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Market Guides8 min read

How to Launch Your Game in France: The 2026 Guide

By Jan Rojek

The Eiffel Tower above the Paris rooftops at night, lit in blue and cyan

France is one of Europe's three largest games markets, and one of the fastest-changing when it comes to rules. A French launch needs French everywhere — the law requires it in advertising — and a clear plan for new rules on influencers, loot boxes and age ratings. This guide covers what a publisher needs to know before launching a game in France in 2026.

Key takeaways

  • The French games market reached €5.86 billion in 2025, up 2.9% — the second-best year on record (SELL, 2026).
  • Smartphone games grew fastest, +11% to a record €1.79 billion, with 94% of that coming from free-to-play purchases.
  • 40.2 million French people aged 10+ play games. The average player is 40, and 49% are women.
  • The Loi Toubon requires French in all advertising. English ad copy needs a French translation of equal visibility.
  • France's influencer law (2023) sets strict labelling rules for creator campaigns, enforced with real inspections.
  • Since June 2026, new PEGI rules give loot boxes a minimum rating of 16.

How big is the French games market?

According to SELL, the French publishers' association, the market was worth €5.856 billion in 2025, 2.9% more than in 2024 and second only to the 2022 record of €6.02 billion (SELL, L'Essentiel du jeu vidéo, 2026).

Segment (2025)RevenueShareChange
Console€2.552 bn44%flat
Smartphone and tablet€1.792 bn31%+11%
PC€1.512 bn26%flat

Console is still the largest segment in France — more than in most European markets — but the growth is in free-to-play: 94% of smartphone game revenue comes from in-app purchases. Digital sales account for 89% of all game software revenue.

Who plays games in France?

  • 40.2 million French people aged 10 and over played at least once in 2025 — around seven in ten.
  • 76% of them play every week, on average 6 hours 25 minutes a week.
  • The average player is 40 years old, and 88% are adults.
  • 49% of players are women.

All figures: SELL and Médiamétrie, 2025. As in Germany, the paying audience in France is older than many publishers assume — and nearly half of it is female.

Which genres and games lead in France?

France's top-grossing smartphone games in 2025 were Coin Master (€119 million), Monopoly Go!, Pokémon TCG Pocket, Last War and Royal Match, followed by Gossip Harbor, Candy Crush Saga, Brawl Stars, Whiteout Survival and Clash Royale. Kingshot and Total Battle also made the top 20 (Sensor Tower data, via SELL, 2026).

The picture has two sides: casual and casino-style games lead, and 4X strategy (Last War, Whiteout Survival, Kingshot, Total Battle) holds a large, stable share at the top. On PC, action, shooters, RPGs and strategy sell best. France also has real national pride in its games — the French-made Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold more than 8 million copies and won nine awards at The Game Awards 2025 (Forbes, 2026).

How do French players pay?

France has its own card network, Cartes Bancaires (CB), which handles around three quarters of card payments in the country (WCB, 2026). For any web shop, CB-branded cards must work smoothly at checkout. PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay are the common alternatives.

What rules apply when launching a game in France?

Loi Toubon: French in advertising

The 1994 Loi Toubon makes French mandatory in written, spoken and audiovisual advertising and in product descriptions. A foreign-language slogan is allowed only with a French translation that is "as readable, audible or intelligible" as the original (ARPP). Registered brand and game names are exempt. In practice: every ad, landing page and funnel shown in France needs French copy.

The influencer law

France's influencer law of 9 June 2023 (n° 2023-451) requires paid posts to carry "Publicité" or "Collaboration commerciale", retouched images to be labelled "Image retouchée" and AI-generated images "Image virtuelle" (Légifrance). The consumer authority DGCCRF actively checks creators — including gaming streamers — and found problems with around 40% of those it inspected (DGCCRF). Publishers running creator campaigns in France should brief every creator on the labels in writing.

PEGI and loot boxes

France uses PEGI ratings. Since June 2026, new PEGI rules rate in-game spending as a risk: paid random items (loot boxes) mean at least PEGI 16, time-limited or quantity-limited offers at least PEGI 12 (Reed Smith, 2026). Games already rated are not re-rated.

