The revenue of the global video game industry is comparable to the GDP of a small European country. Gaming has really taken over our leisure time and turned into a multi-billion dollar market.
The evolution of the video game audience
Over the past few decades, gamers have evolved from Internet pioneers to streamers and esports players. This is quite natural because human leisure is gradually moving into virtual space. According to analysts, the average gamer is a man in his 30s who has a permanent job and an above-average income. He lives in a million-plus city with his wife, a significant part of gamers have children.
The average gamer in the US spends about $2,000 each month. Gaming has practically emerged as an independent category of leisure: players spend as much money and time on digital entertainment as the average citizen of a particular country spends on classic ones – going to the cinema or watching a series. Much of this happened against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Steam analytics, in 2020, 2.6 million new users from all over the world appeared on the platform every month, and the time that gamers spent in games increased by 50.7% compared to 2019. On average, the number of active users of Steam per month was 120 million people. At that time there were only gamers from the USA and China. According to online casino digital entertainment is one way to cope with depression during the lockdown.
How the video game market is developing
The global gaming industry market, according to Newzoo for 2020, exceeded $159 billion – it can already be compared with the consumption of all goods in a small European country or, for example, with the consumption of wheat flour worldwide. The capitalization of the leaders of the gaming industry is comparable to the volume of companies in the leading traditional industries. For example, Activision Blizzard, developer of Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, is valued at $61.45 billion, compared to Adidas’ capitalization of $63.75 billion.
Like any economic industry, gaming creates and saturates new needs and creates new economic relations. Markets for the sale of gaming products, advertising integrations for bloggers and streamers, and donation platforms are emerging.
There are three key trends in the development of gaming:
Gaming is a full-fledged $2 billion industry alone
The number of paying users is growing, while the number of passive users is declining. Even 1$ additional monthly spending can provide up to 10% increase in market volume.
Leisure is being digitized
According to the gaming platform STEAM, in 2020 the number of monthly active users among their customers reached 120 million, of which more than half logged into games daily.
The gaming market is a springboard for launching new products and related categories.
A space is being created at the intersection of gaming and new industries. Banks and their own goods appear on the market. This means that the demand is high, and the supply is still not enough.
