The video game industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. With the development of technology, video games are becoming more accessible and the number of players is only increasing. The paper thus clarifies the concept of video games and gives insight into the economic picture of the video game industry. It also provides insight into the historical development of the video game industry, dating back to the 1950s. At the same time, the paper elaborates on marketing in the video game industry, i.e. how video games are promoted, but also explains why people play video games. In the video game industry, one comes across numerous business models by which companies try to increase their income. Certain business models thus encounter resistance from players and bans by certain countries due to their unethical nature and certain models are clarified in this work. A controversial topic that is also elaborated in the paper is violence in video games, regarding which different opinions are encountered. The video game industry has also, unlike many other industries, achieved good numbers in terms of revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic and there is no doubt that the industry will continue to grow.