Reports: Entertainment and Fandom

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.

MIDiA’s 2025 predictions
It’s social’s stage now

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Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Tatiana Cirisano, Ben Woods, Rutger Rosenborg, Rhys Elliott and Olivia Jones

December 2024

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

The creator economy reshaped entertainment in the first half of the 2020s and social wasthe big winner, now positioned at the centre of the entertainment economy. In 2025 wewill see the second-order effects begin to play out, set against the backdrop of attentionsaturation, content commodification, and increased focus on profit.

The case for in-game video platforms
Closing the direct-to-consumer gap

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Karol Severin

November 2024

Product Strategy

Game publishers have long used third-party video platforms like Twitch and YouTube as a springboard to promote their games. Meanwhile, Twitch and YouTube get advertising and creator-driven revenues in return. The relationship has largely been reciprocal and beneficial for both parties.

Global South rising
Streaming audiences in China, Turkey, and South Africa

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Tatiana Cirisano

November 2024

Spotify

YouTube

Deezer

It is increasingly clear that the future of the global music streaming business relies heavily on the Global South markets, which include Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of World. Most subscription growth is coming from these regions, which will collectively dominate the global music subscriber base by 2031, according to MIDiA’s global music forecasts.

Visionary audio
Unlocking the power of video in podcasting

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Rutger Rosenborg

November 2024

brand partnerships

spotify podcasts

podcast creators

YouTube may be the only viable platform for long-form video podcasts, but that does not mean audio-first podcast platforms should abandon video. Instead, podcast platforms should leverage video both as a podcast format and as a marketing driver to increase podcast discovery and consumption.

Music merchandise demand
Who, what, and where

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Tatiana Cirisano

October 2024

Consumer behaviour

cds

Spotify

The music merchandise market has transformed, with significantly more artists selling merch and more product variety than ever before. The traditional line between “hard” and “soft” merch is blurring as new generations buy vinyl as a collectible keepsake, rather than a consumption format.

Socioeconomics of podcast listening
Engaging a higher value audience

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Rutger Rosenborg

October 2024

Creators

Subscriptions

Radio

Podcasts alone will struggle to monetise via subscriptions, leaving advertising as podcasts’ key source of revenue for the foreseeable future. However, podcasts do attract high-earning, high-spending audiences, which are often hard to reach with conventional advertising.

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.

Analogue revival
A cultural pendulum swing

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Hanna Kahlert

September 2024

Cultural trends

From the dumb phone trend to a vinyl revival, analogue has been back on the rise in the cultural zeitgeist. This could shake up the digital ecosystem and unlock potential opportunities for entertainment –– but the 'why’ behind the trend needs to be better understood to action the opportunity to its full potential.

From casual listeners to podcast purists
Mapping podcast platform preferences

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Rutger Rosenborg

September 2024

Audience Insight

Consolidation has arrived in audio. As some tech companies turn to a multi-format strategy to keep users engaged, it becomes more difficult for single-format platforms to compete for the same subscriber base. Companies sticking to the single-format vision of podcasting run the risk of losing even more market share to YouTube and Spotify, but there remains a highly engaged niche of podcast purists that are still serviceable by the single-format platforms.

The ‘why’ and ‘what’ behind in-game spending

Cover image for The ‘why’ and ‘what’ behind in-game spending

Karol Severin

August 2024

Audience Insight

As the games industry matures and global games revenue growth slows down, in-game spending will remain one of the industry’s key growth drivers. Historically, in-game spending was mostly associated with advantage-gaining items. In 2024 however, cosmetic in-game items account for the majority of in-game spending and will be increasing their share for the remainder of the decade.

High tide raises all ships
Leveraging the cultural tidal wave of Grand Theft Auto VI

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Rhys Elliott

July 2024

Audience Insight

Grand Theft Auto VI ( GTA 6 ), due to be released in autumn 2025, is on track to be one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time. It will capture a significant amount of consumer attention. Marketers in and outside of the gaming industry have a choice –– either resist and face the increased challenge of capturing consumer attention during this time or embrace the GTA zeitgeist and ride the wave.

Audio psychographics
Understanding why people listen

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Rutger Rosenborg

July 2024

Audience Insight

With so much content competing for consumers' attention, it is not enough to just give them ways to spend their limited resources (time and money). Audio companies must also give consumers reasons to do so. Therefore, to grow the audio market, knowing the reasons consumers choose one format over another is key to driving audience strategy, product strategy, and industry growth.

Entertainment behaviour
The frequency factor

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Mark Mulligan

July 2024

Audience Insight

This report presents a holistic view of entertainment behaviour for music, video, games, social, and audio. Traditionally, entertainment services report users in terms of monthly, and occasionally weekly or daily users. This report goes much deeper into user behaviour by additionally measuring how many times a day consumers use apps as well as when and where.

Bigger is not always better
Premium gaming’s AA opportunity

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Rhys Elliott

July 2024

Business Strategy

Following the post-pandemic slowdown of global games revenue growth, cost-cutting measures are now in full force. However, games continue to grow in scope and length with budgets often exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars, while growth and profitability are increasingly challenging to achieve.

Video churn
Streaming TV’s cord-cutting moment

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Tim Mulligan

June 2024

Business Strategy

Global subscriber growth is maturing while incomes are becoming constrained and alternatives to streaming TV are proliferating. For the first time in the history of subscription video on demand (SVOD), churn is accelerating and becoming a systemic issue now that streaming is supplanting traditional pay TV.

Gamers
A cross-entertainment summary

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Karol Severin

June 2024

Business Strategy

This report presents the key figures, behaviors, and preferences of gamers across entertainment. Graphics in this report show selected gamer segments, compared to relevant consumer segments across entertainment as appropriate. An accompanying Excel file provides country-by-country figures and data for 60+ additional gamer segments, including by games genre fandom, by games title, and by various gamer specific behaviors (e.

Defining podcast taste
The universal appeal of music, news, and comedy

Cover image for Defining podcast taste

Rutger Rosenborg

June 2024

Business Strategy

While the epicentre of podcasting revenue is in the West, the listener base has become truly global. According to MIDiA’s podcast forecasts, Asia Pacific already accounts for three times as many podcast listeners as all of North America, and that number will only continue to grow.

MIDiA Research 2024-2031 global subscription video forecasts

Cover image for MIDiA Research 2024-2031 global subscription video forecasts

Tim Mulligan, Ben Woods and Mark Qi

May 2024

Business Strategy

MIDiA’s global subscription video forecasts captures a broad view of the market. With limited video subscriber growth remaining in the West, revenue growth will be fuelled by price rises and increased diversity of monetisation models, such as the introduction of lower cost, ad-supported tiers.

Golden years, golden opportunity
Older gamers are a key growth opportunity in a challenging games market

Cover image for Golden years, golden opportunity

Rhys Elliott

May 2024

Audience Insight

Unlike in the past, gamers are now sticking with games through adulthood and into old age, leading to a growing segment of older gamers. Older gamers are a valuable segment posing a key growth opportunity for games companies in a stagnant market. Yet, most game makers do not currently cater to older gamers.

Niche is mainstream
How scenes, niche aggregators, and creators will reshape entertainment

Cover image for Niche is mainstream

Hanna Kahlert

April 2024

Audience Insight

As niche officially becomes mainstream, the entertainment industry faces a delicate balance. Audiences are losing interest in broad, mainstream propositions, but hyper-personalised niches are inherently difficult to scale and monetise while retaining what made them special to fans in the first place.

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