7 Bold Predictions That Will Reshape Gaming and Entertainment in 2026

Sports entertainment, Disney is bought, Paramount acquires Take-Two Interactive, and Telcos and banks get into gaming.

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year. I hope that you had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and that you got to spend it with your favorite people, and of course the Stranger Things finale that dropped at 8pm ET on Dec. 31st. If you haven’t been able to watch it yet, I won’t spoil it for you. I’ll just say this: unlike other successful shows like Game of Thrones that struggled to deliver a closing worthy of the epic run the shows had, the Duffer Brothers and the Stranger Things cast delivered. The 2-hour finale was everything it could have been and an ending that did right by the show’s 10-year run.

The impact of Stranger Things on Netflix’s success cannot be overstated. After Volume 2 of the fifth and final season was released, Season 5 racked up a total of 34.5 million views during the week of Dec. 22-28. Across all seasons, the show has officially surpassed 1.2 billion views on Netflix. While the official numbers for the final episode haven’t been released yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Netflix’s single best release of all time.

Stranger Things capped off a wild year for the entertainment and gaming industries with major developments that will reverberate far into the new year and beyond (you can revisit my headline review here). Now that the calendar has turned, it is time to dive into what I believe will be the most important developments this year.

I’ve put together seven bold predictions that will reshape the worlds of entertainment and gaming as we know them. Some may seem obvious. Others will be non-obvious at all. All of them are bold. Plus: I intentionally stayed away from any predictions that include “AI will change [insert name of random industry]”. You’ve already seen enough of those and given the omnipresence of AI, they don’t qualify as predictions anymore.

You deserve better.

Without further adieu, here are seven bold predictions for entertainment and gaming in 2026.

#1 EA Becomes the Premier Destination for Sports and Entertainment

It’s in the game! Never in the history of the company will Electronic Arts’ tagline have been more spot on than in 2026. After the announced buyout by the private equity consortium for $55 billion is completed, expect some major changes. The new owners will go in and leave no stone unturned. That includes a radical focus on sports and only the major franchises with established fanbases and transmedia potential. With Saudi Arabia’s ownership going up to 90% post closing of the transaction, the Kingdom will effectively be calling the shots going forward. They understand better than anyone the cultural and societal importance of sports, which is why they invested so heavily into the football (soccer) Saudi Pro League. Where gaming and football crossover is where 3.4 billion players collide with 4.5 billion football fans. It’s the world’s biggest medium and its biggest sport joining forces.

Prediction: Watch out for EA to acquire exclusive live streaming sports rights and bring live sports to its sports-focused gaming franchises with real-time updates, news, social, commerce, and potentially sports betting. It’s the foundation for a premier sports and media subscription offering that ESPN+ was trying to be.

#2 Disney Becomes an M&A Target and Is Bought

Yes, you read that right. I think the bidding war over Warner Bros. Discovery was just the starting gun on a wave of consolidation in the entertainment space unprecedented in scale. There will be no sacred cows and no place to hide, and Disney is still the crown jewel of the entire industry. Yes, its business is performing well. Disney’s streaming service Disney+ has grown from 73 million to 131 million users in the last five years. Its theme parks business is the gift that keeps on giving. But the reality also is that Disney’s stock has underperformed the market and its stock price is on the same level where it was 10 years ago.

These are the perfect conditions for private equity or a strategic buyer to come in. Disney already had to fend off activist investors in the past. Plus, Disney CEO Bob Iger is on his way out and he’s a dealmaker that likes to go out with a bang (before his first term as CEO ended in 2020, Iger-led Disney bought 21st Century Fox for over $71 billion).

Prediction: Disney’s market cap sits just above $200 billion. Add a 30-50% premium on top and you get to a price range Disney shareholders and its board couldn’t say no to. The reality is there’s only a few players that could pull this deal off. At the top of the list: Apple. It would bolster its Apple TV+ subscription offering and give them a lucrative brick and mortar business (theme parks) that together with Apple’s tech and experience capabilities could thrive even further. At a market cap of $4 trillion and with $55 billion in cash on its balance sheet Apple could acquire Disney and cement Tim Cook’s legacy before he hands over the reins.

#3 Netflix Wins the Battle Over Warner Bros. Discovery for Good

Ultimately, all further bids from Paramount-Skydance are rejected by the WBD board and shareholders. It is clear that they want to go and join forces with Netflix. When even the requested personal guarantee of the billions behind the Paramount offer by billionaire Larry Ellison isn’t enough to sway WBD shareholders, nothing else is. Paramount will go to great lengths to fight the Netflix-WBD deal in court, hoping for an intervention by the Trump administration and the FCC, but ultimately fall short.

