In short: A new report on the global video game market predicts that other tech industries will not experience the same kind of post-pandemic slowdown in 2022. Revenue is expected to hit another record high this year, and the US will overtake China in terms of consumer spending.
The Newzoo report predicts that global gaming revenue will reach a record $203.1 billion this year, while the number of players will reach 3.09 billion, or about 40% of the world’s population.
Looking at individual countries, Newzoo believes the US ($50.5 billion) will overtake China ($50.2 billion) in game revenue this year. The report ties it down to the stringent rules imposed on sports in the Asian country; Chinese regulators last month approved the country’s first video game license since July 2021.
The entire Asia-Pacific region ($96.3 billion) is far ahead of North America ($54.3 billion), the former accounting for nearly half of all global gaming revenue, but North America is seeing almost double the annual growth rate. Asia Pacific region. We are also seeing rapid growth in the Middle East and Africa and Latin America.
Mobile gaming is also continuously exploding and is expected to cross the $100 billion mark for the first time this year. The $103.5 billion from mobile titles will make up more than half of game revenue worldwide.
The console is said to account for this year’s non-smartphone development, with more people grabbing the Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and Switch consoles, though Nintendo’s machine could run into supply issues later in 2022. Console games revenue is expected to be $58.6 billion, up 8.4% YoY, while PC games are projected to grow by 3.2% to $38.7 billion.
Gaming appears to be a sector that is immune to a post-pandemic slowdown, which has seen share prices of many big tech companies plummet, Netflix lose viewers, and websites cut staff.
