"The competition in gaming is not only against other games, but for players’ time, attention and wallets"

“The good news is that for the second year in a row we are showing revenue growth, and Israel is considered a global success story in the gaming sector. But the number of game downloads decreased by 5% globally in 2025. When you take these two factors into account, you see that we are in a new era,” said Keren Ran, Director of Gaming and Applications at Google Israel, speaking at the Calcalist Gaming Conference held in collaboration with Playtika and Google.

“As early as 2019, Netflix’s CEO said he competes with Fortnite more than HBO. He understood that the real competition is for the time and attention of players,” Ran said. “Today, the competition is not only against other games, but for players’ time, attention and wallets. This year, we passed 50%, meaning more than half of spending went to non-game apps like streaming and AI. If we have to choose between Netflix, Spotify, more coins or a game, that’s already intense competition, and that’s just within apps.”

Competition inside the gaming market itself is also intensifying. “Fifty-seven percent of users’ time is spent on older games, more than six years old, such as Brawl Stars or Candy Crush. The big games dominate the market and account for 36% of revenue. Another statistic is that the number of new games that manage to enter the top 1,000 is decreasing significantly. And when you look only at the games that do break through, most of their downloads happen at massive scale in the first month. This means that to succeed, you must be willing to take much bigger risks.”

A clear trend is emerging among Israeli gamers, Ran said. “If you look back to 2023, the top ten games were Western, Candy Crush and so on. But in 2025, four new games entered the top ten, and they all have one thing in common: they all come from Asia. With all the competition in the Western market, this is another factor we now need to consider.”

Despite the challenges, she emphasized that Israel still has a strong and influential gaming ecosystem. Ran pointed to recent successes such as SuperPlay, which was acquired by Playtika; Moon Active, which has kept a game in the global top ten for the third consecutive year; and acquisitions such as Serr, AppCharge, and Voyantis.

How to Prepare for the New Reality

“We see that users are downloading fewer games, but when they do play, they spend more money and have more screen time, and that gives us greater ability to direct them,” Ran said. “Engagement and retention have always been important, but today they have become absolutely critical, both inside and outside the game. Inside the game, studios are focusing more on engagement and treating titles like live services. Outside the game, emphasis is on community-building and content creation.”

She cited Brawl Stars as a leading example. “The indie game creator community is a major driver of its success. The category on YouTube grew by 42% last year. Users share the game, but YouTube is a significant growth engine.”

Another major driver of engagement is the integration of AI. “In Fortnite, for example, AI collaboration allows players to create live voice performances.”

Ran’s second recommendation is to leverage IP. “We’ve seen that this is something users love. From a business perspective, it increases organic downloads by tens of percent, whether using celebrities for campaigns or launching games like Royal Kingdom. You can also introduce events with brands like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Disney Solitaire.”

Her third recommendation focuses on new markets. “If you look at the geography of growth, you see strong momentum in Latin America, especially Brazil, as well as the Middle East, Turkey and the Arab world, so it’s worth targeting these regions.”

“The market is constantly evolving,” she concluded. “We in Israel are part of a very strong ecosystem. Some of the world’s future growth engines will come from here.”