The Video Game Market on Its Way to $300 Billion

According to industry experts, annual revenue in the gaming industry is projected to exceed $300 billion by 2028. This represents more than double the figures recorded in 2019. The key growth drivers remain the expansion of online services and the rapidly growing global player base. However, alongside money and audiences, the industry is also attracting those who seek to profit through illegal means.

Money and Audience: Why the Market Keeps Accelerating

Innovation in online gaming and the expansion of international audiences are sustaining steady growth. Mobile platforms, cloud services, and subscription models are drawing in millions of new users, while industry revenue continues to break records year after year.

As revenues grow, so does the volume of digital assets that require protection. This balance between commercial success and the accumulation of vulnerabilities represents the industry's central challenge.

What Data Platforms Collect and Why It Is an Attractive Target

Gaming platforms process and store vast amounts of sensitive information, including:

• payment details and bank card data;
• account usernames and passwords;
• personal player data, including email addresses, phone numbers, and geolocation data.

The concentration of such a volume of valuable information in digital form makes gaming companies a priority target for malicious actors.

Cybersecurity as a Business Imperative, Not an IT Department Matter

As the market scales, data protection ceases to be a purely technical function and becomes a fundamental part of business strategy. Gaming companies must simultaneously safeguard user data, maintain audience trust, and minimize financial losses from potential incidents.

Understanding the primary attack vectors enables organizations to build systematic defenses rather than react to consequences. The most common threats facing the gaming sector are outlined below.

Servers Under Attack: DDoS and Service Disruption

A DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack floods gaming servers with a wave of fraudulent traffic, rendering them inoperable.

In 2020, Blizzard Entertainment experienced serious disruptions during major tournaments due to sustained DDoS attacks. In April 2025, the situation recurred. The consequences of such incidents extend well beyond player frustration: companies suffer direct financial losses and reputational damage. Strengthening infrastructure and improving service resilience to traffic overloads remain fundamental countermeasures.

Account Hunting: credential stuffing and Account Takeover (ATO)

Many players reuse the same passwords across multiple platforms. Malicious actors deploy automated tools that cycle through millions of username and password combinations — a technique known as credential stuffing and brute force.

In 2019, Epic Games was forced to warn Fortnite players after millions of accounts were compromised. Account takeover leads to loss of access, risks to payment details, and exposure of personal information. Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) significantly reduces the likelihood of such incidents.

Phishing and Social Engineering: "Bonuses" with Malicious Links

Fraudsters disguise attacks as giveaway / promo campaigns offering in-game rewards or in-game currency, tricking players into disclosing their credentials. The typical scenario is straightforward: clicking a link from a "promo offer" leads to a fake page where the victim enters a username, password, or payment information.

The result is account compromise, financial data breaches, and erosion of trust in the platform. User education and systematic warnings about fake promo campaigns help counter this scheme.

When choosing a new game, many players consider genre, reviews, system requirements, price, and the availability of appealing bonuses: starter rewards, limited-time giveaways, registration gifts, or birthday offers. Such campaigns are regularly run by Epic Games Store, Steam, and GOG.

Bonuses are welcome but not essential. Far more useful, before installation, is to determine how the game and platform are protected against cyber threats: whether multi-factor authentication (MFA) is supported, where the client is distributed from, how payment details are stored, and whether the publisher has experienced any notable data breaches. Such a check takes only a few minutes and eliminates the majority of risks. Moreover, threats are not limited to fake promo pages — programs that players download themselves can be equally dangerous.

Malware Disguised as Cheats and Ransomware Targeting Studios

Illegal programs designed for cheating frequently contain hidden malicious code. Within ecosystems such as Call of Duty, cheats have been used to install spyware and other malware. Device infection poses risks of identity theft and financial fraud, and educating players about the dangers of downloading cheats remains one of the key preventive measures.

Ransomware encrypts corporate data and disrupts operational workflows. In 2021, CD Projekt Red suffered a large-scale attack of this type: game development was halted, and the company sustained serious reputational and financial damage. Regular backups and endpoint protection can limit the impact of such incidents.

The Weak Link in the Chain: Vendor and Third-Party Tool Risks

Modern game development relies on numerous third-party services and tools, each of which may introduce hidden vulnerabilities. The SolarWinds incident clearly demonstrated how an attack through a single vendor can compromise multiple systems across different industries, including online gaming.

Oversight of third-party components and stricter requirements for vendors are becoming mandatory elements of any defensive strategy.

Threats from Within: Insiders and Access to Critical Data

Employees and contractors with privileged access may accidentally or deliberately cause a data breach or other harm. In the case of Zynga, former employees stole proprietary data from a gaming project, putting the company's intellectual property and reputation at risk.

Strict access controls and clear privilege management procedures help minimize such risks.

Industry Growth Raises the Cost of Failure

The expansion of the market and digital services simultaneously increases the value of data and the scale of potential damage. Investment in cybersecurity is no longer a contingency line item but has become an essential component of the strategy for any gaming company seeking to preserve both its audience and its financial stability.