Game Market Overview. The Most Important Reports Published in October 2023

devtodev is helping you keep in touch with what’s happening in the game market. Every month we publish an overview of reports on the most popular games worldwide, top-grossing games, successful releases, favorite video game types, trends, etc. This overview is prepared by Dmitriy Byshonkov - the author of the GameDev Reports by devtodev Telegram channel. You can read the August and September reports.

Contents

• The launch of EA Sports FC 24 is one of the most significant moments in EA's history
• Township celebrates its 10th Anniversary - Playrix shares key figures
• data.ai: League of Legends: Wild Rift surpasses $1B in revenue
• data.ai: State of the mobile market in Q3 2023
• Steam: Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Cyberpunk 2077 are the most popular games on Steam Deck in September
• Monster Hunter Now has become Niantic's third-highest-grossing game in history
• Gamalytic: 67% of games on Steam earned less than $5k
• Sensor Tower: Goddess of Victory: Nikke surpassed $500M milestone
• CD Projekt RED: Development of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty cost $63M
• Sensor Tower: How Bethesda and Microsoft Launched Starfield
• AppMagic: Hypercasual Market in Q3 2023
• In 2023, layoffs affected more than 6,000 employees
• EA Sports FC 24 launched 20% better than FIFA 23
• Sensor Tower: Konami dominates the sports mobile game market
• AppMagic & WNHub: Top Games by Revenue & Downloads in September 2023
• Sensor Tower: RPG is the main mobile genre in South Korea
• Famitsu: Pikmin 4 has become the best-selling game of the month in Japan for the third consecutive month
• The profitability of Sony's gaming business does not reach 15%
• Newzoo: Remnant II metrics in August 2023
• Ipsos & Video Games Europe: How children spend money in Games
• Minecraft now has more than 300M copies sold
• AppMagic: Users have spent over $7B in Scopely games
• data.ai: Best mobile games of Q3 2023
• Newzoo: How different generations interact with games in 2023
• AppMagic: Netflix games have been downloaded over 82M times
• WN Media Group: Salary Survey of the Russian-speaking Industry in 2023
• Circana: The US gaming market grew by 10% in September
• GSD: Console and PC game sales in Europe declined in September
• GSD & GfK: Console sales in the UK jumped by 44% in September
• ESA: Games help cope with stress; socialize; become better
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 sold 2.5 million copies on the first day
• Niko Partners: The 6 largest gaming markets in Southeast Asia will reach $5.8 billion in 2023
• Newzoo: Top 10 Games by MAU on PC and Consoles in September 2023
• Farm Heroes Saga has earned over $1 billion
• Newzoo: Starfield ranks third in MAU on PC among all RPGs in September
• Tinuiti: A Gamer's Portrait in 2023
• TikTok & Newzoo: Promoting games on PC and Consoles in 2023
• Apptopia: Less than 1% of Netflix's monthly audience plays their games
• Sensor Tower: Pixel Hero is the leader in the Korean mobile market by downloads

The launch of EA Sports FC 24 is one of the most significant moments in EA's history

What happened

• FIFA and EA were unable to reach an agreement to extend the license for using the FIFA brand. There were two reasons - according to reports from journalists, FIFA demanded a two-fold increase in annual fees (from $150-180 million to $300-360 million) and the removal of exclusivity for using the brand in games.

• EA was the largest licensing partner by revenue for FIFA.

EA's conditions upon the name change

• The new installment of the football simulator will be called EA Sports FC 24, not FIFA 24.

• FIFA is a global leader in its genre. In the 2022 fiscal year, the series generated $2.6 billion in revenue. The net profit from the Ultimate Team mode increased from $26 million in the 2010 fiscal year to $1 billion in 2020.

• Ampere Analysis reports that the total Monthly Active Users (MAU) for FIFA games in August 2023 is 31 million users. FIFA 23 has 22 million, while FIFA 22 has 5 million. The rest play older games in the series.

