Overview

Video Games Market Introduction:

Video Games Market is estimated to value over USD 250 billion by 2027 end and register a CAGR of over 11% during the forecast period 2020 to 2027.

Video games industry has been exponentially growing over the past decade. The valuation of the market in 2019 was recorded over USD 135 billion and it is expected to reach around USD 250 billion by the end of 2027. Video games have a wide user spectrum, right from small children to the population in the age range of 40 to 50. This is a major driving factor of the global market. Besides this, high-speed internet has been regularised not only in developed economies but also in developing economies and it is an important element for video games to perform seamlessly. This becomes an integral factor responsible for the proliferation of the market.

Video games are available at minimal prices on the internet or even free of cost, like in case of PUBG or Fortnite which can be downloaded free of cost. Furthermore, individuals have multiple devices like tablets, computers, consoles and laptops that are capable of running high-end games which increases the demand for video games on multiple platforms. Additionally, the increased sale of mobile devices is expected to expand market size significantly as a majority of users around the world prefer playing mobile-based games.

Development of comparable mechanics to games that already exist to reduce overall risk, game pricing based on the quality of content and deep gameplay are some of the current trends in the video games industry. Furthermore, strategies are devised to develop solid relationships with fellow gamers by establishing communities. Major steps are taken to establish relationships between gamers and publishers by arranging annual conferences like ‘E3’ or Electronic Entertainment Expo, where big game studious as well as indie game developers launch their new games while console developers like Sony and Microsoft launch new gaming hardware and give hands-on experience to the gamers who can provide with some valuable feedback which proves to be helpful to the companies to understand end-user needs and make changes before getting into mass production. Such conferences and communities can positively affect the growth of the market.

Mobile Gaming is Expected to Witness a Remarkable Rise Over the Forecast Period

According to Capcom, the mobile gaming segment has increased by around 45% since 2017 in terms of revenue. According to TechCrunch, the United States being the country with the most mobile gaming session shares of over 20% which is followed by India with over 13% of shares. It is expected that the number of mobile phone gamers in the US shall reach around 193 million by 2020 which is around 10% of growth since 2017. Apple’s App Store had gross revenue of over USD 7.9 billion from mobile games in Q3 of 2017 while Google’s Play Store grossed around USD 4.6 billion in Q3, 2017.

Casual games are the most popular gaming category in Android with a reach of over 59% among Android users as of September 2017. In 2016, arcade games were the most downloaded games in the United States with over 64 million downloads which were followed by action games with over 60 million downloads.

According to Think Gaming, as of January 2018, the top-grossing iPhone gaming app in the United States is ‘Fortnite’, who grossed a daily revenue of over USD 2 million. It generated more daily revenue than ‘Candy Crush Saga’ in April 2018. As per Slice Intelligence, mobile gamers who play ‘Mobile Strike’, had average spending of USD 310 on in-game purchases. But some factors can significantly affect the growth of this segment. As per mobyaffiliates, around 47.5% of game developers consider rising marketing costs as one of the major threats to the growth of the mobile gaming industry. Furthermore, over 63% of game developers consider the rising UA costs as another threat to the mobile gaming business.

Tencent Mobile Games, the publishers who launched the most popular mobile game ‘PUBG Mobile’, was the top gaming app for an iPhone while grossing revenue of over USD 235 million as of January 2018. But King Games, publisher of ‘Candy Crush Saga”, generated almost twice the revenue as compared to Tencent in January 2018.

Video Games Market Segmentation:

By Game Type

Role-Playing Games
Strategy Games
Action Games
Action-Adventure Games
Simulation Games
Sports Games
Puzzle Games
Idle Games

By Device Type

Consoles
Non-Portable
PlayStation
Xbox
Portable
Nintendo
Tablets
iPads
Smartphones
Android Smartphones
iOS Smartphones
Personal Computers

By Platform Type

Cloud-Based Gaming
On-Site Gaming

PlayStation Tops the Sales Amongst Gaming Consoles Worldwide

Console gaming segment has immense potential to showcase remarkable market growth during the forecast period owing to the integration of virtual reality and augmented reality into the core console hardware. Sony’s PlayStation 2 sold close to 158 million units in 2017 making it the most popular video game console across the world. According to VGChartz, as of March 2018, Wii Sports, a sports video game developed and published by Nintendo, sold close to 83 million units worldwide which made it the best-selling console game and it was followed by Super Mario Bros, another Nintendo game, with over 40 million units sold.

Nintendo provides stiff competition when it comes to gaming console sales. Nintendo DS has sold over 154 million units while PlayStation 2 sold over 158 million units worldwide. Microsoft’s Xbox 360, despite it having high-quality hardware than PlayStation, sold almost half the number of units sold by PlayStation. One of the main reasons for this to happen is the quality of exclusive games offered by Xbox. PlayStation offers great exclusive games like ‘Last of Us’, which is the best game story ever told, the ‘God of War’ franchise, the ‘Yakuza’ series and many more such games. Xbox do offer some quality games as well, but most of them are not story-oriented. They offer games like the ‘Forza Motorsport ’series, the ‘Halo’ series, the ‘Gears of War’ franchise out of which only ‘Gears of War’ franchise has a storyline. Microsoft needs to collaborate with quality gaming publishers to gain more popularity amongst gamers worldwide which would help increase the unit sales.

Microsoft and Sony Have Decide to Collaborate- A Strategic Move Over the Newest Competitors, Google and Amazon

According to The Verge, Microsoft and Sony have planned to establish a partnership to develop future cloud solutions for content and game streaming. This partnership will let Sony utilize Microsoft’s cloud system, Azure, which shall help them power future as well as existing streaming services while Microsoft will gain access to some quality gaming and streaming content. This has been a strategic move by Sony and Microsoft owing to the launch of Google’s cloud streaming service, Stadia. Google is planning to integrate the YouTube platform to let people play games instantly on their phones or PCs. With the help of Project Stream, which is Google’s attempt to stream video games on the Chrome browser, it will be possible for gamers to play high-end games like ‘Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey’ without the hassle of buying expensive gaming laptops and consoles. This, coupled with Google’s web dominance, resulted in Microsoft and Sony taking these steps. Even Amazon is planning to launch a cloud-based gaming service which can utilize the power of Amazon Web Servers (AWS), and as they own Twitch, the biggest game streaming platform in the world, it will be a profitable move for Amazon.

Microsoft and Nintendo have teamed up for promoting cross-play, which will enable a Nintendo Switch user play with an Xbox user for multiplayer games. This initiative shall help expand the gaming community which will be helpful for the market proliferation.

Key market players include ACTIVISION BLIZZARD, APPLE, BANDAI NAMCO, BETHESDA SOFTWORKS, ASUS, TFG, VALVE CORP., CAPCOM, TENCENT, EA SPORTS, SONY, DISCORD, EPIC GAMES, AMAZON, GAMEEVIL, GUNGHO ONLINE, HTC, IGG, INSOMNIA GAMES, KING, KONAMI, MICROSOFT, SEGA, UBISOFT, SHADOW.

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