Newzoo’s Global Games Market and Forecasts report for 2024 has been announced. Non-subscribers can access a free report version, which still provides much information. This is one of the most highly anticipated financial reports for the gaming industry, as it contains predictions from 2022 through 2027, giving people some insights into how the gaming industry will perform over the years.
Looking specifically at 2024 for the gaming industry, the global games market will generate $187.7 billion, a 2.7% year-on-year growth. Considering the financial reports that have come out from some of the game industry’s giants, this is a surprise. Companies such as Nintendo and PlayStation are experiencing significant drops in places.
The dormancy in the console gaming market is no surprise. Most consoles have had a slow two years, leading to a 1% decline year-on-year. All things considered, this isn’t too bad of a number.
PC gaming revenues are up by 4% year-on-year for a profit of $43.2 billion, which will outgrow mobile and console revenues this year. However, by the time 2025 rolls around, it’s predicted that console revenue will again be significantly higher than they are now and have the possibility to take over PC gaming revenues.
The global number of players was 3.145 million in 2022. That number has increased to 3.422 million and is expected to continue increasing to 3.759 million by 2027. With this number growing exponentially, the amount of money spent on gaming has increased. In 2024, global paying gamers will increase by 5% to $1.5 billion, with the revenue expected to increase to $1.67 billion by 2027 as gamers spend more and more each year on games.
Regarding other statistics, the number of players across every continent continues to grow. Asia has the most gamers, making up 53% of the total, with a 4% increase. This year, the Middle East and Africa experienced the most growth, gaining an 8.2% increase year-on-year in the number of gamers.
What may come as a surprise is the fact that mobile gaming is the highest source of revenue across all gaming, totaling 49% of all revenue. This makes a total of $92.6 billion, which is a 3% increase year-on-year.
The Newzoo games report covers many topics and information, such as what is benefiting the games industry right now and what isn’t succeeding as much as it should be. One of the main factors that continues to benefit the games industry is releasing games on cross-platform. While it’s becoming increasingly more common to do so, huge IPs from Nintendo still continue to be console-locked, with PlayStation slowly stepping out of the box by putting their games onto PC.
Whether Nintendo will ever do something similar remains to be seen, but it seems highly unlikely.