What is happening now

• EA Sports FC 24 was released on September 29th. The release became the second highest-selling game in the UK in its first week, following The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. However, the overall physical sales are 30% lower than FIFA 23 at launch.

• To conclude, it would be appropriate to wait for complete sales data. We need to look at the distribution of physical and digital versions.

• Ending the partnership with FIFA forced EA to remove all previous games in the series from stores. Now, only EA Sports FC 24 is available for purchase.

• EA has decided to disable online functionality for FIFA 21 and earlier games in the series. Traditionally, the company maintained servers for 5 years. Thus, the company likely wants to motivate the old audience to upgrade to EA Sports FC 24.

• EA's management has stated that part of the "freed up" $150-180 million will be spent on marketing the game.

• FIFA has announced that it is actively seeking partners who can develop football games.

Risks

• The biggest risk for EA is the loss of the FIFA brand name. Many buyers purchased games from the series because of the familiar abbreviation. EA is likely to lose some "casual" buyers who are not fans of the series. Otherwise, the company still has everything except the brand.

• For FIFA, the situation looks much bleaker. The company has lost its main business partner, and there are no developers of football simulators in the market except for Konami and Strikerz. Moreover, surpassing EA in terms of technical infrastructure will be practically impossible.

Township celebrates its 10th Anniversary - Playrix shares key figures

• The game's revenue over 10 years has surpassed $2.1 billion.

• The total number of downloads has exceeded 600 million, and the game's DAU hovers around 5 million users.

• The team has grown from 20 people in 2013 to 130 people in 2023.

• Over 10 years of operation, the team has organized more than 50 unique events.

Township - Playrix's first global hit. Initially, the game was released on Facebook and was later ported to mobile devices.

Source

data.ai: League of Legends: Wild Rift surpasses $1B in revenue

• The game was globally released in December 2020.

• League of Legends: Wild Rift has reached the 4th position among the highest-earning MOBA games in history. Honor of Kings, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Arena of Valor are ahead of it.

• In terms of active users, the game is behind the games as mentioned above as well as Pokemon UNITE.

• The game has been downloaded more than 111 million times to date. In the past year alone, 22.4 million users joined, most coming from China, Vietnam, and Brazil.

• In the first half of 2023, the game earned $188 million, securing the 3rd place in its genre. $141 million came from China and $8.2 million from the United States.

Source

data.ai: State of the mobile market in Q3 2023

Overall Figures

• The mobile app market continues to recover from 2022. Revenue from mobile apps (both gaming and non-gaming) reached $33.6 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

• However, the share of games is decreasing. In the third quarter of 2023, games earned $20 billion, which is $0.3 billion less than the same quarter in 2022.

• The iOS gaming segment declined from $12.5 billion in the third quarter of 2022 to $11.8 billion in Q3 2023. In contrast, Google Play showed growth, increasing from $7.8 billion to $8.2 billion during the same period.

❗️ data.ai may underestimate the revenue of the mobile gaming market since it does not track payments outside of the App Store and Google Play. Many large companies are now diverting some payments from these platforms to reduce commission fees.

• Downloads of all types of apps have plateaued. In the third quarter of 2023, there were 38.4 billion app downloads.

• Games, in terms of download numbers, even increased by 0.1 billion in the third quarter of 2023, reaching 15.1 billion downloads. Downloads increased, albeit slightly, on both iOS and Android.

Top Games of the Q3 2023

Royal Match became the highest-earning game by the end of the third quarter. Dream Games managed to surpass Candy Crush Saga, Honor of Kings, ROBLOX, and Monopoly GO.

• Leaders in terms of downloads are Garena Free Fire, Subway Surfers, and ROBLOX.

• ROBLOX, Garena Free Fire, and Candy Crush Saga are the largest games in terms of Monthly Active Users (MAU).

Source

Steam: Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Cyberpunk 2077 are the most popular games on Steam Deck in September

• The higher a game is in the rankings, the more hours users spend playing it.

• Baldur's Gate 3 is the leader by a significant margin.

