Reports: Call of Duty

Browse all of our reports, featuring our analysts' expert insights and analysis of audience segmentation, emerging trends and technologies, value chains, market shares, predictions and more – backed by our proprietary survey data and bespoke models & forecasts. Become a subscriber to get new ones every month, or just pick one to get started.

Flipping the script
Game IP transmedia needs to evolve

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Rhys Elliott

May 2025

Amazon

Netflix

Xbox

The entertainment landscape is changing. As superhero fatigue sets in, game IP is now dominating screens, from HBO’s The Last of Us to the Minecraft movie. Unlike movie trends (Westerns, superhero movies), the game-to-movie trend is here to stay, as the games market is a cross-genre treasure trove of beloved IP and fandom, with new IP arriving frequently.

MIDiA's gamer segmentation
Prioritise why – not just how – players engage with games

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Rhys Elliott

February 2025

Amazon

Netflix

Gaming

The games landscape is more dynamic and interconnected than ever, demanding a deeper understanding of why players engage with games – not just how. We are proud to introduce MIDiA’s gamer segmentation, which focuses on motivations, attitudes, and underlying reasons behind gaming behaviours.

The single-player opportunity
Course correcting from a red to blue ocean

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Rhys Elliott

September 2024

YouTube

Netflix

Xbox

The AAA PC and console games market is facing growth issues, money is more expensive, and developers are facing pressure to become leaner, more profitable, and take fewer risks. Many game makers, including those that found initial success in single player, have been chasing the live-service trend.

Tipping point
The coming consolidation of live service games

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Karol Severin and Perry Gresham

July 2023

ariana grande

Call of Duty

FIFA

The games industry has become addicted to the promise of lower risk and better ROI from live service games. As a result, there has been a flurry of live service titles released over the last 10 years. This is the key reason why the games industry’s core business model has shifted from unit-sales based to engagement based.

Rebooting video fandom
Games as a video streaming genre

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Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Perry Gresham, Samuel Griffin and Ben Woods

March 2023

Apple

Apple TV

Netflix

With gamers being mainstream, video streaming services and their content offerings can benefit by increasing focus on the preferences of gamers. Crucially, this enables subscription video on demand (SVOD) services to drive engagement, broaden reach and improve retention.

The next challenge for esports
Striking the balance between creators and athletes

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Karol Severin and Samuel Griffin

December 2022

Call of Duty

Business Strategy

Games industry

Esports organisations are past the initial ‘hype stage’. They are now in a phase where they need to make their business models work commercially. The ongoing adverse macroeconomic climate only exacerbates this. Sustainable long-term growth for esports organisations lies in the wider, gamer-related, entertainment culture – not just in the competitive part of esports alone.

The future of music
The rise of a counterculture industry

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Mark Mulligan, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

June 2022

Consumer behaviour

Spotify

Music creators

Music streaming and the attention recession have turned music into a background activity. Artists en masse are struggling to cut through the noise, realising that streaming is neither a place to build deeper relationships with fans nor to generate meaningful income.

Esports viewers update
A valuable segment with a (solvable) growth problem

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Richard Broadhurst

May 2022

Vevo

Facebook

Twitter

Esports currently struggle to attract consumers beyond esports enthusiasts and players of esport-centric titles. Despite growth problems, the esports viewer segment remains valuable. These consumers have large amounts of time and money spent across entertainment, as well as high ad tolerance.

From marketing to monetisation
The games video opportunity for games companies

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Karol Severin

February 2022

YouTube

Twitch

facebook gaming

Games-related video consumption is now as big as established TV and video genres. Despite games companies providing the fuel for the games video sector (i.e., games experiences, processed into content by creators), the monetisation is mostly enjoyed by established games video platforms.

Games worlds
Assessing audience reach, value and relevance

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Karol Severin

November 2021

Apple

gta

Call of Duty

As more online games worlds enter the market, brands and marketers need to focus more on monitoring the nuances of each games world community to identify the most effective partnership opportunities. The key factors to pay attention to are reach, audience value, and relevance.

