With Revenue Share Shrinking, Is Nvidia's Gaming Division Still Relevant?
The gaming industry is abuzz with speculation about Nvidia's future focus. The company's recent earnings report reveals a startling shift in revenue streams. While Nvidia earned over $68 billion in the last quarter, a mere 5.5% of that came from gaming, leaving many to wonder: Does Nvidia need gaming anymore?
Nvidia's rise to becoming the world's most valuable company is a relatively recent phenomenon. In fiscal year 2020, revenue was just $10.9 billion. By 2022, it had more than doubled to $26 billion, and then exploded to $131 billion last year. It's now at $216 billion for the fiscal year that ended on Jan. 25, 2026.
Gaming used to account for a much larger share of revenue. In Q2 of 2020, gaming made up 51% of total sales, while data centers accounted for just 25%. The rest came from professional visualization (11%), automotive (8%), and OEM & other (4%). Fast forward to today, and the mix looks completely different. Data centers now generate 90% of Nvidia’s revenue, a shift fueled by the explosion in AI.
According to BullFincher, gaming revenue accounted for 17.15% of total revenue in FY 2024, but dipped to 8.7% in 2025 and is at 7.43% for FY 2026. Despite this drop, Nvidia still earns a lot from gaming; revenue was up 47% year over year, thanks to strong demand for its RTX 50-series graphics cards. However, it's a drop in the bucket compared with data center earnings.
This focus makes sense from a CEO's perspective, as it prioritizes shareholder value. But it raises serious questions about Nvidia's long-term commitment to gaming. Does Nvidia even need gaming anymore? It could sell the division, spin it off, or push everyone toward GeForce Now and just run GPUs in its own data centers. It's already skipped this year's GPU launches and has warned that GPU supplies will be limited in the first half of this year due to its data center commitments and global memory shortages.
It feels increasingly difficult to imagine a world where Nvidia cares about gaming as much as it used to. Even if the AI bubble were to pop, and Nvidia's data center earnings crashed to just 10% of what they are now, it would still earn almost twice as much from that as it does from gaming.
So, what do you think? Does Nvidia need gaming anymore? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