Interestingly, the list has quite a lot of recent releases. Let’s note that Steam Deck only delivers 30fps on low to medium graphics settings, and in the case of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, there are control issues. It seems people are willing to tolerate poor graphics or technical shortcomings to play anywhere.

Source

Monster Hunter Now has become Niantic's third-highest-grossing game in history

• According to data.ai, the game has already earned $21.5 million. It has surpassed Pikmin Bloom ($19.7 million) but lags behind Harry Potter: Wizards Unite ($39.4 million) and, of course, Pokémon GO ($5.12 billion).

• Nearly 70% of the revenue comes from Japan, followed by Hong Kong (11.5%) and the United States (6%).

• Monster Hunter Now was launched on September 14th.

• Within three weeks of its release, the game was downloaded 8.58 million times.

• In terms of downloads, the United States is leading (accounting for 51.5% of all downloads), followed by Japan (10.6%) and Taiwan (3.8%).

• The share of paid traffic increased after the first week, despite a drop in organic traffic.

Source

Gamalytic: 67% of games on Steam earned less than $5k

• Currently, more than 71,000 games are on sale on Steam. 67% of them earned less than $5k; 17.2% earned between $k and $50k; 6.9% earned between $50k and $200k; 8.9% earned over $200k.

• Over the past 3 years, over 41,000 games have been released on Steam, which accounts for 58% of the current total. Approximately 40 new games are released each day at the moment.

• If we only consider games released in the last 3 years, the situation looks even worse. 76.5% of these games earned less than $5k; 13.4% earned between $5k and $50k; 4.5% earned between $50k and $200k. Only 5.6% generated revenue exceeding $200k.

• Half of the games released in the last 3 years (excluding free ones) did not surpass the $700 mark. If you exclude very cheap games priced under $5, the median revenue will increase to $4k. If you remove projects priced under $10, the revenue will rise even higher, up to $17k.

• However, the number of games, in absolute numbers, that earned more than $10k in the first 3 months, is increasing each year. In 2019, there were 1,271 such projects, in 2020 - 1,649, in 2021 - 1,850, and in 2022 - already 2,067.

• 77% of games on Steam are sold for less than $10, and only 5% of all games on the platform have a price higher than $20.

• Survival games with open-world crafting, colony simulators, 4X strategies, city builders, and management games have the highest median revenue.

Source

Sensor Tower: Goddess of Victory: Nikke surpassed $500M milestone

• It took just under 10 months from its release in November 2022 to reach this significant milestone.

• Japan leads in revenue, accounting for 60.5% of all earnings. Following are the United States (14.9%) and South Korea (12.1%).

• Goddess of Victory: Nikke has become the most profitable Squad RPG in terms of cumulative revenue from November 4, 2022, to September 3, 2023.

• Developers actively utilize intellectual property in promoting the project. Collaboration with Chainsaw Man increased sales by 136%, and thanks to cooperation with Nier: Automata, daily revenue soared by 215%.

• The game has made a significant contribution to Tencent's (Level Infinite) international revenue. Goddess of Victory: Nikke accounts for approximately 7.5% of the company's total revenue outside of China.

Source

CD Projekt RED: Development of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty cost $63M

• Marketing added $21.7 million to the budget.

• Sales of the expansion have already surpassed the 3 million copies mark. In terms of profitability, it seems that the Polish studio only needs to recoup the marketing expenses.

• 67% of Phantom Liberty expansion sales were on PC; 20% on PlayStation 5; 13% on Xbox Series S|X.

• Reportedly, 360 employees from the studio worked on the development of the DLC, and slightly over 3,000 people were involved from outsourcing companies.

• Total sales of Cyberpunk 2077 have exceeded 25 million copies. The last 5 million were sold after June 2022.

❗️The company plans to continue making games in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. A new project with the codename Project Orion is in the concept stage.

• Alongside the success of the expansion, CD Projekt RED announced that they are working on a live-action film set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. Previously, the company released Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in collaboration with Netflix.

