Blockchain in Media and Entertainment Market Size, Share, Growth and Forecast, 2025-2035

Media ledger spending shifts from NFT hype to provenance

The blockchain in media and entertainment market was valued at USD 748.0 million in 2025 and is projected to increase from USD 868.5 million in 2026 to USD 3.33 billion by 2035, registering a CAGR of 16.11% during 2025–2035. Demand now rests on signed news content, fan networks owned by media groups, on-chain game items that keep the wallet out of sight, and rights records that show who made a work after the U.S. Copyright Office tied protection to human authorship. North America held the largest regional share, 35.2% in 2025, as U.S. studios, sports leagues and news groups run the biggest live programs. The main commercial change is the move away from speculative NFT drops toward provenance and licensing. Content provenance and authentication is the fastest-growing application at 25.50% a year, as publishers anchor signed content and machine-readable license terms on-chain.

What counts as media ledger spend, and what is left out?

Spending is counted where the buyer or platform operator sits. In scope are chain infrastructure, wallets and marketplace primary-sale and service fees for game items and licensed collectibles; token-based tickets, loyalty passes, fan tokens and membership programs; decentralized video, storage and ad-verification tools sold to media firms; rights registries and split-payment systems; and ledger-anchored signing and licensing protocols for news and media assets.

Secondary NFT trading volume, the market value of collectibles or tokens, price gains on fan and game tokens and crypto exchange fees are excluded, as are provenance tools that sign content without an on-chain anchor. Those exclusions explain why boom-era estimates for the field were far larger.

Public chains and game assets lead while provenance grows

Public networks lead the type mix while consortium ledgers grow fastest

Based on type, the market is categorized into public blockchain, private blockchain and consortium blockchain. Public blockchain led with 53.8% of 2025 value, because game items, collectibles and fan passes must move between wallets and marketplaces, so most run on public networks and their layer-2s, such as Soneium, Immutable's chains and Polygon. Consortium blockchain grows fastest at 19.47% a year, as rights registries and provenance networks need shared governance among rival studios, labels and publishers.

Collectibles and game items lead by application while provenance grows fastest

Based on application, the market is categorized into digital collectibles and gaming assets, ticketing and fan engagement, content distribution and advertising, royalty payments and rights management, and content provenance and authentication. Digital collectibles and gaming assets led with 42.5% of 2025 value, since licensed sports collectibles and game items remain the largest live use after the crash. Content provenance and authentication grows fastest at 25.50% a year, as news and media owners anchor signed content and license terms on-chain.

AI provenance and authorship rules drive media ledgers

Deepfakes and AI scraping push newsrooms to sign and license content on-chain

Generative AI makes it harder for publishers to prove what they released and to control who reuses it. In response, Fox Corporation released its Verify protocol on the public Polygon proof-of-stake network in January 2024, and in June 2024 it named TIME as the first outside publisher, according to Fox Corporation's investor announcement, with smart contracts setting the terms on which AI platforms access articles. News groups in the U.S. and Europe are the first buyers, which makes provenance the fastest-growing application through 2035.

Human-authorship rules make studios and labels record who made what

The U.S. Copyright Office released Part 2 of its AI copyright report on Jan. 29, 2025, concluding that AI outputs are protected only where a human contributes enough expressive material, so studios and labels must now document contributors and dates. The joint Copyright Office and USPTO NFT study, sent to Congress on March 12, 2024, had already found that NFT buyers often do not know which rights they acquire. Registries binding a token to a license, contributors and a payment split close that gap in digital rights management.

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Sony's Soneium shows media groups paying for owned fan channels

Owning the fan relationship is worth more to a studio than selling a collectible once. Sony Block Solutions Labs took Soneium, an Ethereum layer-2 network, to mainnet in January 2025, and Sony Group's fan marketing platform launched on it that month. The network processed 455 million transactions, counted 5.3 million active wallets and hosted more than 250 live apps in 2025, according to Soneium's 2025 review. Ticketing and fan programs in Japan, Korea and the U.S. benefit first, with demand building over the next 3 to five years.

MiCA exempts unique tokens, giving European issuers a clear path

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, entered into force on June 29, 2023, and its recital 10 excludes crypto-assets that are unique and not fungible, such as digital art and collectibles. Media firms can therefore issue one-off tickets, passes and artworks without a crypto-asset white paper. Recital 11 sets the limit, as fractional parts and large series can point to fungibility and bring a program inside the rules. The clarity favors utility tokens tied to a real service and supports Europe's growth of 15.20% a year.

