2022 in video games
2022 saw the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry, slowing hardware sales for most of the year as well as development delays for major titles. The industry continued its trend of acquisitions and mergers, highlighted by Microsoft announcing its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion. The industry as a whole continued to deal with issues such as workplace harassment and discrimination, alongside crunch periods, leading to at least the quality assurance staff at three separate studios to vote to unionize. This year also began a wave of mass layoffs.
Production of the ninth-generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, remained constrained for the first part of the year, but eased up later in the year. New hardware trends included the widespread availability of graphics cards with real-time ray tracing, and the release of the Steam Deck by Valve, a handheld personal computing device capable of playing most games available on Steam. The gaming community remained cautious on the metaverse and blockchain games, though leading publishers expressed their desires to move more into that space.
Legend
Hardware releases
| Date | Console | Manufacturer | |
| February 25 | Steam Deck | Valve Corporation | |
| March 1 | Amazon Luna | Amazon | |
| March 25 | A500 Mini | Retro Games Ltd. | |
| April 18 | Playdate | Panic Inc. | |
| July 28 | Astro City Mini V | Sega | |
| October 18 | PICO 4 | ByteDance | |
| October 25 | Meta Quest Pro | Reality Labs | |
| October 27 | Sega Genesis Mini 2 | Sega, M2 | |
| November 24 | Evercade EXP | Blaze Entertainment | |
| December | Ayaneo 2 | Ayaneo |
Financial performance
According to market research firm Newton, the global video game industry had total revenues of $184.4 billion, about a 4% decline year-to-year. Half of that was from mobile games, while console games, computer games, and browser games made up 28%, 21%, and 1% of the market, respectively.Best-selling premium games by region
The following titles were 2022's top ten best-selling premium games by region on PC and console platforms, for Japan, the United States, and Europe.| Rank | Japan | United States | Europe |
| 1 | Pokémon Scarlet and Violet | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | FIFA 23 |
| 2 | Splatoon 3 | Elden Ring | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II |
| 3 | Pokémon Legends: Arceus | Madden NFL 23 | Elden Ring |
| 4 | Kirby and the Forgotten Land | God of War Ragnarök | Grand Theft Auto V |
| 5 | Nintendo Switch Sports | Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga | FIFA 22 |
| 6 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Pokémon Scarlet and Violet | Pokémon Legends: Arceus |
| 7 | Minecraft | FIFA 23 | God of War Ragnarök |
| 8 | Mario Party Superstars | Pokémon Legends: Arceus | Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga |
| 9 | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | Horizon Forbidden West | Horizon Forbidden West |
| 10 | Elden Ring | MLB The Show 22 | Gran Turismo 7 |
Top-rated games
Critically acclaimed games
is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities.Major awards
Video game-based film and television releases
| Title | Date | Type | Distributor | Franchise | Original game publisher | |
| Ninjala | Anime television series | TV Tokyo YouTube | Ninjala | GungHo Online Entertainment | ||
| GameStop: Rise of the Players | Documentary film | Super LTD | ||||
| Angry Birds: Summer Madness | Animated television series | Netflix | Angry Birds | Rovio Entertainment | ||
| Shenmue: The Animation | Anime television series | Adult Swim Crunchyroll | Shenmue | Sega | ||
| The Cuphead Show! | Animated television series | Netflix | Cuphead | Studio MDHR | ||
| Uncharted | Feature film | Sony Pictures Releasing | Uncharted | Sony Interactive Entertainment | ||
| Halo | Television series | Paramount+ | Halo | Xbox Game Studios | ||
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | Feature film | Paramount Pictures | Sonic the Hedgehog | Sega | ||
| Pokémon: Hisuian Snow | Limited anime webseries | YouTube Pokémon TV | Pokémon | Nintendo The Pokémon Company | ||
| Players | Television series | Paramount+ | League of Legends | Riot Games | ||
| Resident Evil | Television series | Netflix | Resident Evil | Capcom | ||
| Tekken: Bloodline | Anime television series | Netflix | Tekken | Bandai Namco Entertainment | ||
| Cyberpunk: Edgerunners | Limited anime series | Netflix | Cyberpunk 2077 | CD Projekt | ||
| Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles | Limited anime webseries | Amazon Prime Video Netflix | Pokémon | Nintendo The Pokémon Company | ||
| Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal | Anime television series | MBS, TBS | Legend of Mana | Square Enix | ||
| Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind | Animated film | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment | Mortal Kombat | Midway Games | ||
| Arknights: Prelude to Dawn | Anime television series | TV Tokyo | Arknights | Yostar | ||
| Fantasy Football | November 25, 2022 | Sports comedy film | Paramount+ | Madden NFL | EA Sports | |
| Dragon Age: Absolution | Animated television series | Netflix | Dragon Age | BioWare | ||
| Sonic Prime | CGI animated television series | Netflix | Sonic the Hedgehog | Sega |
Major events
| Date | Event | |
| January 1 | Ian Livingstone, co-founder of Games Workshop and president of Eidos Interactive, was knighted for his service to the online games industry. | |
| January 4 | Monster Games, notable for the NASCAR Heat series and Excite Truck, was acquired by iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations. | |
| January 10 | Take-Two Interactive announced its intent to acquire Zynga. | |
| January 13 | Team17 acquired astragon in a deal worth £83 million. | |
| January 17 | Tencent acquired Sumo Group. | |
| January 18 | Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. | |
| January 31 | Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it would be acquiring Bungie for $3.6 billion. The deal was closed in July 2022. | |
