The games market fell 4.3 percent in 2022, with the decline attributed to a number of factors, such as the normalisation of the market following the covid boom. This decline in the market is significant for one specific reason: it marks the first year-on-year decline in the industry’s history.
Despite the fall, however, figures still remain above pre-pandemic levels, with consumer spending stabilising following a period of arguably unsustainable growth.
Now, analytic site Ampere Analysis has provided its predictions on how the industry will perform in 2023.
The importance of mobile
Ampere notes that while the decline in mobile gaming helped drive the industry’s decline in 2023, despite the relatively stable performance of console and PC gaming, it will also help to drive a resurgence in the market in the coming year.
“In 2022 we saw a decline in the global games sector for the first time ever. Some of the territory specific challenges that we saw there, such as the war in Ukraine and government restrictions around gaming time and games licensing in China will persist, but we are expecting something of a rebound in 2023,” said Ampere Analysis Research Manager Louise Shorthouse. “A lot of the action is taking place in the mobile space.”
“The decline last year was driven by mobile, and growth in 2023 essentially depends on mobile as well. The PC and console sectors are basically just going to underpin this by providing consistent performances. The mobile sector is a lot less predictable, I would say, than it has been in the past, but our current assumptions do point to a return to growth.”
“We’re expecting the big established markets to stabilise. The games industry is notoriously very resilient during a recession, and that plus things like privacy challenges in the sector being ironed out should contribute to a stronger mobile performance.”
“We’re also expecting the less mature high-growth markets to continue growing really strongly as device adoption increases and games content becomes more widely available.”
Earlier this month, analysts predicted that Tencent will see a resurgence this year following a turbulent 2022.
