SuperData Breaks Down the Global Gaming Market

[AlphaAtlas]

A recent report from market research firm SuperData, which VentureBeat was kind enough to share, paints an interesting picture of the global gaming market in 2018. Among PC gamers, there's certainly a perception that mobile games, console games and free-to-play titles are eating into or even blowing past the traditional PC market, and dragging some good IPs with them, but the SuperData data attaches hard numbers to those assumptions. The "mobile" gaming market, for example, made $61.6 billion dollars in 2018, which is quite a sum compared to the $7.6 billion the "Premium PC" market made. F2P. P2P, and "social" PC games made $16.7B $4.2B, and $7.5B. respectively, while the entire "premium console" market edged out the PC market at $10.9B.

Meanwhile, interactive media generated $5.2 billion in game viewing content, as viewership crossed 850 million viewers. Twitch had a smaller audience than YouTube (183 million versus 594 million), but it generated more revenue since Twitch draws more dedicated viewers who spend directly to support their favorite creators. Donations and channel subscriptions accounted for 32 percent of video revenue on Twitch compared to only 9 percent on YouTube. Esports generated $1.2 billion in revenue. Augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality revenue rose from $4.4 billion for hardware and software in 2017 to $6.6 billion in 2018.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I'm always amazed at how large the mobile gaming market is. It just doesn't match my world at all.

I've never had any game of any kind on any mobile device I've owned.


Actually, I take that back. I did have Scrabble/Words with Friends installed for a while back when that was popular - what - 8-10 years ago(?) but that almost doesnt qualify as a game to me.

 

[DukenukemX]

I'm always amazed at how large the mobile gaming market is. It just doesn't match my world at all.

I've never had any game of any kind on any mobile device I've owned.


Actually, I take that back. I did have Scrabble/Words with Friends installed for a while back when that was popular - what - 8-10 years ago(?) but that almost doesnt qualify as a game to me.

That's cause it's children who steals their parents credit cards. Of all the Free to Play games on the list, only Candy Crush is the one I assume adults play mostly. Everything else I see kids playing them. Children don't have any self control and parents today stick tablets in their faces with access to their credit cards.

 

[dreadcthulhu]

Another factor with the mobile games is that they are very popular in eastern Asia. Lots of people in China, Japan, South Korea, and so on have long commutes by train/subway; thus they prefer to get their gaming in when they are sitting around with nothing to do. If you aren't in those countries, and commute by car like most Americans & Europeans, then you wouldn't have reason to play those games or know anyone who does. I honestly think that is a bigger factor than children running up their parent's credit cards.

 

[jcollett69]

Looking at those numbers, F2P top 10 all beat the top paid title in revenue. Regardless of what gamers state, the expenditures show to developers where to direct future development. Not looking great for what most here would want. People scoff at spending $60 to $100 on a title up front, but will spend hundreds or thousands via smaller transactions.

 

[Stanley Pain]

I'm always amazed at how large the mobile gaming market is. It just doesn't match my world at all.

I've never had any game of any kind on any mobile device I've owned.


Actually, I take that back. I did have Scrabble/Words with Friends installed for a while back when that was popular - what - 8-10 years ago(?) but that almost doesnt qualify as a game to me.

Welcome to old age

I'm in the same boat. I think the only games I've played on mobile are the Final Fantasy remakes. Normally I just get super annoyed with how bad things control on mobile.

 

[Nafensoriel]

Curious how they have hard numbers for so many developers that simply don't release hard numbers.

/edit Its also nice to see a dataset that doesn't paint consoles as golden gooses. If accurate this pretty much ends the console vs PC market debate squarely in PCs favor.. even if the mobile market is the parent in the room laughing at kiddy squabbles.

 

[Templar_X]

Curious how they have hard numbers for so many developers that simply don't release hard numbers.

/edit Its also nice to see a dataset that doesn't paint consoles as golden gooses. If accurate this pretty much ends the console vs PC market debate squarely in PCs favor.. even if the mobile market is the parent in the room laughing at kiddy squabbles.

I suspect what paints consoles as "golden gooses" is (probably), for a given AAA title, the higher volume sold on consoles vs PC (coupled with higher development costs for PC)

Ubisoft sales per platfrom:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/269679/breakdown-of-ubisoft-sales-by-platform/

 

[Nafensoriel]

I suspect what paints consoles as "golden gooses" is (probably), for a given AAA title, the higher volume sold on consoles vs PC (coupled with higher development costs for PC)

Ubisoft sales per platfrom:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/269679/breakdown-of-ubisoft-sales-by-platform/

Except for this report, if accurate and complete, suggest that PC markets absolutely dominate console by more than a double. Mostly due to F2P platforms(id also say most F2P is browser based).

