In the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

, 2020 saw the launch of the next generation of video game consoles, with both

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

having released the

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

and

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

consoles, respectively, in November 2020. The industry was heavily affected by the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

which had begun in March and was characterized by

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

and

remote work Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of work (human activity), working at or from one's home or Third place, another space rather than from ...

. While this caused numerous delays in software and hardware releases and the cancellation of live conferences and events in favor of virtual shows, it also created a boom for the industry as people turned to gaming as a means to pass the time. The industry also reacted to various political/cultural events.

Mobile gaming A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to handheld game conso ...

continued its growth as a major platform for video gaming; as part of this,

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

initiated the Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit over

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

store revenue cut policies. Major planned acquisitions included

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

' acquisition of ZeniMax Media and its subsidiaries, and

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

outbidding

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns three major Imprint (trade name), publishing labels, Rockstar Games, Zynga and 2K ...

for Codemasters.

Top-rated games

Major awards

Critically acclaimed games

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities.

Financial performance

The global market for video games based on 2020 revenues was estimated to exceed according to the International Data Corporation; the growth of 20% over 2019 revenues is attributes to the surge in spending in video games from the COVID-19 pandemic along with the releases of the new consoles. SuperData Research estimated the global video game market grew by 12% in 2020 to a total in revenues. Mobile games accounted for over or 58% of the market, with computer games at and console games at . Virtual and augmented reality had about , while video gaming content such as online streamers generated an additional .Alt URL
Newzoo estimated the global market for video games in 2020 was , a 23.1% increase from 2019, buoyed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Newzoo anticipated that the 2021 market will see a small decline as the world recovers from COVID-19 and spending on video games slows down, but otherwise the industry would remain on track to break in revenue by 2023. According to

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

, while the overall global entertainment and media market dropped by 3.8% during 2020, the video game market grew by 10% over the year, due to the use of video games to help with social distancing during COVID-19 lockdowns.

Largest markets

According to market research firm Newzoo, the following countries were the largest video game markets in 2020.

Highest-grossing games

The following are the top ten highest-grossing video games of 2020. Each of the top ten titles grossed more than , while the top four grossed more than each. The majority of the top ten titles are published by Asian companies, including three from Chinese conglomerate

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

which holds the top two spots.

Highest-grossing free-to-play games

The following titles were the top ten highest-grossing free-to-play games in 2020. Three of the top ten free-to-play titles are published by Tencent, which holds the top two spots. '' Fortnite'' grossed more than in 2020, but less than . It fell out of the top ten, dropping from its top spot in 2019.

Best-selling premium games

The following titles were the best-selling premium games (including buy-to-play titles) in 2020. Three of the top ten best-selling titles are published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

, including the year's top-selling game.

Best-selling games by region

The following were 2020's top ten best-selling video games by region (excluding microtransactions and free-to-play titles) on PC and

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

platforms, for Australia, Japan, Europe, and the United States.

Major events

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic

The highly contagious

coronavirus disease 2019 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include f ...

, first observed in China in December 2019, began a major outbreak across the world in January 2020, which is ongoing as of November 2021. Within China, steps to prevent spread of the disease came around such as large-scale quarantine of affected populations which have impacted production within the country. This has had a large number of impacts on social, medical, and economic systems worldwide. The video game industry has been impacted by the outbreak in various ways, most often due to concerns over travel to and from China or elsewhere, or related to slowdowns in manufacturing processes within China. Numerous games have been delayed due to the

, and most industry events were cancelled or reformated into virtual showcases. The video game industry in general was boosted by the pandemic, since people under pandemic lockdowns were forced to stay home, with video games becoming a popular pastime. Total spending in video games grew to in the United States during the first nine months of 2020 compared to for the same period in 2019. Easy-to-learn games with little to no narrative and large audience enjoyment potential, including '' Fall Guys'', '' Among Us'', and the '' Jackbox Party Packs'', saw great increases in popularity during the pandemic as a means to avoid the "cultural trauma" of the situation.

Reactions to the George Floyd protests

In the wake of the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

and resurgence of support for the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

(BLM) movement across several entertainment sectors in June 2020, the video game industry also responded. Most large publishers and developers shared their support of the protests and BLM as with other larger entertainment companies. A number of video game announcement events had been planned on the week of June 6 and onward as a virtual replacement for E3 2020 (cancelled from the COVID-19 pandemic), but most of these were shifted by a week or more to allow the voices of the protests to have the necessary focus. Many companies announced plans to donate funds towards black-oriented organizations, including

2K Games 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. The company was founded as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports sub-labels. The nascent label incorporated several developme ...

