Fastest Growing Gaming Sectors in 2023

The global gaming industry has enjoyed phenomenal and sustained growth for over 20 years. In fact, since 2004, it has come to represent the single largest media and entertainment market in the world today, far outstripping the annual revenues of its rival film and music industries.

In fact, the games industry is now thought to be valued at around $300 billion, which would make it over five times larger than any other media sector today. The reason behind this incredible growth is multifaceted. It ranges from the rise of the smartphone to the growth of esports and even includes the runaway success of new monetization models, such as in-game microtransactions.

Suffice to say, this has made the games industry a lucrative and attractive prospect for seasoned investors and budding traders alike. If you've been considering making your first trades, key sectors in the games industry emerge as solid choices to consider.

That said, those new to trading should avail themselves of the many helpful guides and resources available online curated to assist in those first tentative steps. Bear in mind, though, that nothing can quite prepare you for the fast-moving world of trading quite like first-hand experience. Fortunately, a number of leading brokers, such as Equiti, offer demo trading features that can help you learn the ropes by interacting with live markets and making trades using simulated funds.

The very nature of the stock market is such that there's no such thing as a risk-free commitment, though the following segments have enjoyed steady and consistent growth for decades, a trend that doesn't appear to show any sign of showing soon. With that said, let's take a look at the industry's leading growth areas today.

Triple-A Developers

While future-oriented analysts are keen to sound the death knell for classic triple-A gaming, there's no escaping the fact that major PC and console productions still retain cultural and economic leadership in the industry as of 2023. As such, publicly traded stocks closely affiliated with this sector continue to be a sound option.

Among the largest publishers and developers operating today, three are considered particularly stable. These are Electronic Arts (EA), the world's largest publisher; Ubisoft (UBI.PA) – the studio behind many of the biggest franchises in the world today, including Assassin's Creed; and Activision Blizzard (ATVI), whose popular series include Call of Duty and the esport Dota 2.

Mobile Gaming

The most significant growth area in the games industry today is that of mobile gaming. This is because smartphone penetration is so high globally (around 86% of the population) that the potential growth ceiling is enormous.

Over the next ten years, it is expected that a further one billion people from emerging markets will 'go online,' the majority of whom will do so via mobile devices.

Mobile gaming already accounts for approximately half of the industry's revenue – a feat it has achieved in less than a decade. This makes prominent mobile-focused public entities such as Zynga (ZNGA) and Tencent (TCEHY) among today's most reliable long-term investment options.

Esports

The 2020s have seen the arrival of the so-called esports boom – a surge in popularity and interest around the world of competitive video gaming competitions, titles, and platforms. While the market remains in an early stage, analysts predict its annual revenues will triple from $1 to $3 billion by the end of the decade.

Those wanting to invest in some of the world's biggest esports would do well to research the parent companies behind these titles. Riot Games, the developer behind League of Legends and Valorant, has been a subsidiary of Tencent (TCEHY) since 2011.

Elsewhere, Dota 2 and Overwatch are produced by Blizzard, part of (ATVI), though it bears noting that Activision-Blizzard is currently in the process of being acquired by Microsoft (MSFT). At present, the developer behind Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve Corporation, is privately owned.