Signing cameras and wallet-free games reshape ledger use

Cameras shift toward signing images at the moment of capture

Proof of origin increasingly starts inside the camera, and on June 26, 2025, Sony launched Camera Verify, according to Sony's European press center, embedding C2PA digital signatures in images and letting news organizations share verification links with third parties. Sony sits on the C2PA steering committee with Adobe, Amazon, the BBC, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok and Truepic, and the Content Credentials specification has reached version 2.3. Content Credentials do not require a ledger, yet each signed asset adds demand for public registries where signatures and licenses can be checked.

Game publishers keep the wallet in the background

The second wave of blockchain games treats item ownership as a background feature rather than an investment. In April 2025, Immutable announced that Ubisoft had partnered with it on Might & Magic Fates, the 12th entry in the series, using Immutable's infrastructure for digital ownership and player rewards, and players do not need to buy tokens to start. Even after the crash, digital collectibles and gaming assets keep the largest application share, 42.5% in 2025.

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AI developers need licenses that machines can read, creating an opportunity

AI developers need content, and publishers want an audit trail and payment. To bridge that gap, Fox's Verify uses smart contracts to set access terms for AI platforms, and on Oct. 6, 2026, Soneium backed ERC-8432, an IP licensing standard designed to be readable by both people and AI agents. Vendors that combine signing, license terms and settlement can therefore sell recurring services to news groups, image libraries and studios. Content provenance and authentication, the fastest-growing application, captures most of this spend, although the standards are still early.

Shared registries for music rights and K-pop IP open an opportunity

Collecting societies, publishers and labels are testing shared registries that several rights holders govern together. In April 2025, JASRAC and Kendrix worked with Soneium on a music-rights on-chain standard, and on Sept. 28, 2026, Soneium partnered with DayOneDream to bring K-pop IP on-chain as tokenized IP. That shared governance makes consortium blockchain the fastest-growing type at 19.47% a year. Royalty splits on music streaming are the natural first use, but adoption depends on rival labels agreeing on governance.

NFT distrust and unenforced royalties limit ledger budgets

The NFT crash left consumers wary and capital thinner

Secondary trading of collectibles fell to a fraction of its 2021 to 2022 peak, many celebrity and brand collections lost most of their value, and several projects closed. As a result, consumers now link the word NFT with loss, and investors are more selective, with Animoca Brands saying on Sept. 22, 2026, that it and Currenc Group had suspended merger discussions. Studios and brands respond by recasting tokens as passes, memberships and in-game items, and Credence Research models collectibles growth below the overall market rate.

Optional marketplace royalties undercut the promise to artists

Several NFT marketplaces made creator royalties optional on resales, which weakened the original promise that artists would earn from every trade. Musicians, illustrators and smaller labels lose expected income, and studios hesitate to build programs around resale royalties they cannot enforce. Royalty systems that work today sit inside licensed platforms and rights-society agreements, not open trading. Vendors reduce the risk by enforcing payment splits at the primary sale, inside closed marketplaces and through contracts with collecting societies.

Large series and fractional tokens can fall inside EU crypto rules

MiCA's exemption covers only unique tokens, so large series and fractional NFTs can be treated as fungible and fall inside the rules. At the same time, the transition period for existing crypto-asset service providers ended on July 1, 2026. Media firms that serve EU fans must design ticket, pass and collectible programs carefully, which raises legal costs and lengthens launches. Issuers mitigate the barrier by keeping editions unique, tying each token to a service such as event access, and working with authorized platforms wherever trading is involved.

Signed files and shared databases often do the job without a ledger

Content Credentials work without a blockchain, and a single label can keep royalty records in its own systems at lower cost. Buyers therefore question whether a ledger adds value, and many provenance and rights projects stop at the pilot stage. The pressure is strongest in content distribution and advertising, where decentralized video networks compete with mature cloud delivery. Suppliers respond by targeting cases where several parties that do not trust each other must share 1 record, such as rights splits across 2 or more labels.

U.S. studios lead as Gulf and Asian media hubs grow faster

North America's studios, leagues and newsrooms run the largest programs

North America held 35.2% of 2025 value and grows at 14.20% a year. The United States hosts the largest studios, sports leagues and news groups. Fox's Verify protocol, licensed collectible platforms such as NBA Top Shot and NFL ALL DAY on Dapper Labs' Flow chain, and U.S. Copyright Office guidance on AI authorship anchor demand. Growth trails the global rate because collectibles, the most mature use in the region, expand more slowly than provenance and rights services.

