Mordor Intelligence forecasts the global massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) market at US$31.02 billion in 2026. It expects the market to reach US$51.3 billion by 2031. That works out to a 10.58% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the forecast period.
Cloud gaming is one of the technologies Mordor connects to that growth. The report also cites wider smartphone adoption, faster internet access, and digital monetization.
Across the market forecasts we’ve covered, cloud gaming has sometimes been measured directly and sometimes treated as a way to expand access, which is how Mordor handles it here.
Cloud gaming is part of that growth story, but the US$51.3 billion figure covers the full MMORPG market. Mordor doesn’t assign cloud gaming its own revenue figure. Instead, it treats cloud gaming as one way to expand access to MMORPGs.
Cloud Gaming Can Bring MMORPGs to More Devices
Mordor points to server-side rendering as one way publishers can bring demanding MMORPGs to a wider range of devices. Instead of processing the game locally, cloud gaming can handle that work remotely and let someone play on a phone or another supported device.
The report also discusses 5G and edge computing as ways to reduce the distance data travels and improve access to online games.
Mordor also uses cloud technology in a different context. It discusses cloud capacity that publishers can use to scale online infrastructure during busy periods. That’s backend cloud technology, not cloud gaming. One helps operate the online game. The other lets someone play it remotely through a cloud gaming service.
World of Warcraft is one current example of that cloud gaming access. Our catalogue lists it on GeForce NOW, airgpu, and Shadow PC, alongside other massively multiplayer games available through cloud gaming.
Mobile Accounts for 43.28% of MMORPG Revenue
Mobile represented 43.28% of the MMORPG market in 2025, according to Mordor. The same segment is forecast to grow at an 11.12% CAGR through 2031.
Smartphone adoption and wider 5G coverage are part of that outlook. Mobile already accounts for the largest share of MMORPG revenue in Mordor’s report, and cloud gaming gives phones another way to access games that would otherwise require more local processing power.
Free-to-Play Remains the Largest Revenue Model
Free-to-play games accounted for 57.10% of the MMORPG market in 2025. Mordor expects hybrid models that combine permanent free access with optional season passes to grow at an 11.2% CAGR through 2031.
Those figures measure how MMORPGs make money, not how they are accessed. A free-to-play or hybrid MMORPG can still be downloaded and played locally, offered through cloud gaming, or both.
Mordor doesn’t put a separate value on cloud gaming within the MMORPG market. Instead, it treats cloud gaming as one of the technologies helping expand how and where people can play MMORPGs.
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