Mobile Games Revenue Down 6.7% in 2022 With 49% of Consumer Game Spending From US, China

Last year, mobile games topped the chart in the global games market despite seeing a drop in revenue from the previous year alongside the entire market. Regardless, the gaming industry is growing fast with new games and gaming devices being released more frequently than ever.

Latin America, Middle East, and Africa Defy the Revenue Decline

According to a video games report from Newzoo, the global gaming market experienced a 5.1% decrease in revenue to $182.9 billion. This value however only entails the purchase of full copy games, in-game spending, and subscription services and excludes other incomes like advertising.

Additionally, revenues from mobile games reached $91.8 billion last year, representing 50% of the global market. While the revenue is astoundingly high, it was still a 5.1% drop from the income generated in 2021.

However, the ease of use and accessibility that smartphones and tablets provide continues to fuel the sector’s expansion by drawing a diverse group of participants from different demographics.

Console games had the second-highest sales total, topping out at $52.2 billion and declining -3.4% year-over-year. On the other hand, PC browser games experienced the largest -14.8% year-over-year revenue decline.

Geographically, revenues also decreased in most regions, with Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa standing out as the major exceptions. Although only 9% of the total income in 2022 came from these two markets, both of them saw an increase of +3.3% and +5.8% respectively which totaled a revenue of $ 6.8 billion.

China and the US accounted for 49% of all consumer expenditure on video games globally, making them the two largest spending powerhouses. The US made $46.4 billion whereas China collected $44 billion which clearly denotes the strong gaming culture and massive population of gamers the two countries have.

While the global setback was small, it came as no surprise seeing as the market was coming back from two years of growth fueled by lockdowns where players gamed more than ever.

However, Newzoo predicted that this year and other years to come might see a more positive trend due to the advancements occurring in the industry. By 2025, the forecast company projected that the worldwide games market is expected to grow by 2.9% to reach $206.4 billion in revenue.

Virtual Reality Gaming

A type of gaming that Newzoo is yet to look into is virtual reality(VR) gaming which has grown immensely over the past few years and continues to become even more competitive as companies debut into the space.

As is their habit, tech giants are also now competing for dominance in the sector as Apple gets ready to launch its first VR headset during the Worldwide Developers Conference in a few days. On the other hand, Meta, which began its VR journey earlier, just unveiled a new headset, Quest 3, along with a set of new games that expands the range of playable games on its platform.

Statistically, analysis by Zippia shows that as of 2022, the VR gaming industry has a market size of $12.13 billion with about 171 million users globally making it a significant part of the global gaming market that should be factored into future analysis.

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