An opinion piece titled ‘Is gaming the next social media?’ caught my eye when it appeared on my newsfeed recently. It follows a panel discussion at Advertising Week New York about how the lines between video games and social media have blurred.
In the article, Kevin Fulmer describes how gaming has evolved from a predominantly single-player, local experience to a worldwide community of gamers: “gamers aren’t just playing — they’re connecting, communicating and building communities.”
This in turn is creating multiplayer environments that go far beyond merely playing the game. Gamers are using their consoles and computers to socialize with the other 3.32 billion active gamers worldwide. Multiplayer games have become a social lobby, with many even including a passive space where players can meet and communicate (for example the Space Anomaly in No Man’s Sky, or cities such as Stormwind in World of Warcraft).
“And this brings us to the key point” writes Kevin. “Gaming is social. Platforms like Discord, Twitch and Roblox exemplify this.”
It got me thinking about how gaming has evolved from being relatively insular to a much more expansive world. We don’t just play with a small group of mates anymore; we can play with thousands if not millions of other people around the world. And when we’re not playing, we can catch up on the latest news through multiple channels or watch others play. I would argue that watching gamers play through platforms like Twitch is more popular than gaming itself. League of Legends streaming, for instance, has racked up a huge 60.52 billion hours on the platform.
Gaming content has gone beyond the console. It’s now popular across non-gaming media platforms, with podcasts on Spotify, film adaptations of games on the big screen and streamers on YouTube, Facebook, Kick and more.
Today, many of the largest multiplayer video games are social experiences. However, that sociability for many games is limited to one device. Players of a PC-based game aren’t always able to play together with console gamers. It’s why voices around the topic of cross-platform games are getting louder. So, what are they saying?
Last year, Unity released the results of its 2024 Gaming Report, and it had some standout statistics around cross-platform games. Most notably that almost all studios polled are choosing to develop their games for cross-platform play, with 95% of studios of 50+ people choosing to prioritize this feature.
There are a few reasons for this.
Firstly – and this shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’ve read my recent blogs – the gaming industry has been facing a tough time financially over the last few years. With game studios under pressure to reduce costs, they are doing everything they can to maximise their player base. Cross-platform games enable that – users want it, it’s cheaper to grow user bases and it’s more social.
In its current form, gaming is fragmented across different platforms. Cross-platform gaming can bring those different factions together. This is great from a social perspective, but it also gives developers and publishers “a more comprehensive understanding of players and greater coherency for advertising, promotions and analytics. Ad campaigns, brand and franchise crossovers, and high-profile events can reach and monetize larger audiences”.
In the same Deloitte article that this quote came from – which gives recommendations to executives around reaping the benefits of cross-platform gaming – it highlights the opportunities for “better matchmaking when users join multiplayer games, putting them into instances with more players at a similar level”.
It also promotes cross-platform games as “a step toward more seamless movement of players, avatars, and virtual goods across game experiences. This could support retention within a publisher’s portfolio and enable a broader marketplace of goods”. In short, it makes business sense.
The second reason developers are prioritizing cross-platform games is to better support one specific gaming medium: mobile. Back in 2018, revenue from mobile games overtook PC and console combined, and in their 2025 mobile games report, Udonis states that “mobile continues to be the most successful and profitable gaming sector.”
The line between console and mobile is blurring thanks mainly to huge advances in the mobile market – both from a hardware capability perspective but also its increasing prevalence in developing regions. Because of this, mobile plays a vital part in cross-platform gaming, with players of leading titles such as Fortnite and Minecraft also coming from iOS and Android devices.
And of course, we can’t forget that there is also demand from the players themselves who want to be able to play with their friends on any platform, with very little friction.
All of this said, the industry’s reaction to the idea of cross-platform is mixed.
CEO of Xbox Game Studios told Bloomberg that video games made exclusively for one game console is “something we’re just going to see less and less of…we really love to be able to bring more players in reducing friction, making people feel safe, secure when they’re playing, allowing them to find their friends, play with their friends, regardless of what device – I think in the long run that is good for this industry”.
