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In thevideo game industry, 2022 saw the lingering effects of theCOVID-19 pandemic on the 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 byMicrosoft 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.^[1] This year also began a wave ofmass layoffs.^[2][3]

Production of theninth-generation consoles, thePlayStation 5 andXbox 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 theSteam Deck byValve, a handheld personal computing device capable of playing most games available onSteam. The gaming community remained cautious on themetaverse andblockchain games, though leading publishers expressed their desires to move more into that space.^[1]

Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considersexpansions and re-releases as separate entities.

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.^[10]

The following titles were 2022's top ten best-selling premium games by region (excludingmicrotransactions andfree-to-play titles) onPC andconsole platforms, for Japan, the United States, and Europe.

During the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in February that year, several video game developers and publishers with ties to Eastern Europe provided support for Ukrainian aid.^[73] On February 24,11 bit studios pledged to donate all profits earned over the following seven days fromThis War of Mine (2014) and its downloadable content to theUkrainian Red Cross.^[74]CD Projekt Red donated 1 million zloty (about€182,000) to thePolish Humanitarian Action group.^[75]Embracer Group donated$1 million to Red Cross, SOS Children's Villages, and ACT Alliance, among other charities.^[76]SCS Software donated over€20,000 to "multiple charities", and released new DLC forAmerican Truck Simulator andEuro Truck Simulator 2 to raise funds for Ukrainian charities.^[77]The Pokémon Company andNiantic announced they would donate $200K each, alongside an addition $75K raised by Niantic employees, to organisations such asGlobalGiving to provide humanitarian relief in Ukraine.^[78][79] In addition, Niantic announced the suspended availability ofPokémon Go,Pikmin Bloom, andIngress in bothRussia and Belarus.^[80]

Electronic Arts, Microsoft, andActivision Blizzard, among others, halted sales of physical and digital products into Russia during the conflict.^[81][82]Electronic Arts announced on March 2 that it had started the process to remove theRussia national football team and Russian football clubs from itsFIFA series as well as removing theBelarusian andRussian national teams and their club teams fromNHL 22.^[83] In addition to preventing purchase of their games in Russia,Nintendo announced on March 9 thatAdvance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, a tactical war game with a faction based onSoviet-era Russia, would be indefinitely delayed due to "recent world events".^[84][85][86]

Two game bundles offered byitch.io andHumble Bundle raised over$6 million and$20 million for Ukraine aid support, respectively.^[87][88]Epic Games made all proceeds fromFortnite during the last two weeks of March 2022 go to charitable aid for Ukraine, and raised over$144 million.^[89][90]

In total nearly$200 million was donated to Ukrainian humanitarian relief efforts by gaming companies.^[91]

• January 4 – Russell Lees, 60, narrative writer forUbisoft and theAssassin's Creed,Far Cry, andWatch Dogs series.^[92]
• January 5 – Stewart Gilray, 51, founder ofJust Add Water, developer of theOddworld series.^[93]
• February 28 –Kim Jung-ju, 54, founder ofNexon.^[94]
• March 14 –Scott Hall, 63, pro wrestler who appeared inWWE andWCW titles (appeared on the cover ofWWF Royal Rumble,WWF King of the Ring,WWF Rage in the Cage, andWWF Raw)^[95]
• March 27 – Mohammad Fahmi, 32, creator ofCoffee Talk^[96]
• March 29 –Scott Bennie, 61, developer writer for multiple role-playing games including theFallout series^[97]
• April 12 –Gilbert Gottfried, 67, voice actor (Iago inAladdin/Kingdom Hearts andMister Mxyzptlk inLego Batman 3 andLego DC Super-Villains)^[98][99]
• April 26 – Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff, 81, co-founder ofRazer Inc.^[100]
• May 9 – David Ward, 75, co-founder ofOcean Software^[101]
• May –Rieko Kodama, 59, developer for Sega, including lead developer onPhantasy Star andSkies of Arcadia^[102]
• June 9 –Billy Kametz, 35, voice actor (Rui inDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Blue inPokémon Masters EX)
• June 22 –Bernie Stolar, 75, former president ofSega of America, founder ofSony Computer Entertainment of America^[103]
• June –Technoblade, 23,MinecraftYouTuber^[104]
• July 4 –Kazuki Takahashi, 60, creator ofYu-Gi-Oh! which hadnumerous video games^[105]
• July 15 – Robert Alan Koeneke, 62, creator ofMoria^[106]
• July 27 –Mary Alice, 85, actress known for portrayingThe Oracle inThe Matrix Revolutions and the video gamesEnter The Matrix andThe Matrix Online.
• August 30 – Mitsuhiro Yoshida, 61, developer ofRiver City Ransom^[107]
• September 3 – Mike Fahey, 49, writer and editor of the websiteKotaku^[108]
• October 1/2 – Rob Smith, editor and writer forPC Gamer,OXM, andPSM.^[109]
• October 12 – Tony "RSGloryAndGold" Winchester, 69,RuneScape player onTwitch^[110][111]
• October 14 –Jan Rabson, 68, voice actor most notable as the voice ofLarry Laffer in theLeisure Suit Larry series^[112]
• October 15 – Ferret Baudoin, lead/senior game designer for multiple action-RPG games includingNeverwinter Nights 2,Dragon Age 2,Fallout 4, andFallout 76^[113]
• October 29 –Ryan Karazija, 40, front man and lead singer ofLow Roar, and composer of the soundtrack toDeath Stranding^[114]
• November 10 –Kevin Conroy, 66, voice actor best known as the voice ofBatman^[115]
• November 19 –Jason David Frank, 49, actor best known for his role as the originalGreen and White Rangers in thePower Rangers franchise.^[116]
• December 17 –Archer Maclean, 60, developer ofCommodore 64 games includingDropzone andInternational Karate^[117]