France also created a new legal category, JONUM (games with monetisable digital items, such as tradable NFTs), in its 2024 SREN law; operators must register with the gambling regulator ANJ before launch (ANJ). This does not affect a standard free-to-play game, but any game with tradable items that have real-money value should be checked.

Cookies and privacy

The French data protection authority CNIL is one of the strictest in Europe on cookies: its 2025 fines reached a record €487 million, including €325 million against Google and €150 million against Shein for placing cookies without consent (Next, 2026). Every landing page needs a consent banner on which refusing is as easy as accepting.

What do French players expect from localisation?

French players expect a full French version, and the law requires it for advertising anyway. The quality of the French matters as much as its presence: players notice literal translations immediately, and an ad that reads as translated from English performs like a foreign ad. A French version also opens French-speaking Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, which can be tested as separate markets.

Which marketing channels work in France?

France's digital advertising market grew 11% to €12.4 billion in 2025, with social media growing fastest (SRI, 2026). The channels that matter for a game launch:

  • Meta, Google and YouTube for reach across all ages.
  • Snapchat, with 19.7 million daily users in France (Médiamétrie, via The Media Leader, 2025) — one of its strongest markets in Europe and a real channel for younger players.
  • TikTok for fast creative testing.
  • Native advertising on French news and entertainment sites, through networks such as Taboola and Teads (formerly Outbrain), reaching the 35+ audience.
  • Twitch and YouTube creators — France has one of Europe's strongest streaming scenes; the ZEvent charity stream raised a record €32.9 million in September 2026.
  • Paris Games Week, 22–25 October 2026 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles (Paris Games Week).

How Nomads Digital approaches a French launch

France is one of Nomads Digital's core markets, alongside Germany, Poland, South Korea and the US. Our campaigns for Rise of Kingdoms and State of Survival ran across Europe for more than a year each.

For a French launch we:

  1. Research the competition first — which strategy and casual games are buying French traffic, and which angles they repeat.
  2. Write French creatives and funnels from scratch, not translated from English, so they meet the Loi Toubon and sound local. Every interactive funnel ships in 20+ languages, with each visitor seeing their own automatically.
  3. Test angles side by side on live French traffic and move budget to the winners daily.
  4. Measure every stage, from click to registration, install, retention and paying player — per market, so France, Belgium and Switzerland are judged separately.

Read more about how we run game user acquisition.

Launch checklist for France

  1. Translate the game, store pages, ads, landing pages and support into native-quality French.
  2. Check every English slogan or term in ads against the Loi Toubon.
  3. Review loot boxes and limited-time offers against the new PEGI rules.
  4. Check whether any tradable in-game items fall under the JONUM rules.
  5. Use a CNIL-compliant consent banner on every page.
  6. Make sure CB cards and PayPal work on any web shop.
  7. Brief creators in writing on "Publicité" and "Image virtuelle" labels.
  8. Plan creatives for younger players (Snapchat, TikTok) and for the 35+ audience (Facebook, news sites).
  9. Decide whether Belgium, Switzerland and Canada launch with France.
  10. Set up tracking per country from click to paying player.

Frequently asked questions

How big is the French games market?

€5.86 billion in 2025, according to SELL — up 2.9% on 2024. Smartphone games were the fastest-growing segment at €1.79 billion.

Do game ads in France have to be in French?

Yes. Under the Loi Toubon, advertising in France must be in French. A foreign-language slogan needs a French translation of equal visibility; brand and game names are exempt.

What does the French influencer law mean for game marketing?

Paid creator content must be labelled "Publicité" or "Collaboration commerciale", and edited or AI-generated images must be labelled too. The rules are actively enforced, including for gaming streamers.

Which games earn the most in France?

In 2025, Coin Master, Monopoly Go!, Pokémon TCG Pocket, Last War and Royal Match led the smartphone charts. Strategy games such as Whiteout Survival and Kingshot are also in the top 20.

Is Snapchat important for game marketing in France?

Yes. Snapchat has around 19.7 million daily users in France, which makes it one of the main channels for reaching younger players there.

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