Today is World Video Game Day. In Spain, the sector is booming: the sector has reached a turnover of 2,012 million euros in 2022, 12% more than the previous year, according to the latest data from the Spanish Video Game Association (AEVI).
The economic growth of the sector has made Spain the fourth largest market in the EU with more than 18.2 million players, of which 47% are women (8.5 million) while 53% are men (9.6 million) who spend, between them, an average of 7.42 hours a week playing video games.
Regarding age, the majority percentage of users continues to be understood between 15 to 24 years olda range that adds up to 84% of players, followed by those from 6 to 11 years old, with 79%.
The acquisition of online video games exceeds, with 1,180 million euros, by 29% the figures of last year and contrasts with a decrease of 5.7% in physical purchases: what was once the default format has become the least popular with a turnover that has dropped to 832 million euros.
Situation that finds its cause in the “boom” of “streaming” and the greater relevance given to online games, among which the rapid rise of electronic sports or “e-sports”, whose industry in Spain represents more than 3% of the global fabric, with 34 million euros of turnoverand presents, according to Deloitte’s “Let’s Play! 2022” study, the second largest follow-up in Europe after Poland.
An example of this is the success of live e-sports commentators and entertainers such as Ibai Llanos, Cristinini (whose popularity has made her co-presenter of the new edition of “Grand Prix”), the organization “Team Heretics” or the KOI team.
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This rise has also had a positive reflection on the labor market, since, according to the job platform InfoJobs, digital job offers related to video games have grown by 31% between May 2022 and April 2023, compared to the same period of the previous year.
Madrid and Barcelona concentrate half of the job offers, although the Catalan capital registers the highest number of jobs for developers, artists and designers on a map in which Valencia (the third with the most publications related to videogames) and Malaga, which recently has inaugurated the “Giants Innovation Hub”, a space designed to promote projects related to “gaming” and “e-sports”.