Source

Sensor Tower: How Bethesda and Microsoft Launched Starfield

Before Launch

Announcement and First Trailer

• Bethesda announced Starfield in September 2018, noting that it was the company's first major new IP in 25 years.

• The first trailer was shown in June 2021. The company allocated 90% of its marketing budget to advertising on desktop YouTube, 9% on Twitter, and 1% on Facebook. Interestingly, the trailer on Twitter spread organically, accounting for 24% of all views (YouTube had 74%).

• In the debut trailer, the company emphasized that Starfield would be available on Game Pass from day one.

First Gameplay Demonstration

• Gameplay was first revealed at E3 2022, one year after the teaser trailer. This time, the company focused on YouTube and major gaming platforms such as Reddit, Twitch, and GameSpot. It's worth noting that the company once again ignored mobile devices for these showings, allocating all expenses to desktops.

Pre-Orders

• Pre-orders opened in June 2023. Bethesda launched a multi-channel advertising campaign, covering Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.

• The premium edition of Starfield was highlighted in the advertising campaign, allowing players to start playing five days earlier. Bethesda actively referenced The Elder Scrolls, Skyrim, and Fallout 4 in its creative materials.

Collaborations

• Microsoft actively promoted Starfield through the Xbox Game Pass.

• Bethesda collaborated with AMD, MSI, CLX Gaming, and NZXT to reach a more hardcore audience.

Target Countries for Marketing

• 70% of the entire advertising budget was allocated to the United States. The debut trailer was also advertised in Canada.

• In 2022, after showcasing gameplay, the advertising spread to Germany. Later, Bethesda added the United Kingdom and Italy.

After Launch

Advertising Approach

• 35% of Bethesda's budget after launch went to OTT (advertising on various streaming services). They actively advertised on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok.

• Most creatives, lasting 15-30 seconds, conveyed the message that the game was available for purchase.

Countries

• The share of the United States in marketing expenditures increased to 77%. The United Kingdom accounted for 10.7%, and Canada for 8.2%.

Results

• Starfield became Bethesda's biggest launch in history. Within a couple of weeks after its release, more than 10 million people played it.

• However, the quality of the game proved to be a subject of debate. The game has a rating of 3.3 out of 5 on Game Pass and 72.09% positive reviews on Steam. Critics on Metacritic rated the game at 84 points, but users gave it 6.6 points.

• In terms of marketing budgets, Starfield, with combined spending from Bethesda and Microsoft, exceeded Hogwarts Legacy ($33 million). According to Sensor Tower's estimates, the companies spent over $40 million promoting the game in the United States.

• The popularity of the game on Twitch was highest during its release. After that, the number of views steadily declined, with the game trailing behind in views compared to games like Baldur's Gate III.

Source

AppMagic: Hypercasual Market in Q3 2023

Overall Trends

• Downloads compared to the previous quarter dropped by 8%, from 3.8 billion to 3.5 billion.

• Compared to the previous year, the decline is even more significant - by 14%, from 4 billion. However, analysts note that quarterly declines in Q3 have been observed for several years.

• Eastern Tier-1 countries saw a 7% increase in downloads in the third quarter, while Western Tier-1 countries dropped by 10%; all other countries also decreased by 7%.

Top 10 Games by Downloads

• My Perfect Hotel - the chart leader in the third quarter. The game, launched in April 2022, has garnered more than 28 million installations.

• The second newcomer is Magic Piano Tiles: a music game from the Pakistani studio XGAME STUDIO. The game has been downloaded more than 26 million times.

• Twerk Race 3D - Running Game - the third newcomer of the quarter with 22 million downloads. Interestingly, behind the simple runner game, there is a gym management meta.

• The chart also features many old hits such as Race Master 3D - Car Racing, Bridge Race, Burger Please! (its downloads increased, for example, by 13%).

Source

In 2023, layoffs affected more than 6,000 employees

Game Industry Layoffs collected the data about all known layoff rounds in 2023. And they look scary.

• The exact number of laid-off employees is 6,131 people as of October 9.

