Mobile game market
According to Newzoo’s estimates, the global value of the game market was USD 174.9B in 2020, which constituted a growth by approx. 19.6% YoY relative to 2019. The most significant increase was recorded by mobile and console game segments. The dynamic market growth results from greater player engagement, which has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the latest forecasts, the game market value will amount to USD 218.7B in 2024 despite the inconsiderable slowdown noticeable this year. A half of the revenue will be attributable to the mobile game sector, which will grow the fastest in this period.
Analyses show that the largest geographic market is the Asia-Pacific region, which accounted for USD 84.3B in 2020, which was nearly a half of the global game market. With USD 44.7B, which constitutes around 26% of the market value, North America was the second largest market. Europe had a share of 19% of the entire market, which was USD 32.9B.
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USD 174.9B the global game market value in 2020 -
19.6% growth relative to 2019
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USD 32.9B the game market value in Europe in 2020
Newzoo forecasts that mobile games will generate USD 90.7B in 2021, which means a 4.4% growth YoY. 45.3%, i.e. USD 41.1B, will come from App Store, while Google Play will account for USD 28.2B, i.e. 31.1%. Other stores will generate 23.5% (USD 21.3B). According to Newzoo, revenue from mobile games will amount to USD 116.4B in 2024. The forecast indicates that smartphones will generate 45% of the market in 2021, which is the highest value of all segments. Mobile games, understood as smartphones plus tablets, will account for over 50% of the game market value. The described trend arises, among others, from a change in the game distribution model. Player preferences evolve towards digital distribution, thus departing from the traditional model of physical distribution. This fact contributes to increased popularity of the Free-To-Play game model, where developers offer users free access to the game, and revenue is generated from micropayments and advertising.
Source: Newzoo, figure, own source
The BoomBit Group operates in the sector of mobile games offered through digital distribution platforms. It is the fastest-growing segment of the game market and hyper-casual games are the fastest-growing segment of the mobile game market. A 15% growth in the number of HC game downloads was recorded in H1 2021 (Source: App Annie Q2 2021). Games are popular among a broad spectrum of the society, being one of the most common forms of entertainment and leisure time activity, with each generation having a different impact.
Source: Newzoo
Newzoo has conducted a survey to learn how much leisure time each generation spends on various forms of entertainment, which can be divided into traditional ones, such as reading, listening to music and watching the TV, and modern ones, which are of more interest to us: watching movies or series online, networking in social media and playing video games. Millennials and Gen Z spend more time playing games than on any other activity. It is at least 20%, but can be up to 25%.
People under 40 spend around 7 hours a week on average playing games, while the older generation – approx. 3 hours a week.