He also admitted, however, that this wasn’t everyone’s view – “in the short run, there’s some people in some companies that don’t love it”.
The console makers surely must be one. For years, they’ve used exclusive releases of highly anticipated AAA games to drive sales of their hardware. But business models are shifting – “more titles are free-to-play, trading a one-time game purchase for regular sales of new game content and digital goods that personalize and outfit players”.
Developing a cross-platform game also has its challenges. The infrastructure that sits behind the different consoles isn’t necessarily the same, meaning it can be tricky to implement cross-platform capability on certain titles. Developers need to manage different code bases and environments to reach different audiences.
That said, cross-platform gaming does make managing game instances slightly easier and more cost effective (from a game server point of view) for game developers. Rather than needing different game instances for PC, Playstation and Xbox for example - plus multiple different game modes for each platform, which could be 100s of different game instance types - developers can group them all together. It reduces the amount of required game instance types by 3x in this case, which is much easier and better for matchmaking.
Developers also have to think about the compliance and certification needs, and QA processes of each device. And once launched, there are multiple steps involved when updates are required; supporting cross-platform can get complicated.
But not developing a game with cross-platform in mind can make it very difficult to port the game over to a new device or platform after launch. Pyre developers Supergiant learnt this the hard way. “It’s one of those things where, if it weren’t extraordinarily difficult for our team, we probably would have already done it”, said Supergiant Games creative director Greg Kasavin during an AMA on Reddit.
So, that’s the industry’s take. What about the players?
When it comes to actually playing a cross-platform game there is a popular view that PC players have the advantage over console and mobile players, particularly in FPS games. It’s much quicker to manoeuvre using a mouse and keyboard (with 180o spins) compared to a controller and thumb stick.
On the flip side, keyboard and mouse players complain that controller players benefit from having the added benefit of aim assist. An argument that will spill into the next generation of players and continue for decades to come.
In a recent Reddit thread titled ‘Your thoughts on cross-platform?’ respondents backed up this view saying “there are better and worse controller players, and the same with [keyboard and mouse], but on average, the PC players will always be more agile when aiming” and “I’m all for Xbox and PlayStation to play together. Forced to be in PC lobbies, not so much.”
As I was diving deeper into this topic, I came across an article about Fortnite, which is perhaps one of the most well-known cross-platform games. Titled “Fortnite player explains why turning off cross-play is the best thing you can do” it follows that player’s posts on Reddit about their improved gameplay after switching off cross-play. The last couple of lines of his post said “I wish they would just have a console-only option in joining lobbies. I get it there are plenty of great console players, but it would be nice to have the options to play without computer players if you want”.
I’ve experienced a similar situation when playing Call of Duty (CoD). I know a lot of players who turned off cross play because they found it ‘too difficult’ playing against PC players.
A respondent in the previous Reddit thread summarised where I think gamers seem to be on the subject of cross-platform games: “having cross-play is great for overall community support and unity. I just wish we had more control over who we played with in some games.”
To be able to answer that, I took a look at which cross-platform games are most popular today. General consensus is that they include Fortnite, Minecraft, Dauntless, CoD and Apex Legends. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many more.
To give that popularity some context, consider that Fortnight alone continues to see an average of 30 million active users per day in 2025, with a concurrent peak of 4.1 million in December 2024.
I believe that with the gaming industry becoming more expansive and greater numbers of people around the world using it as a platform to socialise, the demand for cross-platform games will grow. There is a caveat to that though - I’m an FPS controller player and I agree with the commentators on Reddit that cross-platform lends itself much better to games where the disparity between devices isn’t as important.
I also believe that the complexities around development could limit new cross-platform game development to larger AAA studios which have the resource to take on the increased workload.
What does excite me about cross-platform gaming, though, is its ability to bring more people together and that’s ultimately what gaming is about. If it wasn’t for cross-platform gaming, I wouldn’t have re-connected and stayed in touch with many of my friends from back home that play on Xbox.
Jarrod Palmer is our gaming industry specialist. He knows the issues our customers face and how best
to help them. He's also a great Warzone player and is the UK office FIFA champion.
