With E3 now upon us, Futuresource Consulting has recently published its Global Video Games Market Report, which complements the anticipated key themes from the show. It also provides a benchmark for current market performance, sizing and trends together with an outlook to 2020 on a global and regional basis. As part of this, it highlights growth opportunities, which are anticipated to be reflected by announcements that Futuresource expects to see at #E32016.
This latest Futuresource report highlights that the global video games software was an $80 billion dollar industry in 2015, and continues to be driven by innovative mobile and buoyant PC segments. “The robust growth in consumer spend on video gaming means we’re on course to top $100 billion consumer spend at retail in 2020, fuelled by the explosion of micro-transactions, primarily within mobile and PC gaming but also increasingly significant for consoles,” commented Tristan Veale, Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “The overall sector will also be driven by ancillary gaming markets and technologies” continues report co-author Amisha Chauhan “with VR, esports and interactive toy markets attracting significant investment, helping propel the overall gaming market to another level.”
Futuresource Consulting predict that by 2017, mobile is expected to overtake PC to account for the largest share (37%) of gaming spend, driven by the continued growth of micro-transactions, particularly within emerging markets where there is rapidly increasing smartphone and tablet penetration. India is an increasing area of focus, displaying strong growth combined with low cost of user acquisition.
In 2015 global mobile gaming spend reached $27 billion and PC gaming totalled $31 billion, with the market going from strength to strength. Total global software spend on console gaming topped $25 billion in 2015.
APAC accounts for over 50% of PC gaming, led by China, South Korea and Japan, with the rise of esports continuing to drive interest in PC Gaming in these key territories, but also globally. The recent rapid rise of esports has seen it build a global following that rivals many rights holders in sports entertainment.
In addition, Virtual Reality is seeing the world’s biggest brands invest significant sums. At this E3 will certainly certainly see games utilising the latest and newer virtual reality (VR) headsets including Oculus, HTC and Sony PlayStation which join the rising install base of mobile-based headsets. Games is set to be a key driving force behind VR uptake and with the range of devices and varied price points it opens up significant development opportunities. Futuresource predicts that by 2020 VR gaming software revenues will reach close to $5 billion.
