Gaming Market Analysis

The Gaming Market size is estimated at USD 245.10 billion in 2023, and is expected to reach USD 376.08 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 8.94% during the forecast period (2023-2028).

Due to nationwide lockdowns implemented because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people turned to game platforms to pass the time. Thus, these platforms attracted hundreds and thousands of new visitors to online traffic. Video gaming trends are experiencing a massive surge in players and revenue.

  • Continuous technological advancements in the gaming industry are significantly propelling the industry’s growth. They are enhancing the way games are created and improving the overall gaming experience of the users.
  • Game developers across emerging economies are continually striving to enhance the gaming experience by launching and rewriting codes for diverse console/platforms, such as PlayStation, Xbox, and Windows PC, incorporated into a standalone product provided to gamers through a cloud platform.
  • The rising internet connectivity, increasing adoption of smartphones, and the advent of high bandwidth network connectivity, such as 5G, have further increased the demand of the gaming market across the globe. According to the GSMA report, as of November 2021, 170 mobile operators launched commercial 5G services with 7% population penetration at the end of 2021, thereby opening new opportunities for the mobile vendors to introduce 5G smartphones in the market.
  • According to the statistics published by DataReporal, the number of internet users increased by 7.7% in 2021 compared to 2020. Moreover, the number increased by 4% to 4,950 million in January 2022 compared to January 2021, when the users totaled 4,758 million.
  • Cloud gaming services focus on leveraging hyper-scale cloud capabilities, streaming media services, and global content delivery networks to build the next generation of social entertainment platforms. These factors have an anticipated positive impact on market growth.
  • Leveraging cloud technology in the gaming market is likely to drive the demand and engagement of multi-players for different games, boosting the market growth during the forecast period.

Gaming Industry Segmentation

The reported market sizing reflects the consumer spending on games that covers games purchased in physical storage/boxed and digital forms (for consoles, PC, and mobile devices), subscribed services for consoles, and in-app purchases during mobile gaming, although the numbers exclude gaming hardware and accessories, console hardware, advertising revenues, and third-party commissions. However, we do have similar off-the-shelf publications catering to the gaming hardware and gaming ecosystem.

The gaming market is segmented by gaming type (mobile games, console games, downloaded/boxed PC games, and browser PC games) and key geographies (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa). The gaming market spending and forecasts are provided in terms of value (USD billion) in addition to gamer demographics such as gender, gamer population, and genre.

Gaming Market Trends

Mobile Gaming Expected to Witness Growth during the Forecast Period

  • The number of mobile players globally reached USD 2.7 billion in 2022, resulting in 90 billion mobile game downloads during the year.
  • In terms of the mobile gaming genre worldwide, RPG was the frontrunner, accounting for 31% of in-app purchase spending in 2022, driven by MMORPG. In contrast, Hypercasual was leading in downloads contributing to 29% of all mobile game downloads.
  • Furthermore, 21% of Android apps and 25% of iOS apps downloaded are mobile games, with 55% of mobile gamers being female. Puzzle and matching genres seemed to be favorites among female audiences, whereas strategy, sports, and shooting interested male gamers.
  • For the past couple of years, Tencent, a Chinese multinational tech conglomerate, has grown its gaming empire. In 2021, it was the most extensive iPhone gaming app publisher globally in terms of revenue and the third biggest in downloads. The company still held the top spot in 2022.
  • Free-to-play games have undergone many changes since the early days of Flappy Bird. The most recent is the rise of Play & Own (P&O) in 2023. P&O allows players to play the games they want for free and the assets or in-game rewards they purchase. Developers would get new ways to monetize their games through value, stronger communities, longer players, and more rooms, contributing to the growth of the mobile gaming industry in the forecast period.
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