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher, and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on to develop ...

and

Humble Bundle Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and ...

committing to such foundations, while others like

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

and The Pokémon Company also committed to significant donations. Itch.io raised over for black charities through sales of a game bundle with games from over 1,300 developers. Electronic Arts and

Infinity Ward Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game '' Call of Duty'', along with seven other installments in the ''Call of Duty'' series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity W ...

pledged to combat racism that they were aware had persisted by users in their games in light of the events.

Sexual misconduct accusations

In late June and early July, as a continuation of prior #MeToo movement effects on the industry from 2017, several people started speaking out of specific accounts of sexual misconduct and harassment towards others in the industry. Initial complaints had been directed towards Twitch streamers but soon had reached major companies including

Insomniac Games Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Burbank, California, and part of PlayStation Studios. It was founded in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software, and was renamed Insomniac Games a year later. The company is most ...

, and

, with most studios taking actions to deal with the accused and instituting better policies to handle internal and external issued related to sexual misconduct. In particular, charges were made toward the CEO of

Evolution Championship Series The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as Evo, is an American annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournaments are completely Open (sport), open and use the Double-elimination tournament, double elimina ...

(EVO), Joey Cuellar, who was subsequently let go. Multiple publishers that had backed the event had pulled out on this news, and the EVO event, which had already been reworked as an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was subsequently cancelled. A large number of cases were found through

's executive-level staff, leading to a number of high-level departures and major internal review of how the company handled such complaints in the future.

Notable deaths

* January 26 –

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he List of NBA players who have spent their entire career with one franchise, spent his entire 20-year career with t ...

, 41, basketball player who appeared in every '' NBA 2K'' game since '' NBA 2K9'' (cover star of '' NBA 2K10'', '' NBA 2K17'', '' NBA 2K21'' and '' NBA 2K24'') * February 25 – Kazuhisa Hashimoto, 61, video game developer * April 8 –

Rick May Richard James May (September 21, 1940 – April 5, 2020) was a Canadian-American actor, theatrical performer, director, and teacher. May provided the English-language voice for Peppy Hare and Andross in '' Star Fox 64'', the Soldier in '' Team F ...

, 79, voice actor best known for the voice of Soldier in ''

Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' (''TF2'') is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation in 2007. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video g ...

''. * April 11 – Paul Haddad, 56, voice actor best known for the original voice of Leon Kennedy in the 1998 ''

Resident Evil ''Resident Evil'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...

'' video game sequel '' Resident Evil 2''. * May 17 – Shad Gaspard, 39, pro wrestler who appeared in the WWE '' SmackDown vs. Raw'' games and provided motion capture for ''

God of War A war god in mythology associated with war, combat, or bloodshed. They occur commonly in polytheism, polytheistic religions. Unlike most gods and goddesses in polytheistic religions, monotheistic deities have traditionally been portrayed in their ...

''. * July 2 – Reckful, 31, Twitch streamer and

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

player. * July 25 –

Regis Philbin Regis Francis Xavier Philbin ( ; August 25, 1931 – July 25, 2020)Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine was an American television presenter, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest-working man in show business", he held th ...

, 88, TV host who appeared in 1999's ''

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (WWTBAM) is an international television game show franchise of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (British game show), British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, cu ...

'' and other video games based on the series. * August 31 – Norm Spencer, 62, actor best known for portraying

Cyclops In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; , ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguished. In Hesiod's ''Th ...

in the ''

Marvel vs. Capcom is a series of Crossover (fiction), crossover fighting games developed and published by Capcom, featuring characters from their video game franchises and comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series originated as coin-operated arca ...

'' games. * November 8 – Alex Trebek, 80, TV game show host who appeared in the ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'' games. * November 18 –

Kirby Morrow Kirby Morrow (August 28, 1973 – November 18, 2020) was a Canadian actor, comedian and writer. In animation, he was known as the voice of Miroku from '' InuYasha'', its four movies, and '' Inuyasha: The Final Act'', Van Fanel from the Ocean ...

, 47, voice actor (''

Gundam is a Japanese military science fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ...

'', '' Inuyasha'', '' Ninjago''). * December 26 – Brodie Lee, 41, pro wrestler ('' WWE 2K'', '' AEW Fight Forever'').

