Video Games Losing Attention War to Gambling, Porn, Crypto
▼ Summary
– A new industry report indicates the video game market is losing consumer attention and spending to competing sectors like gambling, crypto, and pornography.
– Post-pandemic, major gaming markets have seen a decline in player numbers, leading to a multi-billion dollar drop in PC and console spending.
– Despite overall declines, spending in five of the eight major markets is at an all-time high, with platforms like Roblox capturing a significant share of growth.
– The report attributes the shift to increased consumer time and money going to social video, AI apps, crypto, and various forms of online gambling and betting.
– Specifically, services like TikTok, OnlyFans, online sports betting, and iGaming are diverting substantial spending that was previously directed toward video games.
A new analysis reveals a significant shift in how consumers allocate their time and money, with the video game industry facing increased competition from a range of digital entertainment and speculative platforms. A comprehensive report from industry advisory firm Epyllion details a concerning trend: video games are losing ground in the battle for consumer attention to sectors like gambling, cryptocurrency, and adult content. This shift is impacting spending and engagement across major global markets.
The study focuses on eight key regions, the United States, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, and Italy, which historically represented over sixty percent of total video game expenditure. Data indicates a post-pandemic decline in the number of active players in nearly all these areas. For instance, the United States saw a drop of several percentage points in its gaming population, while a Canadian trade association found approximately one in six pre-pandemic players have since stopped.
This decrease in participation has naturally led to reduced spending. In the U.S., combined spending on PC and console games has fallen by about eight percent since the peak years of 2020 and 2021, a contraction equating to roughly $2.3 billion. While mobile gaming spending growth has slowed, it remains higher than 2020 levels and now surpasses console expenditure. Overall, console and PC spending across the eight major markets shrunk by $4.8 billion, with mobile down an additional $2.3 billion. Notably, this decline occurs even as five of these eight markets report record-high total entertainment spending, suggesting money is being redirected.
A substantial portion of this diverted spending is flowing toward platforms like Roblox, which the report credits for capturing a staggering sixty-seven percent of net growth in the broader interactive sector. The central question, then, is where the remaining attention and dollars are going. The analysis identifies several competing categories siphoning off engagement that might previously have gone to gaming.
Social video platforms, particularly TikTok, have seen explosive growth, with U.S. consumption up by 39 million hours per day compared to pre-COVID figures. The creator economy, including adult content platforms like OnlyFans, also commands significant resources; American consumers spent an estimated $5 billion on such services in 2025.
Cryptocurrency and memecoins represent another major draw, absorbing both speculative interest and capital. The report notes that while crypto’s first major boom coincided with the pandemic gaming surge, its second wave of mainstream popularity in 2025 unfolded as the game industry stagnated. Similarly, AI-powered applications designed for role-playing, creative art, and adult entertainment have surged, nearing one billion global installs according to the latest tracked data.
Perhaps most impactful is the rapid rise of various forms of online gambling. Prediction markets, where users bet on real-world events, saw users place 1.5 million bets daily in late 2025. Online sports betting has become normalized and legalized in many areas, with U.S. net losses skyrocketing to over $17 billion in 2025, a thirty-five-fold increase from 2019. Internationally, yearly net losses from sports betting hover around $53 billion.
The iGaming sector, which includes online casinos, is highlighted as a particularly direct competitor for gamer wallets. This category is growing at twice the rate of mobile casino games and accounts for twenty-one percent of all U.S. video game spending. Globally, legal iGaming sees losses of about $54 billion annually from players, a figure representing nearly half of all worldwide gaming expenditure.
The report concludes that the core issue is not a simple substitution, where someone watches a video instead of buying a game, but a broader redistribution of leisure resources. On a typical Friday evening, a growing share of potential players are dedicating their time and disposable income to these diverse and often immersive alternatives, fundamentally challenging the video game industry’s hold on digital entertainment.
(Source: EuroGamer)
