Over the past decade, more and more people have become familiar with such an interactive form of entertainment as games on digital devices. Growth and development are almost non-existent for high-quality AAA projects. Against the background of slow growth in sales of PC games and the decline of consoles, “mobile gaming” is actively developing. In this article, we will consider the situation of video games in the global market as of the fourth quarter of 2022.

Market distribution

Browser games have been hit the hardest. Even 10-15 years ago, they were much more active in taking money from the wallets of their fans. Now they are being replaced by toys on mobile phones. A completely logical replacement, which was only a matter of time.

The dying browser segment is less than 1% as of 2022. The category lost a crazy 16.9% over the year. At the same time, gamers spent more than US$$ 2 billion. The audience is very small, but with high paying power. PC browser games survive only because of the old school, which is not interested in ray tracing, beautiful scenery and action-packed gameplay.

An adult audience with money who won't leave their favorite farm, medieval castle or text game character will feed their developers for a long time. The influx of new players into browser games is almost non-existent.

But there is also good news. PC client gaming is doing better. The annual growth was 1.6%. In total, gaming PCs account for 19% of the market, which is exactly US$$38.1 billion in monetary terms. Many experts predicted that PC gaming would die out much sooner.

The situation shows that the computer is still relevant for games, although not as much as it was ten years ago (see statistics at the end of the article). The majority of the computer video game market is occupied by F2P projects with microtransactions: Counter Strike, Fortnite, Call of Duty Warzone, Apex Legends, League of Legends, World of Warcraft and dozens of others. Expensive AAA games do not sell as well as on consoles. Despite the positive growth, desktop PC games are not profitable compared to other platforms.

Game consoles for 2022 lost 2.2%. Such a decline still leaves an impressive lead over PCs. The AAA entertainment crisis is taking its toll. In recent years, audiences have been met with a lot of disappointment.

People are spending less on their gaming consoles. Some projects were shown at the PS5 launch and are still in development. A few years ago, developers promised a true next-gen open-world experience, and PS4 consoles got a terrible Cyberpunk 2077.

The last 2-3 years of high-quality games have really had little impact on the loss of market share. Even under these circumstances, gamers have spent almost $$53 billion on subscriptions and video games. The level of sales on consoles is still beyond the reach of PC, although it is tiny compared to the main player - "His Majesty" Mobile Gaming.

Gameplay and graphics don’t really matter to a large percentage of the population. Most gamers associate the concept of “Gaming” with what can be downloaded from Google Play or the App Store, not Steam, Origin, etc.

Mobile games are played not only by children and young people, but also by adult users with deep pockets. This is evidenced by the impressive financial dominance of the market. The mobile games category has been the king of the video game market for many years. In the fourth quarter of 2022, mobile games accounted for more than 53% of the pie. Developers earned more than US$$ 103 billion.

The growth for the year was 5.1%. This is the best indicator among all categories. Low requirements for the player and the excitement of the gameplay force millions of people around the world to donate from mobile phones. Experts predict a further increase in viewership, growth in profits and the development of this particular category. With this trend, the future of consoles and PCs looks very uncertain compared to smartphones.

Regional distribution

Asia accounts for almost half of the entire video game market. Most Asian gamers have never used a computer or game console. That doesn’t stop big companies that publish their products on the App Store and Google Play from making super profits. Huge YoY growth +10.8% shows Africa and South America 6.9%.

Europe was the only region that lost a small share – just -0.03% compared to 2021. Statistics show that the vast majority of the AAA population is not interested and does not need projects. After all, growth comes where consoles and PCs sell poorly and smartphones are in every budget.

The largest percentage of gamers is in Japan – two-thirds of the population plays video games. For example, in Ukraine this number (according to Statista) is just over 5%. In fact, the number is much higher, given the large number of underage gamers. Undoubtedly, in Ukraine, more than half of the gamers belong to a younger audience, due to the availability and prevalence of mobile games. The US remains the largest market for developers. Japan and China have almost leveled off and are positioned just behind the US. The Asian market is making good profits thanks to mobile games alone.

Most profitable gaming companies

Companies that distribute mobile games make the most money. Mobile gaming is gradually eliminating the big players, and as of 2022, the top 10 most profitable companies are listed in the following order:

Tencent holds the lead by a surprising margin. It is a successful company, almost twice the size of Sony/Microsoft. Apple has once again increased its lead over Android, and the “apple” corporation is firmly holding third place. iPhone owners are willing to spend much more on purchases. Interestingly, Android devices sell many times more, although iOS dominates Android in the high-end segment. Among the PC market, Activision Blizzard is the best. The strong union of the two companies has allowed us to become the leader on the Windows platform. At the bottom of the list are EA and Take-Two.

conclusions

People are spending more and more on video games every year. Experts’ forecasts show a steady growth in this entertainment category. As statistics show, developers of casual toys earn the most. Mobile platforms have become the best source of income for developers. This in some way affects the crisis of AAA games for PC and consoles. Companies make super profits from cheap mobile development, and complex and large-scale console games often fail.

Regionally, Africa and South America saw the strongest growth. Only Europe saw less interest in gaming. Asia remains the largest audience for mobile gaming.

Sources of statistical information used:

devtodev

new zoo

Statist

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