Revenues generated by video games will increase by 5.4% in 2022 to reach $203.1 billion. In his report published on May 5, the analysis firm Newzoo, specialist in the video game industry, explains that this growth is mainly due to the mobile market. Consoles are still selling very well with the arrival of new ways to play such as cloud gaming.
Mobile video game dominance
In 2021, the video game represented 192.7 billion dollars in turnover, this year it will reach 203.1 billion. An increase associated with a higher number of players. They will be 3.09 billion to play on PC, console or mobile by the end of 2022. It is the United States which weighs the heaviest in the balance with 50.5 billion dollars in income, closely followed by China which generates 50.2 billion.
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The mobile market is the big winner of 2022 with 103.5 billion dollars. On its own, it represents more than the console and PC market combined. However, growth is weaker than between 2020 and 2021, a period when mobile games exploded with the Covid crisis. China and Japan are the two regions where mobile dominates despite weak growth of 2.8% and 1.1%, respectively. Tencent keeps China in the lead with games like League of Legends Wild Rift. However, the control of Chinese power over game releases and time spent in front of screens is partly responsible for this small increase.
Southeast Asia contains many emerging countries with a strong mobile market. Latin America is also experiencing this recent growth with better access to smartphones, an improvement in the internet network and the arrival of new means of payment. The releases of big mobile games like Diablo Immortal and Apex Legends Mobile will largely contribute to the growth of this sector in 2022.
Image: Newzoo
Popular licenses that are a hit on console
Faced with the dominance of mobile and the beginnings of cloud gaming, the console market is resisting, despite production of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series impacted by the shortage of semiconductors. This does not prevent the console market from increasing by 8.4% compared to 2021 and generating $56.9 billion in revenue.
Console-exclusive game releases like Horizon Forbidden West, god of war and Gran Turismo on PlayStation, as well as the license pokemons on Nintendo Switch, or the long-awaited Starfield on Xbox, contribute to the good financial health of the consoles.
Highly anticipated games from third-party publishers, like Elden Ring from Bandai Namco and call of duty of Activision, represent a considerable asset for the attractiveness of the consoles. The maintenance over time of the service games that are Fortnite, Warzone and GTA Online generates in addition a constant income on console. The growing presence of the latest generation consoles in homes and subscriptions to PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass subscriptions are also contributing to this growth.
Slight decline in PC gaming
PC gaming is on a steady decline in the face of mobile dominance. It will generate 41 billion dollars in 2022. This sector is weakening because it does not have the big console releases. It manages to keep up with games services like League of Legends Where Apex Legends. The decline of the PC in China is in favor of the mobile and will accelerate between 2022 and 2024.
The overall growth of video games is linked to the appearance of more and more game services that have hybrid business models. Subscriptions, microtransactions and maybe soon ads in some games, keep the sector going. The growing cloud gaming, as at Microsoft, will help reach a new audience. This leaves a bright future for the video game industry.