New market data has been released covering the totality of the global gaming industry, and it’s generated an estimated $134.9 billion in revenue.
GamesIndustry.biz put together an easy-to-read infographic chart breaking down which sector of the industry made what, and how much it’s generated in total, courtesy of New Zoo, UKIE, GfK Chart-Track, IHS Markit, ICO Partners, Apptopia, and Fancesus, covering both digital and physical retail sales.
PC gaming in general generated $33.4 billion, up 3.2% in year-over-year revenue. Browser games in particular only generated $4.3 billion within the PC sector, and they were down 14.8% compared to the previous year. Both boxed and digital PC game downloads were up 6.5% from 2017, generating $29.2 billion.
Mobile gaming in general generated $63.2 billion, up 12.8% from 2017, while phone games in particular were up 26.6% from 2017 accruing $39.1 billion. Tablet games generated $11.4 billion, up 13.4% from the previous year.
Console games rounded out the list at $38.3 billion, up 15.2% in year-over-year revenue.
There’s also a breakdown of retail versus digital sales. In total, digital sales across PC and console games accounted for $51.2 billion. Breaking it down even further, PC digital revenue accrued $28.2 billion, while console digital sales made up $16.3 billion in sales. They combined the boxed retail sales for PC and home console, which came up to an approximate $16.3 billion, showing a 29% difference in favor of digital sales generated on console versus the retail market.
There’s also an interesting stat on the most popular games and what gets talked about the most on social media versus what gets watched the most on YouTube.
I’m actually shocked that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate actually surpassed Red Dead Redemption 2 on Twitter. It’s also funny to see how badly Battlefield V has died. That game is like one story away from getting added to the Get Woke, Go Broke Master List. Come on EA, make it happen.
Overall, the industry has increased its overall revenue year-over-year in just about every category except for browser games, which is more-so indicative of the casual market getting their fix from mobile gaming instead of desktops. And speaking of mobile games…
As you can see, the waifu-bate that is Fate/Grand Order managed to snag the second spot as one of the top five most revenue-generating gaming apps on the market just behind Monster Strike. What’s interesting is that it appears the game’s market reach is already saturated to some extent given that it wasn’t one of the most downloaded games, but it’s generating a ton of revenue, which means that the market it has saturated has high in-app purchase engagement, which is the most any publisher could ask for. It also seems to prove one thing about fan-service: Waifus are money.
Unfortunately, if you were hoping Electronic Arts’ getting woke would make them “go broke” in other sectors beyond Battlefield V, you’ll note that they disappointingly managed to make the top five list as a publisher with the most worldwide downloads. So they’re still a long ways from hanging up the gloves.
