Sam Aune from Sensor Tower breaks down the State of Gaming 2026 - from Battlefield 6 proving premium is far from dead, to why free-to-play is getting harder to break into, and how social indie games are driving viral success. In this episode, we go deep on mobile’s slowdown, strategy games dominating revenue, and how Chinese publishers are out-executing the West across both midcore and casual.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Welcome and Report Setup
00:43 State of Gaming Goes Beyond Mobile
03:22 Trend One Battlefield Six Dominates
05:05 Premium vs Free to Play Reality Check
07:10 Hybrid Pricing and Live Ops Middle Ground
09:01 Battlefield Six Marketing Playbook
11:53 Indie Breakouts Repo and Peak
12:31 Why Social Games Go Viral
16:12 AAA Response and GTA Six Outlook
18:08 Mobile Market Maturity and Consolidation
20:37 Why Growth Stalls IDFA Saturation
23:34 Strategy Genre Wins Worldwide
26:41 Regional Genre Opportunities and New Hits
28:00 Free Fire US Surge
28:30 China Social Extraction
28:52 Why China Wins
31:47 Century Games Playbook
34:23 How West Competes
38:35 Indie Focus Advantage
43:21 Web Store Incentives
46:38 App Store Search Wars
49:46 SEO Naming Strategy
51:22 Report Wrap Up