Asia Pacific moves Japanese and Korean entertainment IP on-chain

Asia Pacific held 33.8% of 2025 value and grows at 18.00% a year. Sony's Soneium network, Japanese music-rights work with JASRAC and Kendrix, and K-pop IP programs such as the DayOneDream partnership drive demand. LINE mini-apps were announced for Soneium in 2025, opening on-chain experiences to an audience of more than 200 million users. Game companies add volume, including Square Enix with its SYMBIOGENESIS title and Sky Mavis, which runs the Ronin network.

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Europe's legal clarity on unique tokens supports issuers

Europe held 21.8% of 2025 value and grows at 15.20% a year. MiCA's exclusion for unique NFTs gives issuers of tickets, passes and art a clear legal path, while the end of the transition period on July 1, 2026, raises the bar for platforms that serve EU fans. The BBC sits on the C2PA steering committee, and French game publisher Ubisoft brings on-chain items to a long-running franchise through Might & Magic Fates.

Latin America and Middle East & Africa build on football fans and Gulf media hubs

Latin America held 4.8% of 2025 value and grows at 16.20% a year. Football clubs and music fan bases in Brazil and Argentina drive fan-token and pass programs. The Middle East & Africa held 4.4% of 2025 value and is the fastest-growing region at 18.70% a year. Gulf states are building media, gaming and sports hubs with web3 licensing regimes, from a small base.

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K-pop tokens, licensing standards and an EU deadline

Studio layer-2s and camera signing shape ledger technology

• Studio layer-2 networks such as Soneium, built as Ethereum layer-2 chains, give media groups control over fees, identity and fan data. Soneium hosted more than 250 live apps in 2025.
• Capture signing adds C2PA signatures in the camera, under a specification now at version 2.3, creating the records that ledger registries anchor and license.
• Machine-readable licensing standards such as ERC-8432 express IP license terms that both people and AI agents can read, enabling automated access deals.
• Zero-knowledge chains combine scale with privacy for publishers, and Fox plans to move Verify to its own zero-knowledge chain on Ethereum built with Polygon CDK.
• Invisible wallets from game publishers let players start without buying tokens, so ownership sits in the background of normal play.

Media owners, game platforms and fan-token firms compete

Suppliers fall into four groups, starting with media groups that run their own networks. Sony backs Soneium through Sony Block Solutions Labs and supplies C2PA signing in its professional cameras, while Fox Corporation operates Verify on Polygon. Gaming and collectible platforms, including Immutable, Dapper Labs, Sky Mavis and Animoca Brands, supply chains, wallets, marketplaces and investment to publishers such as Ubisoft and Square Enix. Infrastructure and fan-token firms, led by Polygon Labs and Chiliz, provide networks and the Socios platform used by football clubs. Ledger-based provenance tools build on the Content Credentials standard, which Adobe helps lead within the C2PA. Credence Research estimates the 10 largest suppliers hold just over half of 2025 value, with concentration lowest in provenance and rights, where standards are still forming. The likely winners make the ledger invisible to fans and readers.

Media ledger suppliers and their roles

Media ledgers now sell proof and permission, not speculation

Credence Research's view is that media ledgers have become infrastructure for proof and permission, not a product sold to speculators. The NFT boom inflated earlier expectations; the spending that remains pays for signing, licensing, rights records and fan memberships, which is why provenance and authentication is the fastest-growing application. Suppliers that hide wallets, plug into C2PA signing and handle license settlement for AI developers are best placed. The main risk is that signed files and shared databases prove good enough, so buyers and investors should watch AI licensing deals, collecting-society pilots and MiCA enforcement.

Spend-based model excludes NFT trading and token prices

The report uses 2025 as the base year and forecasts to 2035, with CAGR calculated over 2025–2035. Market values come from Credence Research's market model, built from live programs run by studios, labels, broadcasters, game publishers and ticketing firms, priced by platform, infrastructure and services spend, and checked against the media-related revenue of supplier pools with trading income and token gains removed; type, application and regional splits are Credence Research estimates. Supporting evidence comes from company announcements, published network data, EU regulatory texts and U.S. Copyright Office publications.

Licensing and rights services outgrow collectibles by 2035

Through 2035, spending will shift from collectibles toward provenance, licensing and rights services, as AI developers pay for content with an audit trail and labels share registries. Studio-run networks will carry more fan programs, and game publishers will keep wallets out of sight. On Credence Research's regional growth rates, Asia Pacific overtakes North America in value around 2027, while the Middle East & Africa grows fastest from a small base. The pace will depend on licensing standards, collecting-society adoption and how strictly EU rules treat large token series.

Note: The depth of individual sections depends on data availability for this market. Volume, capacity, trade and other unit-based metrics are included where applicable.