• Companies conducted 107 rounds of layoffs, with the majority occurring in September of this year.

• Unity, Epic, Amazon, Electronic Arts, and Embracer Group are the companies that laid off the most people.

Constantly updated statistics on layoffs are available at the link.

EA Sports FC 24 launched 20% better than FIFA 23

• In the first week after release, the number of users in the game reached 11.3 million. This is 20% more than in the previous year during the same period.

• EA Sports FC Mobile gained over 11.2 million users in the first 10 days. 2.2 million downloaded the game on the first day.

Source

Sensor Tower: Konami dominates the sports mobile game market

• The top 10 highest-earning mobile sports games in the world are represented by football (5 projects), racing games (2 projects), baseball, golf, and pool.

• The leader of the global chart is Professional Baseball Spirits A, a baseball game by Konami. According to AppMagic data, the game's cumulative revenue is $1.86 billion. In the last 30 days, it earned $19.5 million, only in Japan. 

• Konami dominates the domestic market for sports games. It publishes 6 out of the top 10 highest-earning mobile sports games.

Source

AppMagic & WNHub: Top Games by Revenue & Downloads in September 2023

Revenue

• Honor of Kings continues its top-grossing journey. The game earned $115.8 million in September, excluding Chinese Android stores.

• Monopoly GO! by Scopely is second in terms of revenue, with nearly $88 million in earnings.

• Genshin Impact returned to the top ten highest-earning projects, earning $69.1 million in September.

Downloads

• Build A Queen is the second most downloaded game in September, with 16.5 million downloads. It is a runner game in Supersonic Studios' portfolio.

• Nextbots In Backrooms: Sandbox is eighth in downloads in September, dedicated to the currently popular trend of "skibidi-toilets."

• For the first time, High Energy Hero (高能英雄) entered the charts. It is a royal battle game from Tencent, borrowing many of its mechanics from Tencent. The game was released on September 21 and received 2.7 million installations and $1.1 million in revenue during that time.

Source

Sensor Tower: RPG is the main mobile genre in South Korea

• It accounts for 57.5% of the revenue of the local gaming market.

• South Korea holds 13.5% of the RPG genre market share. Ahead are Japan (34%) and China (20.9%). South Korea surpasses the USA (13.1%) by the share of the revenue in the genre.

RPG subgenres in the South Korean market

• The share of revenue from mobile MMORPGs dropped from 77% in 2019 to 69.5% in 2023.

• The share of revenue from Squad RPG (Cookie Run: Kingdom, Goddess of Victory: Nikke) increased from 12.7% in 2019 to 17.7% in 2023.

• Idle RPGs significantly increased their share from 1.7% in 2019 to 4.4% in 2023. Major representatives include Legend of Slime: Idle RPG and Blade Idle.

Source

Famitsu: Pikmin 4 has become the best-selling game of the month in Japan for the third consecutive month

Famitsu only considers physical copy sales.

Games

• Pikmin 4 sold 111.6 thousand copies in Japan in September. The total sales in the country have reached 864.2 thousand copies since its release in July.

• The release of Pikmin 1 + 2 from Nintendo took 6th place on the Japanese chart, selling 23.9 thousand copies.

• Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon for PS5 took second place, selling 39.9 thousand copies, losing to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Consoles

• Nintendo Switch is the leader in sales in Japan. In September, over 307 thousand consoles were purchased.

• PS5 is in second place, with over 181 thousand units purchased in September.

• The total sales of Xbox Series S|X in Japan have reached 500 thousand.

Source

The profitability of Sony's gaming business does not reach 15%

Simon Carless from GameDiscoverCo brought up an interesting piece of information from the FTC and Microsoft case hearings, which discusses the profitability of PlayStation.

• According to information from the court, PlayStation's profitability is in the range of 11-14% (low teens). In contrast, Activision Blizzard's profitability stands at around 30%.

• This is one of the reasons why the outgoing CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, wanted to invest in GAAS (Games as a Service) projects. Firstly, they have higher profitability; secondly, Sony needs to reduce its dependence on third-party developers.

