This is an excerpt from a longer deep dive. Click here to read the whole piece.

We’ve long compared user-generated content (UGC) gaming to a snowball rolling down a mountain. Every year, as leading platform network effects expand, the snowball grows steadily larger. And every year, as UGC drives a larger percentage of industry-wide growth, the industry pays closer attention. 

This compounding effect continued over 2025. Across the top three ecosystems we measured (Roblox, Fortnite, and Overwolf), developer payouts were ~$2.2B in 2025, a +47% increase over 2024.

In this report, we cover all notable corners of the UGC games industry. Some highlights include:

• 2025 was another inflection point for Roblox. Games like Grow A Garden and Steal A Brainrot became the most played games in gaming history (measured by CCU). They also accelerated Roblox’s overall growth. DAUs and Bookings jumped 52% and 55% YoY, respectively – and Roblox now accounts for 3.4% of global gaming revenues. In network effect-driven industries, the winners tend to keep on winning. Roblox’s next couple of years may not replicate the explosive growth seen in 2025, but its growing advantages – from its social fabric and creator community to the billions it will spend collectively on R&D and CapEx – will keep on getting stronger.
• In contrast, Fortnite Creative is showing signs of maturity. The number of active creators has slightly fallen since 2024, although the number of maps published has more than doubled. Creator-made experiences have gained slight platform share (~40% today), and the platform is modestly expanding in genre diversity, but growth in engagement-based payouts has decelerated (up only an estimated +5% YoY). While creators must compete against Epic’s first-party games, Epic has been rolling out developer improvements and new ways to monetize (such as in-island transactions). Time will tell whether Fortnite can unlock new platform-wide growth and continue loosening constraints that currently hold back creators.
• Greater scale has brought heightened global scrutiny. As Roblox cements itself as a childhood staple, regulators worldwide are increasing pressure to ensure its child safety standards meet rising expectations. At the same time, brands are becoming more sophisticated — applying lessons from creator partnerships to refine how they show up and engage on the platform.
• Modding’s renaissance continues unabated. Leaders like CurseForge by Overwolf and Mod.io grew mod downloads 38% (to 33B) and 56% (to 920M), respectively. Overwolf’s payouts to developers ($300M, +25% YoY) are now nearly as high as Fortnite’s. This is all driven by underlying innovations in new business models (like premium mods), cross-play support, further embedding into games, and more robust ecosystems built around creators. Games like Minecraft remain tentpoles for mods and private servers, but popular games like Hogwarts Legacy, Palworld, and Monster Hunter Wilds are also seeing benefits in extending their longevity. 
• Many smaller companies have struggled due to the nature of network effects and the heavy technical investments required to compete. Beyond the largest platforms and ecosystems, there remains a long-tail of other UGC gaming efforts. However, no Web3-native UGC platform has achieved meaningful scale, and most mobile social/party UGC-driven games that showed promise in the past have all regressed. There are still opportunities, especially leveraging emerging technologies, but it’s become a tougher market to fundraise in.

Just like in last year’s report (and the year before that), we’ll break down all the details and data for you. As you read, keep in mind that UGC isn’t monolithic; each top platform is different from the others. Also, different aspects of UGC either disrupt the status quo (Roblox aggregating the next generation of gamers) or extend it (mods fortifying already successful games). However you slice it, UGC gaming is not slowing down.

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In Other News

💸 Funding & Acquisitions:

• British Business Bank and Haatch pledge £32M to UK angel investment syndicates.
• US-based connected fitness company Interactive Strength has signed a definitive agreement to acquire US-based game-based connected fitness company Ergatta for up to $19.5M.
• AI-powered storytelling platform Giant has raised $8M to scale and expand its interactive offerings for children.
• AI Productivity Platform Quill launches sovereign ‘chief of staff agent’ and raises $6.5M.
• Blockchain infrastructure Power Protocol has raised $3M to expand its offerings and support the development of its flagship title Fableborne. 
• UK-based Clear Angle Studios has acquired the technology and IP of facial imaging specialist DI4D, integrating over 20 years of 4D facial capture research into its global infrastructure.