Hardware releases

Black_and_white_Playstation_5_base_edition_with_controller

The list of game-related hardware released in 2020. Major hardware discontinuations in 2020 include the

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

X and Xbox One S All-Digital versions, which were discontinued on July 16. The

Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

family was discontinued on September 17.

Game releases

Series with new entries

Series with new installments include ''

Animal Crossing is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo. It was created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. The player character is a human who lives in a village inhabited by various anthropomorphic animals and can ...

'', ''

Assassin's Creed ''Assassin's Creed'' is a historical fiction, historical action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil (game engine), Anvil and its m ...

'', '' Bloodstained'', ''

Bomberman is a video game Media franchise, franchise created by Shinichi Nakamoto and Shigeki Fujiwara, originally developed by Hudson Soft and currently owned by Konami. The Bomberman (1983 video game), original game, also known as ''Bakudan Otoko'' (� ...

'', ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-of ...

'', '' Cook, Serve, Delicious!'', '' Cookie Run'', '' Crash Bandicoot'', ''

Danganronpa is a Japanese video game franchise created by Kazutaka Kodaka and developed and owned by Spike Chunsoft (formerly Spike). The series primarily surrounds various groups of apparent high-school students who are forced into murdering each oth ...

'', '' Deadly Premonition'', ''

Dirt Dirt is any matter considered unclean, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debris: scattered pieces of waste or remains * Du ...

'', '' Doom'', ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was Serial (literature), serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 indi ...

'', ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a series of role-playing video games created by Japanese game designer Yuji Horii (Armor Project), character designer Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio), and composer Koi ...

'', ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...

'', '' Granblue Fantasy'', ''

Half-Life Half-life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay. Half-life, half life or halflife may also refer to: Film * Half-Life (film), ''Half-Life'' (film), a 2008 independent film by Jennifer Phang * ''Half Life: ...

'', '' Kingdom Hearts'', '' Kirby'', '' The Last of Us'', ''

The Legend of Zelda is a media franchise, video game series created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flags ...

'', ''

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

'', ''

Mana Mana may refer to: Religion and mythology * Mana (Oceanian cultures), the spiritual life force energy or healing power that permeates the universe in Melanesian and Polynesian mythology * Mana (food), archaic name for manna, an edible substance m ...

'', ''

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

'', ''

Megami Tensei ''Megami Tensei'', marketed internationally as ''Shin Megami Tensei'' (formerly ''Revelations''), is a Japanese media franchise created by Aya Nishitani, Kouji Okada, Kouji "Cozy" Okada, Ginichiro Suzuki, and Kazunari Suzuki. Primarily developed ...

'', ''

Microsoft Flight Simulator ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' is a series of Flight simulation video game, flight simulator programs for MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and diff ...

'', ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...

'', '' MLB: The Show'', '' Mystery Dungeon'', '' Nioh'', '' Oddworld'', ''

One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he explores the Grand Line in search of the myt ...

'', '' Ori'', ''

Paper Mario ''Paper Mario'' is a video game series and part of the ''Mario'' franchise, developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. It combines elements from the role-playing, action-adventure, and puzzle genres. Players control a ...

'', ''

Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

'', '' Project CARS'', ''

'', '' Rune Factory'', ''

Serious Sam ''Serious Sam'' is a video game series created and primarily developed by Croteam. It consists predominantly of first-person shooters. The series follows the advances of Sam "Serious" Stone against Mental, an extraterrestrial overlord who att ...

'', '' Shantae'', '' Spelunky'', ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

'', ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'', '' Streets of Rage'', ''

Super Mario (also known as and is a platform game series created by Nintendo starring their mascot, Mario. It is the central series of the greater Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise. At least one ''Super Mario'' game has been released for every ma ...

'', '' Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six'', '' Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'', ''

Total War Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all (including civilian-associated) resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilises all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare ov ...

'', '' Trails'', '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Wasteland'', '' Watch Dogs'', ''

Windjammers A windjammer is a commercial sailing ship with multiple masts, however rigged. The informal term "windjammer" arose during the transition from the Age of Sail to the Steam-powered vessel, Age of Steam during the 19th century. The Oxford English ...

'', ''

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...

Top-rated games

Major awards

Critically acclaimed games

Financial performance

Largest markets

Highest-grossing games

Highest-grossing free-to-play games

Best-selling premium games

Best-selling games by region

Major events

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic

Reactions to the George Floyd protests

Sexual misconduct accusations

Notable deaths

Hardware releases

Game releases

Series with new entries

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Video game-based film and television releases

See also

Notes

References