❗️ However, Sony is facing difficulties in implementing the transition to GAAS. Jason Schreier from Bloomberg reported that internal studios have little desire to create service-based games. They are accustomed to working on single-player narrative projects.

• As of the current moment (October 2023), 92.7% of Daily Active Users (DAU) on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 are accounted for by games from third-party developers.

Source

Newzoo: Remnant II metrics in August 2023

• Remnant II sold over a million copies within four days of its release. The success was unexpected for many.

• The game ranked fourth in sales in August 2023 in the United States and the United Kingdom among all premium games.

• In terms of MAU, Remnant II reached the 28th position for the month. Approximately 2.5% of all players played the game in August. On average, a player spent 30 hours per month playing it. The largest markets in terms of monthly audience are the United States and Germany.

• 38% of Remnant II's audience also played Diablo IV. There is a 27.3% overlap with Exoprimal and a 24.3% overlap with Final Fantasy XVI.

• When looking at paying players, there is a 55.8% overlap with Elden Ring players; a 55.7% overlap with Destiny II players; and a 46.3% overlap with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Warzone 2) players.

Source

Ipsos & Video Games Europe: How children spend money in Games

Ipsos conducted a survey of 2,808 parents (or guardians) on the subject of how children spend money on games. The research is relevant to Europe.

• 76% of parents claim that their children do not purchase anything in games. 18% say they make purchases, and 7% are unsure.

• On average, parents spend €39 per month on in-game purchases for their children in 2023. This is €6 more than in 2020, and Ipsos believes this figure corresponds to inflation.

• The majority of children (64%) spend between €1 and €20 per month on in-game purchases.

• The most popular purchases (34%) are those that affect the gameplay. Cosmetic purchases come next. It turns out that loot boxes are not as interesting to children.

• 89% of parents monitor their children's spending on games. Half of them have agreements regarding spending levels. 38% require seeking their permission, and 23% impose spending limits.

Source

Minecraft now has more than 300M copies sold

• The last time Microsoft reported game sales was in April 2021 when they amounted to 238 million copies.

• Minecraft seems to be the best-selling game in the world. In second place is GTA V, with sales exceeding 185 million copies.

• The first version of Minecraft was released on May 17, 2009, and the full release occurred on November 18, 2011.

Source

AppMagic: Users have spent over $7B in Scopely games

On AppMagic's graphs, the company's net revenue is shown - after deducting platform and country taxes - $4.2 billion.

• MARVEL Strike Force: Squad RPG accounts for 17% of all spending; Star Trek Fleet Command - 14%; Tip Solitaire TriPeaks - 12%.

• The gray area at the end of the graph represents the launch of Monopoly GO!. This highly successful launch currently generates more than 74% of the company's monthly revenue.

• 52% of the company's total revenue comes from Google Play, and 48% from the App Store.

• Regarding user acquisition costs, Scopely spends the majority of its money in the United States (74%). Next are the United Kingdom (5%), Canada (4%), and Germany (4%).

🤝 In July 2023, Scopely was acquired by Savvy Games Group for $4.9 billion.

Source

data.ai: Best mobile games of Q3 2023

Leaders worldwide

• Subway Surfers, Garena Free Fire, and ROBLOX are the download leaders in Q3 2023. It's worth noting that Tic Tac Toe: 2 Player XO made its first appearance in the quarterly chart.

• Royal Match surpassed Candy Crush Saga in revenue, taking the first position. ROBLOX is in third place. The rapidly growing Monopoly GO is in the fourth spot, and Pokemon GO has also returned to the chart.

• Leaders in Monthly Active Users (MAU) for the third quarter include ROBLOX, Garena Free Fire, and Candy Crush Saga.

Worldwide growth leaders

• Tic Tac Toe: 2 Player XO, My Perfect Hotel, and Real Car Driving: Race City 3D were the fastest-growing games in terms of downloads in the third quarter.

