Kaylee Wells

These are the ones where you can grind for hours without paying a cent, but you get interrupted every five minutes with an ad, and you know?

if you just spent $4.99 a month, you could get rid of the ads and unlock this special currency that would make building your virtual garden go way faster.

If you've ever done that, you have added to the $61 billion gaming industry.

The other growing model here is gaming subscriptions.

Just like you pay for Spotify or Netflix, you might buy a season pass that unlocks cool costumes and catchphrases for your character.

Meanwhile, the gaming industry itself is resonating with other forms of entertainment.

We've had movies on Super Mario and Minecraft.

And gaming gets a lot of free advertising on social media.

Sam Ani with the digital analytics group Sensor Tower says all of that has been driving growth in the industry.

2025 also got a good old-fashioned boost from the new Nintendo console.

And this year is set to get a boost, too.

Grand Theft Auto has a little bit of everything that makes games profitable.

You'll pay a lot of money for it.

You can play online and pay money for cool bells and whistles.

There'll be clips on social media.

Plus, it'll generate the same everybody's-doing-it fervor as dressing in pink and going to see the Barbie movie.

Here's USC's Demetri Williams again.

Except imagine if the Super Bowl only came around every 13 years.

Analysts say Grand Theft Auto 6 could help make 2026 the industry's biggest year yet.

I'm Kaylee Wells for Marketplace.