Newzoo’s 2018 Report: Insights Into the $137.9 Billion Global Games Market
Newzoo has today made its annual Global Games Market Report available to subscribers. The landmark report, the industry standard for understanding and sizing the global games market, provides a detailed breakdown of the market in terms of revenue and gamer forecasts per segment. The report also explores market trends that are shaping and driving the gaming landscape and provides a detailed look at the latest developments per segment and region. The data is provided on a global and regional level along with detailed revenue projections and consumer insights for 28 countries.
Some of the high-level findings from the report have been made available in a light version, which you can download here.
There are more than 2.3 billion active gamers in the world this year, of which 46%, or 1.1 billion, spend money on games. The games market will reach $137.9 billion in 2018, with digital revenues accounting for 91% of the market, or $125.3 billion. For the first time, mobile gaming will contribute more than half of all revenues, with smartphone and tablet gaming growing +25.5% year on year to $70.3 billion.
Introducing Newzoo’s Game Enthusiast Segmentation
Gaming has evolved into an all-around entertainment phenomenon. If you add up all playing and viewing hours, gaming is the world’s favorite pastime. Buying and owning physical products that are specifically developed for gaming adds to the possibilities for consumers to enjoy their passion for games. How a person divides his or her time and/or money over playing, viewing, and owning differs greatly. An additional overlying dimension is how actively people share or engage with gaming content and discussions on social networks and other (online) communities.
Currently, a consumer with an interest in games might split his or her time between playing the game and reading about it online or discussing with other enthusiasts in an online community. Others might use their free time to watch their favorite streamer on Twitch or investigate the latest gaming mouse or GPU card products available. The act of playing a game no longer encapsulates all the ways people engage with game content. For example, there is a fast-growing group of millions of “lapsed” gamers who now watch esports to express their passion for gaming. The term “gamer” has become obsolete.
To reflect this changing engagement in the games market, we are introducing a new way of segmenting game enthusiasts, regardless of platform and content. For this purpose, we performed extensive research in 28 countries simultaneously, allowing in-depth profiling of all segments. The goal of segmenting the market is to understand more than 2 billion people globally who engage with software, video, and hardware. Breaking down the gaming community by level of engagement offers valuable input to size potential markets, focus marketing strategies, and gauge the potential of a new product or service.
By combining these levels of engagement, we can identify types among game enthusiasts. At the heart of these segments is the community that creates and shares gaming experiences. In total, the new segmentation allows us to identify and size 64 potential types of game enthusiasts.
Selected Key Market and Industry Trends from the Report
The Rise of Immersive and Competitive Gaming on Mobile
In the past year, mobile skeptics were proven wrong once again as publishers managed to create games for mobile in genres considered too complex for mobile screens and controls. Several games were launched successfully, rivaling the immersive experience of role-playing games or the competitiveness of a multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA).
Launched at the end of 2015, Tencent’s Honor of Kings was the highest-grossing mobile game in 2017 and boasts 200 million monthly active users in China alone. By limiting the time spent per match and the number of abilities flying on screen at one time, Tencent created a mobile MOBA experience that rivals PC MOBAs in competitiveness. Netmarble’s Lineage II: Revolution offered an immersive massive multiplayer experience with stunning visuals, but limited the typical grind associated with MMO-RPGs with an auto-play mechanic that lets players focus on other tasks while playing the game. This year, Fortnite for iOS and PUBG Mobile show that Western markets are equally ready for core gaming experiences on mobile.
Mobile Ports to Boost or Revive Popular Game Franchises
Now that publishers have established that mechanics from PC and console games can be successfully adapted to mobile screens, ports to mobile are becoming increasingly popular. Games based on popular franchises or IP are launched on mobile to either attract attention for upcoming larger releases, such as Pokémon Quest in anticipation of two Pokémon games launching on Switch later this year. Publishers can also benefit from the popularity of their franchise in regions where mobile gaming is the preferred gaming platform, or even to reinvigorate a dying franchise, such as the upcoming Maplestory M or recently announced Command & Conquer: Rivals.
Due to the success of core gaming genres, these ports are not limited to certain genres. Instead, mechanically complex genres such as MOBAs, massive multiplayer RPGs, sports games, and fighting games are all launching on mobile.
China Leads the Top 100 Countries by Game Revenues
We have also updated our Top 100 Countries by Game Revenues Ranking, which again places China at #1 with $37.9 billion in revenues in 2018. The U.S. and Japan remain second- and third-largest by game revenues with $30.4 billion and $19.2 billion, respectively. Despite having one-third of the number of players, the Japanese mobile market is almost the same size as North America’s, as mobile gamers in Japan spend more than anyone else in the world. The German games market will total $4.7 billion this year, placing it at #5 and the largest market by game revenues in Europe. South Korea is the most notable riser in the ranking. It surpassed both the U.K. and Germany and is now the fourth-largest market with game revenues of $5.6 billion.
In terms of regions, Asia-Pacific builds out its lead with revenues of $71.4 billion in 2018. With markets like India and Indonesia, Asia-Pacific is home to the fastest-growing games market globally. Driven by increased smartphone adoption, better internet infrastructure, and competitive and immersive mobile games, these markets have boosted the region to capture 52% of the global market. North America is the second-largest region with $32.7 billion in game revenues, ahead of Western Europe at #3.
Key KPIs per region, including the top countries by game revenues, have also been included in the free report.
The original article can be found here.
