracking history, while Newzoo estimates that the game generated approximately $180 million in digital pre-orders during its first week across the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Newzoo also expects GTA VI to help push full-game console spending up 17.5% in 2026. That is what makes the release particularly interesting for advertisers: the opportunity extends well beyond sales of the game itself.
Players preparing for launch may research consoles, storage, TVs, monitors, headsets, controllers or gaming subscriptions. Some may even decide to upgrade their hardware specifically to play the game.
In that sense, GTA VI becomes more than a software launch. It becomes a much wider gaming, entertainment and consumer electronics moment.
Reach Players Around the Biggest Gaming Moments
Gaming Spending Extends Far Beyond Games
U.S. consumers are expected to spend $62.8 billion on video game content, hardware and accessories in 2026, according to Circana. This distinction is important because the economic value of gaming does not stop when someone buys a title.
Gaming creates demand around consoles, PCs, TVs, monitors, audio equipment, controllers, storage, gaming subscriptions, broadband and complete gaming setups. Major releases can accelerate some of those purchases by giving consumers a new reason to upgrade equipment they may have owned for several years.
Someone waiting for GTA VI may finally decide to buy a newer console or television. A Call of Duty player may invest in a new headset or monitor, while an enthusiastic PC gamer may upgrade hardware before a technically demanding release.
This makes gaming behavior useful well beyond traditional game advertising. Consumer electronics, telecom, ecommerce, entertainment and retail brands can all find relevant moments around major gaming launches.
Player Interest Changes as Launch Day Gets Closer
Timing matters too. Gaming interest can begin months or even years before a game actually reaches the market, and the meaning of that interest changes considerably as launch day gets closer.
Early signals may consist of someone watching trailers, reading announcements or following gaming news. Closer to release, that same person may start checking prices, comparing editions, reading reviews, researching hardware requirements or looking for pre-order bonuses.
After launch, behavior changes again as players search for guides, multiplayer content, additional equipment, DLC or related games. The same consumer can therefore move through several very different stages of intent around a single release.
For advertisers, this makes recency and frequency particularly important. Someone who researched a game yesterday may represent a much stronger commercial opportunity than someone who casually read about the title six months ago.
Turn Gaming Signals Into Actionable Audiences
A gaming campaign does not always need dozens of narrowly defined audience segments. Often, the bigger opportunity is to identify a few signals that make the audience meaningfully more relevant.
Advertisers may want to distinguish console players from PC gamers, sports gaming fans from shooter players, or people simply consuming gaming content from consumers actively researching new hardware.
| Audience | Potential Use |
| Console Gamers | Games, subscriptions and accessories |
| PC Gamers | Games, hardware and peripherals |
| Sports Gaming Fans | Sports titles and related sports campaigns |
| Shooter Fans | Multiplayer games and gaming equipment |
| RPG & Open-World Fans | Premium game releases |
| Gaming Content Viewers | Launches, streaming and entertainment |
| Console Upgrade Shoppers | Hardware and bundles |
| Gaming Accessory Shoppers | Headsets, controllers and storage |
| High-Intent Electronics Shoppers | TVs, monitors and premium setups |
Sometimes even those categories can still be too broad. A campaign around GTA VI, for example, may benefit from combining open-world gaming interest with console ownership and recent electronics shopping behavior, while a football gaming campaign may combine sports interest with gaming activity.
A hardware brand may care less about which individual game someone plays and more about whether that person is currently researching a new setup. The most useful audience therefore depends on the actual campaign objective.
Build Gaming Audiences Around the Campaign, Not Just a Category
OnAudience helps advertisers move beyond generic Gamers targeting by using signals connected with gaming interests, platform usage, shopping behavior and current intent.
When an off-the-shelf audience is not specific enough, advertisers can also use AI-modelled Custom Audiences built from a campaign brief. Instead of manually searching through many individual segments, the campaign brief can describe the type of player or consumer the advertiser actually wants to reach.
For example, a retailer preparing for the GTA VI launch may want to reach console gamers interested in open-world games who are also considering a hardware upgrade. A sports campaign may instead focus on football fans who regularly engage with gaming content.
The goal is not to create the narrowest possible audience. It is to combine signals that make the audience more relevant to what the campaign is trying to achieve.
Build Your Gaming Audience With AI
Reach the Players Behind $213.9 Billion in Gaming Spend
Gaming will generate an estimated $213.9 billion globally in 2026, with around 3.7 billion people expected to play games worldwide. U.S. consumers alone are forecast to spend $62.8 billion across gaming content, hardware and accessories, and some of the year’s largest launches are still ahead.
But those numbers do not represent one type of gamer. Players use different platforms, follow different franchises, spend at different levels and show very different behaviors as a game moves from announcement to launch.
For advertisers, understanding those differences can make gaming audiences much more useful. OnAudience helps agencies, brands and advertisers reach players using data signals connected with gaming interests, devices, content consumption and purchasing behavior, making it easier to align audience targeting with the game, product and campaign objective.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQ
How big is the global gaming market in 2026?
Newzoo expects the global games market to generate approximately $213.9 billion in 2026, up 6.1% year over year.
How many gamers are there worldwide?
The global gaming population is expected to reach approximately 3.7 billion people in 2026.
What are the biggest game releases still coming in 2026?
Major releases include Marvel’s Wolverine, EA SPORTS FC 27, Gears of War: E-Day, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Phantom Blade Zero and Grand Theft Auto VI, alongside several other major RPG, horror and entertainment-franchise releases.
When does GTA VI launch?
Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for November 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Why are major game launches relevant for advertisers outside gaming?
Large releases can also increase interest in consoles, TVs, monitors, accessories, subscriptions, broadband and other products connected with the gaming experience. This means major gaming moments can also create opportunities for consumer electronics, retail, telecom and entertainment advertisers.
How can advertisers reach gamers more precisely?
Instead of relying only on a broad gaming category, advertisers can combine signals such as game genre interest, platform usage, content consumption, device ownership and recent shopping behavior.
Why does timing matter in gaming advertising?
Player behavior changes as launch day approaches. Someone watching an announcement months before release may show very different intent from someone comparing editions, checking prices or researching hardware immediately before launch.
What are the main gaming advertising trends in 2026?
Key trends include continued market growth, major premium game launches, expanding gaming audiences, stronger links between gaming and consumer electronics, and increased use of behavioral and intent signals to make audience targeting more relevant.
Reach Players Around the Biggest Gaming Moments