Games worlds
Assessing audience reach, value and relevance

Cover image for Games worlds

Karol Severin

November 2021

Apple

gta

Call of Duty

As more online games worlds enter the market, brands and marketers need to focus more on monitoring the nuances of each games world community to identify the most effective partnership opportunities. The key factors to pay attention to are reach, audience value, and relevance.

Digital consumption habits
How tomorrow’s audiences will reshape entertainment

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Hanna Kahlert

March 2021

Streaming

Discovery

Discovery

Digital-first access has shaped mainstream consumption, but for digital natives, it has also shaped their core behaviours. Music consumption is now fragmented across artists, becoming a personalised, anytime anywhere activity – making the value exchange more niche and personal.

Digital consumption habits
How tomorrow’s audiences will reshape entertainment

Cover image for Digital consumption habits

Hanna Kahlert

March 2021

Streaming

Discovery

Discovery

Digital-first access has shaped mainstream consumption, but for digital natives, it has also shaped their core behaviours. Music consumption is now fragmented across artists, becoming a personalised, anytime anywhere activity – making the value exchange more niche and personal.

Sports audiences
The Gen Z opportunity

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Alistair Taylor

February 2021

Apple

Apple

Spotify

Digital natives are more likely to consume non-live sports than older, traditional sports fans, which presents rights holders and broadcasters with untapped potential for monetisation by harnessing and actioning this insight. While the most valuable sports audience currently remains among pay-TV subscribers, planning for meaningful non-broadcast revenues through digital-native engagement is now crucial for pandemic mitigation, as well as addressing the needs of the underserved fans of the future.

Sports audiences
The Gen Z opportunity

Cover image for Sports audiences

Alistair Taylor

February 2021

Apple

Apple

Spotify

Digital natives are more likely to consume non-live sports than older, traditional sports fans, which presents rights holders and broadcasters with untapped potential for monetisation by harnessing and actioning this insight. While the most valuable sports audience currently remains among pay-TV subscribers, planning for meaningful non-broadcast revenues through digital-native engagement is now crucial for pandemic mitigation, as well as addressing the needs of the underserved fans of the future.

Sports Consumption
Measuring COVID-19’s Impact

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Alistair Taylor

July 2020

Apple

Discovery

Amazon

With the pandemic-enforced postponement of live sports creating an entertainment void for sports fans, understanding COVID-19’s impact on overall sports consumption and where audiences are substituting their finite attention is paramount for sports distributors and rights holders.

Recovery Economics
Music, Games, Live Streams and the Future of Concerts

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Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Keith Jopling

May 2020

live music

live

Artists

In April 2020 Travis Scott’s Fortnite event pulled in 27 million players. While this was happening, the global artist community was scrambling to plug the income and engagement gap caused by COVID-19’s cessation of live music, by turning to live streaming.

COVID-19
The Self-Isolation Entertainment Boom

Cover image for COVID-19

Mark Mulligan

April 2020

Streaming

Spotify

Artists

Following our first COVID-19 impact report, this report deep dives into how media consumption patterns have changed in the initial weeks of COVID-19 dislocation. While it is crucial to remember that these behaviour shifts are a snapshot of a unique moment in time, there are nonetheless some that will persist post-pandemic.

Sports Consumer Trends
The Sun Sets on Pay-TV Dominance

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Alistair Taylor

February 2020

Amazon

Facebook

BBC

With subscription video on demand (SVOD) services surpassing pay-TV penetration en route to becoming a mainstream medium, sporting consumption habits have inherently changed. Rights holders, broadcasters, streaming services and betting and gaming companies will all feel the impact of fast-changing consumption habits and new regional nuances.

Battle Royale
The Monetisation Sweet Spot

Cover image for Battle Royale

Karol Severin

January 2020

Facebook

Twitter

Gaming

Niche is the new mainstream. Battle Royale players are one of these niches – far from mainstream in terms of consumer penetration, but impactful and valuable. Across music, video, news, magazines and games, they engage and spend more than average gamers.

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