Young Russians are spending significant amounts on video games, reports Mash, citing data from the "Center for Gambling Addiction Prevention".
Brawl Stars
In a statement to Mash, the center's director, Andrey Khodykov, reminded that the annual spending of all Russians on video games amounts to approximately 175 billion rubles—a figure previously reported in a study by the RVI association, the IFPI company, and NAFI for the year 2025. Based on this, the expert estimated that children aged 7-17 spend between 7-14 billion rubles on games.
Where Khodykov obtained the 7-14 billion ruble figure for children's spending is unclear. This data is not present in the aforementioned study. It might be internal analytics from the "Center for Gambling Addiction Prevention" or entirely Khodykov's speculative assumptions.
It is also unclear over what period children manage to spend such amounts. From Khodykov's words, it seems like the spending refers to the year 2025, but Mash reports that these expenses cover the incomplete eight months of 2026.
In any case, Mash notes that young Russians most often spend money in popular free-to-play titles: purchasing loot boxes, in-game currency, skins, and so on. They are especially active in doing so in Minecraft, Brawl Stars, Standoff 2, Roblox, PUBG Mobile, and Genshin Impact.
It is reported that over the past year, 2.2 million Russian children over the age of 12 have played games with loot boxes and gacha mechanics. Moreover, 190,000 of them have shown signs of gambling addiction.