German Games Market Grows to €9.4 Billion as Hardware and VR Drive Industry Momentum

Germany’s video games market grew by 4% in 2025, reaching €9.4 billion in total revenue, with growth largely driven by strong hardware sales and continued expansion in virtual reality (VR). New device launches, including the Nintendo Switch 2 and the ROG Xbox Ally, played a major role in boosting overall market performance.

At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Festival of Gaming, Meta’s director of games, Chris Pruett, shared insights into the company’s VR business and the performance of the Meta Quest platform. According to Pruett, usage of Meta Quest reached an all-time high in 2025, with more than 100 VR titles generating over $1 million each in gross revenue. This milestone highlights the growing maturity of the VR gaming ecosystem.

Meta’s Reality Labs division generated $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, although it also reported a significant operating loss of $19.2 billion, reflecting the company’s continued heavy investment in VR and immersive technologies. Despite the losses, Meta remains committed to VR, positioning itself as one of the largest investors in the space globally.

Revenue from in-app purchases grew by more than 10% in 2025, with premium app sales continuing to be the largest source of revenue on the platform. The number of apps generating at least $500,000 in revenue increased by 20%, showing that more developers are finding commercial success in the VR ecosystem.

Subscription revenue also grew by double-digit percentages, although subscriptions still represent a relatively small share of the overall VR ecosystem and are not yet strongly connected to gaming content. Meanwhile, Meta’s Horizon+ subscription service crossed one million subscribers and paid nearly $20 million to developers participating in the program.

Pruett also spoke about Meta’s decision to remove Horizon Worlds from the Meta Horizon store in June. The original idea behind adding Horizon Worlds to the store was to increase device retention. However, after a year of testing and data analysis, the company found that this strategy did not significantly improve user retention. As a result, Meta decided to change its approach.

He explained that Meta regularly experiments with new ideas, analyses the results and adjusts its strategy based on real data rather than assumptions. He also noted that feedback from developers played an important role in the decision to remove Horizon Worlds from the store.

Overall, the growth of the German gaming market and the continued expansion of VR platforms like Meta Quest show that the gaming industry is evolving beyond traditional consoles and PCs. With new hardware, growing VR adoption and increasing developer revenue, the gaming industry is entering a new phase of technological and commercial growth.