• Revenue growth leaders are Monopoly GO, Royal Match, and Justice Online Mobile, which is currently only available in China. In July, I wrote that it earned $23.3 million within 5 days of its release, and its revenue has stabilized at $1.5 million per day.

• The fastest MAU growth in the third quarter was seen in Pokemon Sleep (although it's more of a sleep-tracking app than a game), Battleground Mobile India, and the ubiquitous Monopoly GO.

• Tencent's Arena Breakout is gaining ground - it ranks 9th in download growth and 6th in MAU growth.

Breakdown by country on data.ai charts

Newzoo: How different generations interact with games in 2023

Key Findings

• Video games are the dominant form of entertainment for Generation Alpha (22%). For Generation Z, games are on par with social media. The older the generation, the less time they spend playing games.

• In the modern world, all generations engage with games. Even 43% of baby boomers play games. The highest number of players is in Generation Alpha - 94%.

• Younger generations not only play games but also watch them. 70% of Generation Alpha engage in this.

• The younger the players, the more important socialization and cooperative play are to them. This explains the popularity of Minecraft, ROBLOX, and Fortnite.

• Many young players (more than 54% among men and 39% among women - starting from the millennial generation) consider themselves gamers. The percentage of women with the same opinion is also growing. This suggests that games have evolved from a subculture to mainstream culture - people are not ashamed to admit they play.

Consumption Habits

• Smartphones are the primary gaming device across all generations. However, the younger the generation, the more they play on PCs or consoles. Additionally, there is a correlation between age and the number of platforms a person plays on (younger individuals use more platforms).

• The youngest generation also plays games of various genres more often. On average, baby boomers play 2.8 genres, while Generation Alpha plays 6.

• Games fulfill the different needs of different generations. For Generation Alpha, socialization is one of the key aspects of games. For baby boomers, it's the opportunity to achieve goals and solve puzzles.

Payments

• Mobile devices have the best conversion rate to paying users (38% across generations from Alpha to Millennials). Gen Z and Millennials are the most likely to make payments. 61% of Millennials spend money on games.

• On PCs and consoles, there are more "whales" (heavy spenders) compared to mobile devices.

• Millennials and Generation Z are more likely to buy paid games. It seems that their consumption habits from childhood and adolescence have an influence. Free-to-play (F2P) remains the dominant monetization format.

• In-game currency is the leader in sales across all generations. The youngest generation enjoys buying characters, while Millennials and baby boomers prefer content additions.

• The motivation to purchase for younger generations is the opportunity to access exclusive content. Millennials and older generations are drawn to discounts.

Source

AppMagic: Netflix games have been downloaded over 82M times

• Out of over 80 available games, Too Hot to Handle is the first one with 7.6 million downloads.

• The game ranks last in the top 10 for downloads and has 1.93 million installations, which is Exploding Kittens.

• Ports of Into The Breach and Valiant Hearts have approximately 900,000 installations.

• Not all games in the subscription benefit from IP - The Queen’s Gambit Chess, despite the immense success of the series, has only 240,000 installations.

Netflix decided to expand into the mobile gaming space in 2021. Since then, they have made several acquisitions (Next Games, Boss Fight, and other studios). The games are available for free to Netflix subscribers, and the company itself claims that games are a part of its strategy to retain users.

Source

WN Media Group: Salary Survey of the Russian-speaking Industry in 2023

The company collected information through a free questionnaire format. The survey was conducted on 27 thematic TG channels, 20 thematic VK communities, as well as among the audience of WN Media Group media resources. A total of 1004 surveys were analyzed.

• 46% of the Russian-speaking gaming industry resides outside of Russia. 88% of those who left, left Russia in 2022. Georgia and Serbia are the primary hubs for relocation (32% of those who left chose these two countries).

• The percentage of those who left is higher among experienced professionals. A third of Junior specialists left Russia, but almost half of Senior and Lead employees did so.

• The largest group of emigrants includes business developers (90%), community development managers (72%), producers, product managers, and project managers (over 60%).

