Gaming Industry Faces a Slump Despite Increase in Consumers
The 2022 Global Games Market Report from Newzoo estimates that about 3.2 billion individuals spent time playing video games in 2022, up from 2.9 billion in 2020, and the figure might reach 3.5 billion by 2025. Despite the boom, the games market fell 4.3% to $184.4 billion in 2022. Except after the epidemic, when so many people were in quarantine with nothing to do but play video games, that’s probably a straightforward fix.
Record levels of investment in the video game business as well as record levels of engagement with video games were seen in both 2020 and 2021. As individuals looked for ways to pass the time during the pandemic’s quarantine phase, it also attracted many players back to the pastime after extended absences. Due to lockdowns brought on by a pandemic, the bulk of the industry’s revenues in 2020 came from digital sales, which kept customers from physically visiting stores.
The Asia-Pacific region, which spends around 87 billion on gaming annually and accounts for 48% of the industry, will have the most players in 2022. With 48.4 billion in expenditure, North America comes in second place and accounts for 24% of total annual spending. This is declining globally on both the PC and console gaming fronts, particularly after 2020 saw yearly video game console expenditure skyrocket by over $50 billion.
In 2022, there was just one category whose revenue increased: those in Latin America and the Middle East/Africa. Mobile gaming, which accounts for around 50% of expenditure on gaming, is mainly responsible for the industry’s yearly revenues, which total about $2.3 billion.
The Global Games Market Report assumes that gaming is recession-proof given how well the industry fared during the pandemic and how well it would continue to thrive in the face of global financial turmoil in 2022. By 2025, they project that the gaming business will generate 225 billion in yearly revenue, so the present 4.3% decline isn’t even a setback for the sector as a whole.
Given the industry’s continued tremendous growth potential, markets are likely to only stabilise as more people resume their regular routines after the pandemic.