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics is the rule yet again. I would hesitate to state that if we had the last 20 years of sales data in its entirety that consoles would have never once surpassed PC since the year 2000. Too much of the world uses old or limited hardware. I was unsurprised by seeing mobile games on top but I was surprised by how great they stomped other platforms.

 

[Templar_X]

Except for this report, if accurate and complete, suggest that PC markets absolutely dominate console by more than a double. Mostly due to F2P platforms(id also say most F2P is browser based).

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics is the rule yet again. I would hesitate to state that if we had the last 20 years of sales data in its entirety that consoles would have never once surpassed PC since the year 2000. Too much of the world uses old or limited hardware. I was unsurprised by seeing mobile games on top but I was surprised by how great they stomped other platforms.

(Apologies, only now I noticed the link I shared previously is behind a paywall)

Trying to clarify my point: what makes consoles more attractive to developers is not the global sales volume of the platform, PC and consoles are mostly on pair on that one. However PC has much more titles which indicates less sales per title when comparing with consoles.
When a developer launches one AAA title on all platforms they *usually* see more sales on consoles than on PC for that given title. (Ymmv depending on the nature of title but I'm talking of general trends).
You can see this by checking sales per platform for Ubisoft, EA, TakeTwo etc.

Ubisoft sales per platform 2016-2018 (consoles have the larger share)

EA sales per platform 2017-2018 (consoles again have the larger share)

Just a reminder, the article linked in the front page is for Digital Sales only. A more global overview including physical sales can be found here for example: https://newzoo.com/insights/article...137-9-billion-in-2018-mobile-games-take-half/

I hope this clarifies the point I was trying to make. Both markets are healthy, but from a financial perspective consoles are often more attractive to developers large developers. (if the games they're making are console friendly)

 

[Nafensoriel]

(Apologies, only now I noticed the link I shared previously is behind a paywall)

Trying to clarify my point: what makes consoles more attractive to developers is not the global sales volume of the platform, PC and consoles are mostly on pair on that one. However PC has much more titles which indicates less sales per title when comparing with consoles.
When a developer launches one AAA title on all platforms they *usually* see more sales on consoles than on PC for that given title. (Ymmv depending on the nature of title but I'm talking of general trends).
You can see this by checking sales per platform for Ubisoft, EA, TakeTwo etc.

Ubisoft sales per platform 2016-2018 (consoles have the larger share)
View attachment 135639

EA sales per platform 2017-2018 (consoles again have the larger share)
View attachment 135638

Just a reminder, the article linked in the front page is for Digital Sales only. A more global overview including physical sales can be found here for example: https://newzoo.com/insights/article...137-9-billion-in-2018-mobile-games-take-half/

I hope this clarifies the point I was trying to make. Both markets are healthy, but from a financial perspective consoles are often more attractive to developers large developers. (if the games they're making are console friendly)

I understood your point originally but I must make a counterpoint. Regardless of what a consoles profitability margin might be the point is unfortunately rendered moot without stratification of those numbers. EA and Ubisoft often do not release all platform titles for every game and often some of their blockbusters are platform restricted. While a majority are released to windows you are going well beyond statistical error by not excluding exclusive titles on both sides. Apples to apple can't happen when you have enough oranges in the barrel.

The main point I was stating is that thanks to low-cost high accessibility titles in the F2P category entirely break the "publically accepted" data from western markets in which consoles have traditionally held a financial advantage. While the advantage is undoubtedly locally true it does not seem to be globally true. The main functional advantage of consoles is also decaying as consoles are no longer being entirely designed as exclusive hardware and are beginning to emulate the PC structure(at least hardware wise). This trend is probably a practical and financial effect of what superdata has outlined. Consoles in their current format cannot truly support F2P models easily(though the hurdles are mostly who controls the platform dependent). This space is expanding RAPIDLY at the moment, however.

In short, western developers should have supported the PC platform more aggressively and pushed console adaptation to be more PC like. While they made more money locally they have neglected the broader global market and are now playing catch up.

 

[horskh]

With those mobile numbers, Diablo Immortal makes a lot more sense. Clearly, traditional gamers are a dying breed. Excuse me while I go dig myself a grave.