The boost given to the games industry during 2020 pandemic has been put into context by market intelligence outfit Newzoo, which now estimates growth of 23 per cent and global sales of $178 billion.
This is the highest annual growth Newzoo has seen since it started tracking revenue in 2012.
In contrast, it now believes 2021 will see the first decline on record, although the drop is tiny – 1.1 per cent.
More significantly, Newzoo still believes the market will expand to reach $200 billion of annual revenue by 2025.
Up and down
In terms of sector breakdown, mobile gaming is expected to rise 4.4 per cent in 2021 to $91 billion.
This is despite the disruption expected from Apple’s new restrictions around user privacy, which will impact UA and monetisation.
The biggest decline during 2021 is predicted to be console games, down 8.9 per cent to $49 billion.
PC games are expected to be down 2.8 per cent to $36 billion.
Both markets could be hit by chip shortages.
This is likely to particularly be an issue for the new generation of consoles which are currently both supply gated and over-subscribed in terms of demand.
Check out the Global Games Market Report via the website.