Prediction: Paramount has vast ambitions and is very serious about becoming a dominant force in a completely reshaped Hollywood. After missing out on WBD, it will take its $100 billion war chest and go shopping elsewhere.

#4 Roblox and Take-Two Interactive Become Serious Acquisition Targets

See above on #3. The Ellisons will be going on a shopping spree and after missing out on WBD and realize that the WBD gaming assets, while attractive, were insufficient for their overall interactive entertainment strategy and the crucial role gaming plays within that. Paramount decides to consolidate the streaming market downstream and acquire smaller players, plus a couple of Hollywood production studios like A24. Most importantly, they spend the bulk of their money on a premier gaming company. With EA already taken off the board, two high profile names make the most sense: Roblox and Take-Two Interactive.

Prediction: Roblox’s current market cap of roughly $57 billion might make this a bit too expensive if you price in a premium of 30-50%. However, Paramount, especially with the backing of Oracle, could add value to Roblox’s efforts in building out a thriving advertising business. Leveraging the connections to the newly formed TikTok US, you could see valuable synergies in the short form video arena related to Roblox’s gameplay content. But in my view, the gangster move here is for Paramount to acquire Take-Two Interactive. Its market cap sits at $46.5 billion, so even with a 50% premium and a total price of $69.75 billion, the Ellisons would have plenty of cash left to spend on the studio and streaming side. A price for Take-Two in this range is justified and puts it just above what Microsoft paid for Activision Blizzard. Paramount gets access to one of the biggest franchises in gaming history, GTA, with a new and highly competitive creator economy coming out. They also get Zynga, still a mobile gaming powerhouse with tremendous publishing capabilities. You combine the gaming chops of Take-Two across all gaming platforms and combine it with Paramount’s IP library. It’s a home run.

#5 A Major IP Holder Licenses Its Library to Gemini

Disney and OpenAI set the stage with their deal that saw Disney license 200 of its iconic characters exclusively to OpenAI’s model Sora. IP holders realize that IP will make its way onto every screen and wherever the consumer is, regardless of whether they like it or not. Given the current regulation, it’s nearly impossible to prevent piracy and IP usage that infringes on their copyrights anyway, so you might as well play offense like Disney.

Prediction: Netflix, Comcast (Peacock), and Paramount. One of these three will sign a deal similar to what Disney did and license their IP. Not to OpenAI. This time, the IP will go to Gemini. As Google becomes a stronger competitor to OpenAI almost weekly in the AI consumer space, they have to make a move. Pairing world-class IP with Gemini and Google’s Nano Banana model is a no brainer.

#6 A Large Telco or Bank Goes Big Into Gaming

What do telecommunication companies and banks have to do with gaming? At first sight, not a whole lot. But on second thought, gaming is a key part to solving one of the biggest issues that telcos and banks have been dealt at the hands of the big tech companies: their customer relationship has eroded to the point where the consumer interface is largely owned by tech companies and telcos and banks, for the most part, have a solely transactional relationship with consumers. Gaming is the antidote as it allows them to increase the proximity to both their existing as well as future customers.

Prediction: We will see a large non-endemic make a big move and get into gaming. This will include buying gaming studios, investing heavily into developers and publishers, and signing distribution agreements where game developers get access to the billions of customers that single telcos have access to on a daily basis.

#7 A Gaming Publisher Bets on Short Form Video and Enters Social Media

Short form video is the fastest growing content format online. Over 90% of Gen Z and Millennials watch short form videos on platforms like TikTok or Instagram. At the end of 2025, 82% of global internet traffic was expected to be video content, with short form video representing the bulk of that. We have trained our brains for short form consumption and fast dopamine releases, and these reduced attention spans are posing a serious threat to video games that can require players to invest longer periods of time and focus their attention in order to enjoy and progress in the game. Both video game developers and publishers will wake up to this fact and rethink gaming content in a world dominated by short form video.

Prediction: A large gaming publisher will get into social media using short form video content driven by its gaming portfolio by launching its own consumer-facing service. It’s the ultimate fandom meets social meets content engine and short form video is outpacing every other content form at rapid speed, challenging games that depend on sustained attention over prolonged periods of time.

2026 will be a remarkable year with unprecedented deal activity and bold moves where no company is safe. Gaming and entertainment will collide even further and set the foundation for the future of immersive entertainment - including what it takes to win and the players going after it.

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I will be covering the major events across tech, gaming, and entertainment twice a week throughout the entire year. With exclusive takes, behind the scenes insights and access to some of the power players shaping this new era, Technically Entertaining is a great spot for you to stay in the know and understand what moves you can make. I hope you join us - subscribe for free today.