| January 31 | The New York Times Company acquired the viral browser game Wordle for an undisclosed seven-figure sum. | |
| February 14 | Focus Entertainment completed its acquisition of Leikr Studio. | |
| February 16 | Nacon announced its intent to acquire Daedalic Entertainment. | |
| February 22 | Tencent announced its acquisition of Inflexion Studios, developers of upcoming game Nightingale. | |
| February 22–24 | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2022 D.I.C.E. Summit and 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada; Ed Boon inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame, and Phil Spencer received the Lifetime Achievement Award. | |
| February 24 | Nintendo announced its acquisition of long-time development partner SRD, with the deal closed on April 1. | |
| February 25 | Tencent announced its acquisition of 1C Entertainment. | |
| March 2 | Netflix announced its intent to acquire Finnish video game developer Next Games for €65 million. | |
| March 2 | Epic Games announced its acquisition of internet music company Bandcamp for an undisclosed amount. | |
| March 8 | Atari SA acquired online video game database MobyGames for million. | |
| March 14 | Embracer Group acquired Dark Horse Media, the parent company of Dark Horse Comics and Dark Horse Entertainment. | |
| March 21 | Sony Interactive Entertainment announced its intent to acquire Haven Studios, making it the first development team of Sony in Canada. | |
| March 21–25 | The Game Developers Conference was held in San Francisco, California. | |
| March 24 | Netflix acquired mobile game developer Boss Fight Entertainment. | |
| March 31 | Entertainment Software Association announced that E3 2022 was canceled, both in-person and online. | |
| April 13 | Embracer Group acquired Beamdog and placed it within Saber Interactive's Aspyr unit. | |
| April 27 | The Kirby franchise celebrated its 30th anniversary in Japan. | |
| May 1 | Embracer Group announced its intent to acquire the assets of Square Enix Europe, including studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montreal along with associated intellectual properties from Square Enix for million. The deal closed by August 26, 2022. | |
| May 4 | Source code of 3D Movie Maker is finally released. | |
| May 9 | Leaked source code and builds of Duke Nukem Forever, dating August and October 2001 are leaked. | |
| May 5 | IMAX closed deal with The Game Awards and Summer Game Fest to have the events be shown in select theaters in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. | |
| May 10 | Electronic Arts formally withdrew from its license with FIFA after nearly 30 years. | |
| May 23 | Quality assurance testers at Raven Software formed a union. | |
| June 10–16 | Due to the cancellation of E3 2022, several presentations similar to it were made, including shows in association with the Summer Game Fest. | |
| July 12 | Nordisk Games announced its acquisition of Supermassive Games. | |
| July 14 | Nintendo began acquisition of animation studio Dynamo Pictures, with plans to rename it to Nintendo Pictures. | |
| July 18 | Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it would be acquiring Repeat.gg, esports tournament platform. | |
| July 19 | Nintendo announced that the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U would be shut down on March 27, 2023. | |
| August 5 | Arcade1Up revealed a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 arcade cabinet at Evo, making it available for the first time since its delisting from PSN and Xbox Live Arcade in 2013. | |
| August 18 | Embracer Group acquired seven companies including Tripwire Interactive and Limited Run Games as well as exclusive rights to the Middle-earth intellectual property for video and board games. | |
| August 18–20 | Quakecon was held as a virtual event. | |
| August 18–21 | The 2022 Pokémon World Championships take place in London, the first event ever held in Europe, and the first time the event has been held outside North America. | |
| August 24–28 | Gamescom took place both as a physical event at Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, and online. | |
| August 29 | Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired Savage Game Studios as their first mobile development studio. | |
| August 31 | NetEase acquired Quantic Dream for an undisclosed sum. | |
| September 15–18 | The Tokyo Game Show took place both as a physical event at Makuhari Messe in Chiba and online. | |
| September 18 | 90 videos showing 50 minutes of work-in-progress footage of a Grand Theft Auto game leaked after a security breach at Rockstar Games. Jason Schreier confirmed with sources at Rockstar that the footage was real. | |
| September 29 | Google announced that the company's cloud streaming service Google Stadia will officially be shut down on January 18, 2023. | |
| October 3 | Fandom acquired GameSpot, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, and Metacritic, among others, from Red Ventures for $55 million. | |
| October 7 | Electronic Arts shuts down its Origin PC gaming launcher and online store service. | |
| October 11 | Meta acquired Armature Studio and Twisted Pixel Games. | |
| October 15–30 | The International 2022, the 11th iteration of the annual Dota 2 global esports tournament, was held in Singapore. | |
| October 16 | Second incarnation of the gaming-focused TV network G4 was shut down by parent Comcast less than a year after its relaunch in November 2021. | |
| October 31 | Netflix acquired Spry Fox as its sixth inhouse studio. | |
| November 1 | Square Enix Montreal, which was briefly renamed Onoma, was closed less than three months after Embracer Group completed its acquisition. | |
| November 11 | Krafton announced the acquisition of Neon Giant. | |
| November 15 | Thunderful Group acquired Jumpship for an undisclosed sum. | |
| December 8 | The U.S. Federal Trade Commission moved to block the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. | |
| December 8 | The Game Awards 2022 was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. | |
| December 16 | John Carmack announced his departure from Meta as its CTO. |