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Global video game market to pass $100bn by 2021

April 18, 2017

Video Game Industry analyst firm DFC Intelligence has issued its latest forecast for the global video game market that increases its overall outlook for the market driven by greater than expected growth in mobile games. In 2016 mobile game software sales was the fastest growing segment, and by 2021 mobile games are expected to account for $48 billion (€44.9bn) in revenue, nearly half of total game sales that are expected to pass $100 billion in 2021. The industry continues to experience strong growth even as the console market has struggled in the past year.

“The growth in mobile games was driven mainly by an increase in spending per user as consumers are increasingly able to determine which games provide value,” said DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole.

“This improvement in monetisation is a core driver of future growth potential given the ubiquity of mobile devices.” A major area of growth is occurring as digital products are able to embrace a more premium business model where consumers are willing to pay top dollar upfront for digital content. This is a major change in the recent mindset where games are given away for free and forced to rely on a freemium business model that simply does not work for many games.”

The PC game market also showed solid growth across all categories, with revenue surpassing $30 billion for 2016. Unfortunately, last year the console game software market was down in terms of packaged game sales and flat when online revenue is considered. However, given a strong line-up of titles for 2017 that will play on both PC and console, as well as with the launch of the Nintendo Switch, console game sales are expected to bounce back in 2017. Overall forecasts for the Nintendo Switch have been raised for the third straight quarter.

Categories: Articles, Games, Markets, Research