Visual Effect Market Size

Global Visual Effect market size was valued at USD 9.60 Billion in 2023 and is poised to grow from USD 10.65 Billion in 2024 to USD 22.42 Billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 9.75% in the forecast period (2025-2032).

The primary driver boosting the global visual effects (VFX) market growth is the rising demand for immersive content. Additionally, increasing use of virtual production and advancements in CGI and real-time rendering technologies are expected to further propel market expansion.

The shifting trends of the global VFX world are changing fast owing to growing direct consumption of digital content, booming OTTs, and merging the cinematic and gaming experience. These platforms themselves, i.e., Netflix, Amazon, or Disney+, are working to keep their stores fully stocked with content that has high-end and special effects. For instance, Netflix committed to spending over $17 billion in 2024 on original content, a huge part of which is expected to include VFX-heavy genres such as sci-fi, fantasy, and action.

However, this rapid expansion comes with operational and structural challenges. One major concern is the lack of sustainable labor practices, especially as studios globally face workforce burnout due to tight production schedules and high client demands. Now, under this generation of cinema, all studios around the world are facing that, as they are getting burned out from thorough production schedules and sharp demands from clients. In 2023, artists from several major studios—including a public letter from more than 200 VFX artists at Marvel Studios—sent messages about problems related to crunch culture, insecurity of employment, and no union representation. These price pressures further induce studios to transfer work to the developing economies where they experience the dilemma between quality and consistency, and the logistical challenges posed by time zone separation. At the other end of the spectrum of technological change, real-time rendering engines, virtual production, and AI-assisted tools have taken the industry into a new paradigm.

While these innovations bear the promise of efficiency, they also create hurdles to adoption, particularly for small studios that lack either capital or skilled labor. Nevertheless, the prevailing sentiment in the market remains one of optimism due to a further distinction in applications-from the development of the metaverse to the emergence of virtual influencers in marketing.

How Virtual Production is Transforming Efficiency in Visual Effects Workflows?

The shifting trends of the global VFX world are changing fast owing to growing direct consumption of digital content, booming OTTs, and merging the cinematic and gaming experience. These platforms themselves, i.e., Netflix, Amazon, or Disney+, are working to keep their stores fully stocked with content that has high-end and special effects. For instance, Netflix committed to spending over $17 billion in 2024 on original content, a huge part of which is expected to include VFX-heavy genres such as sci-fi, fantasy, and action.

Virtual production is transforming filmmaking processes, and the visual effects industry is embracing it at scale. Real-time renders are now changing the area of set design, visualization of scenes and post-production workflows. In fact most production teams are able to visualize a final shot while actually shooting it with LED walls and game engines like Unreal Engine so that it reduces the costs on expensive reshoots and actual location shoots. The essence of this practice is to make transactions efficient and creative while being minimally intrusive on carbon footprint and production costs. As an example, Technicolor Group cooperated with NantStudios to set up a cutting-edge virtual production stage in Los Angeles in October 2024, which features real-time rendering technology and large LED volumes to create even-out gravitational pull content for a slate of upcoming originals.

How AI is Streamlining Post-Production and Democratizing Access to VFX Tools?

That was Adobe: It has taken a big step farther in March 2023 when it launched Firefly, its AI-enabled suite that now integrates with After Effects. This software will help automate complex post-production work, including removing object tracking and rotoscoping, functions that consume so much time and effort doing manually. Firefly helps creators streamline their workflow to deliver projects faster and spend more time on creative aspects of producing VFX.

This launch is also part of a far-reaching innovation strategy by the company to open up the possibility of high-end visual effects production for many. Integration of AI to the core tools will give Adobe a much stronger standing as a market leader besides empowering the independent creators and studios to better scale production.