Asia & MENA Gaming Poised for 2026 Growth, Niko Predicts

Niko Partners’ 2026 forecast for Asia & MENA’s video-game market sees continued recovery and a move toward a $100B+ opportunity by 2029, with 1.7B gamers. Key trends include female players reaching over 40%, uneven mobile growth favoring Asia & MENA, a likely Nintendo Switch 2 price hike, more China game licenses, stronger child-safety regulations, growing adoption of genAI in development, a shift toward smaller M&A targets, live-service games adding UGC tools and revenue sharing, a move away from gachas, and evergreen IPs raising entry barriers for new titles.