📊 Business & Products:

• Tencent reportedly in talks to take small stake in Block Blast! developer Hungry Studio.
• Arknights: Endfield makes $46M in first month on mobile.
• ByteBrew launches AI-powered cross-promotion network to scale app portfolios.
• Nvidia has another earnings blowout for Q4 with revenues of $68.1B, up 73%.
• Discord is delaying its global age verification rollout.

👾 Miscellaneous:

• AI won't make your game, but it can lighten the load: Ludo.ai CTO Jorge Gomes gives his view on the role of AI in game production and where it could make a difference.
• PUBG Mobile joins the Esports Nations Cup 2026 as its 16th competitive title.
• Umamusume: Pretty Derby movie director talks creative decisions and adapting games to the big screen.
• Blizzard unveils Overwatch Rush "specifically for mobile players".
• PlayStation’s Wolverine game hits PS5 in September.

A Word from Our Sponsor: Heroic Labs

The Heroic Game Stack — Powering the World's Best Games

Heroic Labs builds the Heroic Game Stack, an integrated platform consisting of Nakama, Hiro, Satori, and Heroic Cloud.  

Heroic Labs is always happy to chat to game teams, so don't hesitate to reach out.

Content Worth Consuming

How Recent Laws Impact Game Design, From In-Game Chat to Notifications (gamesindustry.biz): “2026 is already proving to be the year when the reality of video game regulation hits home for the industry. Games studios are suddenly confronting a host of new and impending regulations, and it can feel an impossible task to sift through the alphabetti spaghetti of laws, rules and guidelines (OSA, DMCCA, DFA, DSA, AI Act, CPC…) in order to know what this actually means for the day-to-day practicalities of developing and releasing games. With that in mind, here are some of the key game features that are being (or are soon to be) impacted by all these fun new acronyms.”

The Psychology of Play: Why We Game and How It’s Changing (playerdriven.io): “Have you ever wondered why you’ll spend 40 hours min-maxing a character in an RPG, but your best friend only cares about the chaotic destruction of Grand Theft Auto? Or why the strategy games we grew up with feel like they’re losing their grip on the next generation? In a recent episode of A Player Driven, we sat down with Nick Yee, co-founder and analytics lead at Quantic Foundry, to dive deep into the behavioral insights of gamers. From the "Proteus Effect" in VR to a massive 10-year decline in strategic thinking, Nick breaks down the data behind our digital identities.”

How to Build Playables That Actually Convert by Matej Lancaric (two & a half gamers YouTube Channel): “In this solo episode, I break down why top games produce 60 playables per month, the real playable testing structure, why “just wrapping your tutorial” doesn’t work, template strategy vs gameplay fidelity, how to iterate instead of building from scratch every time, and I built a playable live on camera. Playables are no longer optional. If you're running on AppLovin, Unity, ironSource, or any SDK network and you don’t have playables, you’re leaving scale on the table.

Maria Sayans | The Cultural Power of Games (Good Game Club Podcast): “When games reach hundreds of millions - even billions - of people, they become more than entertainment. They become culture. In the latest episode of Good Game Club, Maria Sayans reflects on what it means to hold that kind of influence, and why responsibility isn’t just personal, but something the entire games industry must reckon with. With over 160 million players, Monument Valley may be a small studio success compared to global franchises, but the principle remains the same: with power comes responsibility.”

How Come Fuse Games Gets to Make a Star Wars Racing Game? (The Game Business YouTube Channel): “We speak to new UK studio Fuse Games about its debut game Star Wars: Galactic Racer, the first new Star Wars racing game in over 20 years. We discuss working with Lucasfilm, how it secured such a big licence, the state of racing games, and just who exactly are Fuse Games.”

Inside Xbox’s Executive Shakeup (Decoder with Nilay Patel): “Today, we’re talking about the future of Xbox. Phil Spencer, a two-time Decoder guest who’s led Xbox for more than a decade, resigned. But in a shocking twist, his deputy long-assumed successor Sarah Bond is also out too, and the Xbox division is now in the hands of an Asha Sharma, one of Microsoft’s AI executives with no prior game industry experience.”

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