General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20267 min read

Game

A game is typically defined as a goal-oriented, rules-based activity closely associated with play, and a digital game is an interactive electronic work in which a player uses an interface or input device to generate visual feedback, most commonly played on an arcade machine, console, personal computer, or mobile device, on virtual or augmented reality systems, or remotely through the cloud.¹^•²² Games are a central part of the entertainment economy: an estimated 3.6 billion people worldwide play in some form,² and global industry revenue passed $200 billion in 2025.³

Key fact	Detail
Definition	Interaction with a user interface or input device to generate visual feedback; platforms include arcade, console, PC, mobile, VR/AR, and cloud¹
First home console	Magnavox Odyssey, released September 1972, sold 130,000 units in its first year⁴^•⁵
Breakout hit	Pong (1972), the first game to grab wide-scale public attention, launched Atari and the arcade era⁶
Global market	$201.6 billion in 2025, up 9.1% year over year, crossing $200 billion for the first time³
US market	$60.7 billion in consumer spending in 2025, up 1.4% from $59.9 billion in 2024⁷
Dominant platform	Mobile; 82% of US players age 8 and older play on a mobile device, and mobile games represent more than half of the global market⁷^•⁸
Concentration	The top five firms earned half of all global revenue in 2023⁹

Definition and forms

Video games span a wide range of hardware and purposes. Beyond entertainment, appropriately designed games may provide educational value, and some may have mental health benefits or be used during therapy.¹ Games designed primarily for education, training, or behavioral change rather than entertainment alone are called serious games; in health sciences education they typically combine explicit learning objectives, clinical scenarios, interactive decision-making, feedback mechanisms, and scoring or progression systems.¹⁰

Early history

Electronic games predate the commercial industry. In the 1950s, Ferranti designed the Nimrod computer to demonstrate the game of Nim during the Festival of Britain, and Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney later created Computer Space, an arcade version of Spacewar!; Ralph Baer licensed his home games console patent to Magnavox, which released the Magnavox Odyssey.¹¹

Pong and the arcade era. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell conceived a video version of ping-pong in 1972 and assigned engineer Allan Alcorn to build it. Alcorn's coin-operated prototype, tested in a neighborhood bar, filled its coin box to overflowing, and Atari soon had tens of thousands of copies in restaurants and bars. Although it was not the first electronic game, and the Magnavox Odyssey already featured a similar tennis game, Pong was the first game to grab wide-scale public attention.⁶ In 1975 Atari used the Sears Catalog to introduce Home Pong, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies as a hot Christmas gift and turned the television from a passive medium into an interactive plaything.⁶

The home console. The Magnavox Odyssey, released in September 1972, is described as the world's first home game console.⁵ It sold 130,000 units in its first year and earned its inventor Ralph Baer the nickname "father of video games"; Baer donated his prototypes, production models, notes, and schematics to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2006.⁴^•¹²

Platforms and delivery

Games reach players through several delivery models. Mobile is the dominant platform: smartphones remain the leading device, and mobile games still represent more than half of the global market, although growth in the segment has slowed as it matures, with rising momentum in console ecosystems, PC subscription models, and cloud gaming services.⁸ In the United States, 82% of players age 8 and older use a mobile device to play.⁷

Cloud gaming streams games over the internet to hardware the player already owns, removing the need for a console or gaming PC. Pure-play services such as Nvidia's GeForce Now offer a console-level experience on almost any equipment with no downloads, while multigame subscriptions such as PlayStation Plus Extra offer a range of downloadable games for a single monthly payment.¹³ Market estimates differ: BCG projects global cloud gaming revenues growing from around $1.4 billion in 2025 to roughly $18.3 billion in 2030,¹³ while GlobalData values the market at $5.7 billion in 2025, reaching $14.6 billion by 2030.¹⁴ TV makers have begun treating cloud gaming as a premium capability; LG's OLED Evo range was the first to offer 4K 120Hz cloud gaming via GeForce Now, and an Xbox app on LG TVs streams Xbox Cloud Gaming through Game Pass Ultimate.¹⁵

Industry and monetization

The industry's scale has grown quickly. Global games revenue closed 2025 at $201.6 billion, up 9.1% year over year and crossing the $200 billion threshold for the first time, with PC leading growth at $43.6 billion, up 12.0%.³ In the United States, consumer spending totaled $60.7 billion in 2025, up 1.4% from $59.9 billion in 2024, spanning full-game purchases, downloadable content and microtransactions, subscriptions across console, cloud, mobile, portable, PC, and VR platforms, and hardware and accessories.⁷

Concentration and business models. The global sector remains highly concentrated, with the top five firms earning half of all revenue in 2023, and business models have shifted toward microtransactions and subscriptions to capture a greater share of market revenue.⁹ Analysts expect the AAA business model to face continued pressure, with top-tier developers investing further in brand, franchise, intellectual property, platform curation, subscription, and windowing strategies.¹⁶ Multigame cloud subscriptions are expected to shift developer focus from units shipped to hours played, rewarding the stickiest games.¹⁶

Psychology, health, and serious games

Mental health professionals have raised concerns that video games may be addictive. In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association placed "internet gaming disorder" in the DSM-5's research appendix, describing it as ongoing and repeated engagement in games over the internet, frequently alongside other players, that causes clinically significant impairment or distress; in 2018, the World Health Organization included gaming disorder in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).¹⁷ The classification remains debated among psychologists, and researchers note signs of a higher proportion of spontaneous recovery or normalization of gaming after a problematic period than in other addictive disorders.¹⁷

On the beneficial side, an umbrella review of serious games in health professions education found that serious games, particularly digital serious games, significantly enhance student knowledge, procedural skills, cognitive skills, and confidence, with the strongest evidence in nursing education, and recommends integrating them into blended learning alongside traditional clinical training.¹⁸

Regulation

Regulators have focused on random-reward monetization and player protection. In the United Kingdom, the government's response to its loot box call for evidence took the view that existing consumer and data protection legislation provides a strong foundation for mitigating risks of harm from loot boxes for children, young people, and adults, while calling for better evidence and improved data access to inform future policy.¹⁹ In Singapore, prizes from loot boxes in online games must be designed primarily for use within the game.²⁰ A European Parliament initiative calls for a high level of protection for minors who play video games, including prohibiting loot boxes, wheels of fortune, random prize wheels, and card games exchanged for real money in games likely to be accessible to minors, alongside measures on in-app currencies, microtransactions, and "pay to progress" and "pay to win" mechanisms.²¹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Video games and digital play

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026

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