The gaming industry is in for a big year in 2026.
As gaming activity ramps up, Hollywood sinks its teeth further into gaming IP and AI sparks both innovation and layoffs across the space, the gaming industry is ripe for significant change and evolution in 2026. Ahead of the new year, GamesBeat reached out to a range of industry leaders and observers to get their predictions about what the gaming industry should expect in the coming 12 months. Here are some of the key takeaways.
The industry will have its “ChatGPT moment” with AI
Although artificial intelligence has become an increasingly popular tool in the industry, observers of AI development in gaming believe AI tech has not yet had a watershed moment in gaming in the same vein as tools like ChatGPT for language generation or Midjourney for image generation.
“We’re starting to see peeks of it here and there, but there hasn’t been that ‘ChatGPT moment’ for games yet, where people interact with it and are like, ‘wow, this is a totally different experience,’” said Brian Tanner, the co-founder and CEO of the AI gaming tech development firm Artificial.Agency, in an interview with GamesBeat. “But we think it’s coming, and we’re helping build it for 2026.”
Watershed moment notwithstanding, AI is here to stay in the gaming industry, with roughly 90 percent of developers using it at some point in their pipeline, according to survey data shared by Google Cloud global director for games Jack Buser. As AI continues to pervade the development process in 2026, Buser predicted that player behaviors will adapt to welcome the types of games and game loops produced by and with AI.
“Players’ expectations are rapidly shifting; what they expect out of a video game is changing, and oftentimes that is due to AI,” Buser said in an interview with GamesBeat. “Oftentimes, these are expectations that can be filled using AI.”
The industry will take the risks of AI more seriously
If 2025 was marked by an industry-wide stampede into AI development, industry observers believe the coming year will see gaming companies take a step back to consider the potential risks and challenges of embracing AI as well, with the debate over AI disclosures and the proper role of AI tech in the development pipeline continuing to evolve.
“My hope is that there’s some curation on the platform side, at least, where you don’t have 1,000 copies of a game out there, because they were all created with AI with no innovation — because we’ll start to break player trust, which is the worst thing we can do as a gaming community,” said Zynga chief product officer Scott Koenigsberg.
In the near future, the deepest integrations of AI tech in gaming will come on the back end, not in front-facing, fully AI-generated content, according to Scott Purdy, the U.S. media industry leader at the accounting firm KPMG.
“AI, generally, will help make the non-creative parts of the ecosystem faster, cheaper, et cetera, first — and then the creative use cases will follow,” Purdy said. “Everyone has to be so careful with the guardrails; you just have a lot of different points of view on the use of AI in anything around human creativity. We think it is a supplement and a compliment, versus a replacement.”
UGC will continue to take a bite out of triple-A
User-generated content gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite have grown significantly in popularity over the past year, transcending gaming to become more akin to social media platforms for the next generation. The impact of this transformation will likely be seen in both major 2026 releases like “Grand Theft Auto 6” — which will reportedly have UGC components on release — and for indie game developers who embrace the tools and communities provided by these platforms.
“Over 25 percent of the most-played games on Medal this year are from independent developers,” said Medal senior vice president of revenue Yuriy Yarovoy. “This is particularly relevant with the success of 2025’s breakout indie titles like ‘R.E.P.O.’ and ‘Peak,’ and I anticipate this trend continues into next year.”
Esports will stabilize around national lines
Esports has been on an interesting journey over the past few years, with the industry’s center of gravity shifting to the Middle East, where entities like Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have emerged as the biggest backers of competitive gaming as an entertainment product. As Saudi Arabia continues to fund international esports events like the Esports World Cup and Esports Nations Cup, esports industry stakeholders believe national pride will help rejuvenate interest in the sector.
“In 2026 national pride will emerge as a major driver of viewership and engagement in esports,” said Electronic Arts head of esports Monica Dinsmore. “For years, esports fandom has been largely centered around organizations. But with the Olympics, World Cup, and global competitions like the Esports World Cup and Esports Nations Cup all on the horizon, we will see a resurgence of ‘country vs. country’ narratives that tap into the same mainstream fervor as traditional sports.”
In addition to the Middle East, ESL/FACEIT Group president of esports Sebastian Weishaar flagged Japan as an area of rapid growth in 2026.
“We believe this is just the beginning, and new territories will quickly become fundamental centers for hosting events, fostering new talent, and driving audience growth,” he said.
As esports companies expand into more markets, they will continue to tap into audience data to inform their strategies, integrating data more deeply into the player and viewer experience.
“Publishers and event organizers are starting to acknowledge in-game data as a part of their game IP and an important element of their commercial and player engagement strategy,” said Grid vice president of growth Dominika Szot. “This has placed a premium on technology infrastructure capable of reliably capturing, processing, and distributing data across any game, genre, and scale.”
The power of nostalgia in gaming culture will continue to grow
In 2025, nostalgia became a major strategic driver of engagement in gaming, with brands like Backyard Sports returning — and re-conquering the industry — decades after their initial launch. Yesterday’s childhood gamers are today’s adult gamers, with adult spending money — and gaming companies plan to continue taking advantage of this energy in 2026.
“Nostalgia has become one of the most reliable and cost-efficient ways for brands to drive engagement in gaming, and we expect it to play a much more intentional part in content strategy moving into next year,” said SoaR Gaming chief operating officer Oliver Silverstein. “The resurgence of remasters like ‘WoW Classic’ and ‘Halo: Combat Evolved’ reflect a broader shift happening: players are gravitating back to the games, aesthetics, and social moments that shaped their earliest identities—and rewarding creators and brands that bring those moments back into their feeds.”