ABI Research’s telco clients require hard data to formulate their Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy and uncover the most promising opportunities. 5G network slicing is one of those opportunities that the industry is sizing up. To quantify the slicing opportunity, we published our Network Slicing market data in early November 2025, the first update since 3Q 2023.
This blog answers four key questions about the network slicing market to help operators align their service portfolios with customer demand.
What Is the Outlook for the 5G Network Slicing Market?
According to ABI Research, the global network slicing market size will increase from US$6.1 billion in 2025 to US$67.52 billion in 2030. This represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 70%.
The enterprise segment is the larger market opportunity for telcos offering slicing services, accounting for 64% of the total revenue by the decade’s end. However, the consumer segment is expected to overtake the enterprise segment in the developed economies of North America and Europe.
Which Verticals Drive Network Slicing Market Growth?
ABI Research projects that the strongest market growth will stem from carpeted verticals. Industries like retail, stadiums, and financial services do not deal with mission- and safety-critical applications. Therefore, slicing deployments are more simplistic and provide a quicker Return on Investment (ROI) than in, let’s say, oil & gas.
Industrial manufacturing will remain an important vertical for network slicing, albeit at a substantially slower growth rate than carpeted verticals.
Table 1: Global Network Slicing Market Size by Vertical, 2025 to 2030 (Actual)
(Source: ABI Research)
|
Vertical |
2025 |
2026 |
2027 |
2028 |
2029 |
2030 |
|
Agriculture |
45,135,899 |
66,328,596 |
98,731,790 |
148,128,522 |
222,157,049 |
328,789,848 |
|
Financial Services |
217,791,718 |
275,410,364 |
388,737,849 |
621,058,706 |
1,093,243,913 |
1,987,452,573 |
|
Healthcare |
14,561,927 |
28,697,357 |
57,998,184 |
119,022,834 |
243,398,211 |
479,131,046 |
|
Industrial Manufacturing |
1,452,821,565 |
2,023,282,530 |
2,847,646,002 |
4,004,402,345 |
5,606,270,988 |
7,757,917,818 |
|
Logistics |
11,560,695 |
17,040,896 |
25,292,169 |
37,786,116 |
56,482,223 |
83,554,039 |
|
Oil, Gas and Mining |
11,756,644 |
17,191,692 |
25,422,929 |
37,970,879 |
56,636,426 |
83,636,088 |
|
Retail |
1,034,842,722 |
1,899,449,510 |
3,558,575,667 |
6,709,876,673 |
12,606,214,299 |
23,000,179,505 |
|
Stadiums |
400,453,772 |
739,937,769 |
1,388,276,279 |
2,624,113,738 |
4,943,632,982 |
9,039,453,106 |
|
Transport & Infrastructure |
95,806,113 |
130,032,226 |
177,039,581 |
241,545,146 |
329,148,966 |
444,482,638 |
|
Consumer |
2,780,110,406 |
4,144,271,579 |
6,161,243,544 |
9,314,618,587 |
14,643,960,464 |
24,284,948,954 |
|
Grand Total |
6,064,841,461 |
9,341,642,521 |
14,728,963,994 |
23,858,523,547 |
39,801,145,521 |
67,489,545,615 |
Which Region Leads in Network Slicing Adoption?
Asia-Pacific is, by far, the regional leader in the network slicing market, representing 91% of global revenue as of 2025. In this case, the Asia-Pacific opportunity is tied to China, which accounts for >95% of revenue in the region. China has been the most aggressive in terms of 5G Standalone (SA) deployments, making for a smooth transition to network slicing.
While Asia-Pacific will continue its market dominance, its global revenue share will drop to 73% as other regions catch up. North America will lag behind Europe and the Middle East & Africa for some time before taking the second spot in 2029.
What Trends Are Impacting the 5G Network Slicing Market?
ABI Research’s updated network slicing forecast reflects recent market trends, including telco rollouts, consumer device support, etc. The following was factored into our revised market update:
- Integrating 5G SA and cloud-native tools into telco networks has proven more difficult than originally expected.
- While penetrating the business sector has been challenging, mobile operators like China Mobile, T-Mobile USA, DT Germany, and others have begun monetizing network slicing services.
- Our methodology also factors in the maturity of SA-capable smartphones, which expands the consumer addressable market.
For the full forecast, download ABI Research’s Network Slicing market data.
