World knowledge agency Sensor Tower has launched its State of Gaming 2026 report, which seems to be again on the online game trade in 2025 throughout a variety of metrics, together with the place publishers are spending their advertising and marketing cash and which publishers have probably the most downloaded portfolios. Final yr, Microsoft was the writer that spent probably the most on advertising and marketing for its PC and console video games, however it got here second by way of cross-platform sport downloads for its portfolio of titles, behind Digital Arts (EA) in first, whereas Take-Two got here in third.
A minimum of that is the way it shakes up once you’re not together with the cell trade. The variety of downloads throughout PC and console markets, knowledge which Sensor Tower pulls from Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, is, as you would possibly anticipate, far smaller than the size of what is taking place in cell. Should you embrace the cell downloads, it is Tencent that stands above the remainder.
The one motive the graph beneath exhibits Embracer Group on the prime is that the info used for the graph doesn’t embrace knowledge from Supercell or Miniclip.com. With out these numbers, Tencent sits in fifth place with its PC, console, and cell downloads mixed.
EA was the primary writer by way of PC and console sport downloads with 206M, adopted by Microsoft in second place with 148M and Take-Two in third with 92.8M. The remainder of the PC/Console prime 5 is rounded out by Ubisoft at 80.1M and Sony Interactive Leisure at 73.9M.
As for the place the remainder of the highest 5 PC and console publishers stand of their advert spend, Take-Two sits behind Microsoft in second, EA is in third, Epic Video games is in fourth, and Tencent is in fifth. Ubisoft, Nintendo, and Sony take the subsequent three spots, respectively, with the highest ten getting rounded out by Roblox and Wargaming.internet, in that order.
Even with Epic Video games coming in fourth for general advert spend, Fortnite takes the highest spot for probably the most cash spent on advertisements for a single sport. Battlefield 6, the one sport on the record from EA’s portfolio, and the best-selling sport of 2025, had the fourth largest advertising and marketing spend to take prime spot on the gross sales charts.
Microsoft, in the meantime, was spending most of its advert finances on Minecraft, although it additionally spent a good chunk of change on Name of Obligation: Black Ops 7. Curiously, 1047 Video games spent sufficient cash making an attempt to market Splitgate that it made the highest ten record for PC and console video games with probably the most advert spend in ninth place. The height concurrent participant rely on Steam for Splitgate: Enviornment Reloaded, the sport that started off as Splitgate 2 and gained its ‘Enviornment Reloaded’ subtitle following a relaunch, stays at just below 26K.
A transparent instance of how one can’t simply throw advertising and marketing cash at a sport to get it again on its toes, with its numbers extra recurrently sitting round and below 1K. Not that Steam is the entire image, after all.
With all of those portfolio downloads and advertising and marketing spend, the video games that truly saved gamers engaged by way of month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs), the highest 5 of that record is about what you’d anticipate, particularly contemplating the prime 5 most-played video games on PS and Xbox within the US alone for 2025 (and 2024). Counter-Strike is the one wrinkle, bumping Roblox out of the highest 5.
EA can also be the one writer to have greater than three video games in its portfolio on this record, between Battlefield 6, EA Sports activities FC 25, Apex Legends, and Skate. The following publishers up are Microsoft with Minecraft, Name of Obligation, and Forza Horizon 5 and Take-Two with Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K25, and Purple Useless Redemption 2. Epic Video games and Valve have two every, whereas each different sport is that writer’s sole inclusion.
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