• Salary expectations among Russian-speaking professionals are around $3,000 to $4,000. However, they receive slightly over $2,000 in hand.

• 46.5% of individuals are dissatisfied with their salaries.

• The median salary in the gaming industry in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan is $1,700; in Georgia and Serbia, it is $2,200; in Armenia, it is $2,700; in Cyprus, it is $4,450.

• Regarding professions, the highest median salary is for middle managers ($3,200) and top managers ($3,700). The lowest earners are PR specialists ($1,200) and support staff ($1,250).

• 44.4% of the Russian-speaking gaming industry sees no prospects in their current positions.

Source

Circana: The US gaming market grew by 10% in September

• The gaming industry in the USA was growing last month. Sales have increased by 10% compared to the previous year, reaching $4.5 billion.

• As of September 2023, the gaming industry in the USA is showing a 2% growth compared to the previous year. The total industry volume for the first 9 months is $39.4 billion.

• Games sales have increased by 2% over the year, hardware sales by 10%, and accessory sales by 1%.

Games

• Sales of gaming content grew by 13% in September 2023, reaching $3.8 billion. Most of the growth is attributed to the sales of PC and console games. Subscription revenue has dropped by 2%. The mobile market has grown by 4%.

• Starfield is the best-selling game of the month in the USA, despite its availability in Game Pass. It also ranks 7th in sales for the entire year.

• Mortal Kombat 1, EA Sports FC 24, Madden NFL 24, and Payday 3 are in positions from 2 to 5 on the September chart.

• Monopoly GO!, Royal Match, and Roblox are the leaders in the American mobile market in terms of revenue. The top 10 mobile games in September are the same as in August.

Hardware and Accessories

• Sales of gaming hardware dropped by 8% to $451 million.

• The slight increase in sales of Xbox Series S|X couldn't compensate for the decline in PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch sales.

• Despite the sales decline, PS5 remains the best-selling platform in the USA both in terms of revenue and the number of units sold. Currently, its sales in the USA are 10% better than in the same period last year.

• Accessory sales grew by 11% in September, reaching $197 million. The limited edition DualSense with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the sales leader.

Source

GSD: Console and PC game sales in Europe declined in September

GSD reports only the actual sales figures obtained directly from partners. Some major publishers, for example, Nintendo, do not share information on the sales of digital copies.

Games

• Game sales in September 2023 turned out to be 16% lower than the previous year. There is an explanation for this - in September 2022, there were 5 counted weeks in the month, while in September 2023, there were 4 weeks. If we look at week-to-week sales, the decline in September 2023 is around 1%.

• The launch of EA Sports FC 24 in Europe in the first month was 10% worse compared to FIFA 23. Sales were also 3.7% worse than FIFA 22.

Nevertheless, EA Sports FC 24 is the best-selling game in Europe and the United Kingdom in September.

• Starfield is the second best-selling game in Europe. Sales of the main Xbox exclusive of the year are 13% lower than Forza Horizon 5.

• NBA 2K24 performed below expectations. Sales of the new basketball simulator are 17% lower than the previous installment.

• The Crew Motorfest had a successful start (4th place in the chart) - 6.5% better in European sales than The Crew 2.

• Finally, sales of Mortal Kombat 1 - a reboot of the series - were 39% worse in terms of European sales for the first 3 weeks compared to Mortal Kombat 11.

Hardware and Accessories

• Console sales in Europe (excluding Germany and the UK) grew by 38% in September 2023, reaching 416 thousand systems.

• The growth is attributed to PlayStation 5. Console sales in September 2023 are 175% higher than in September 2022.

• European sales of Nintendo Switch dropped by 28% compared to the previous year.

• The release of Starfield did not help Xbox Series S|X sales. They declined by 35% compared to the previous year.

• 1.1 million accessories were sold in Europe in September 2023. The best-selling accessory is DualSense.

Source

GSD & GfK: Console sales in the UK jumped by 44% in September

GSD reports only the actual sales figures obtained directly from partners. Some publishers, for example, Nintendo, do not share information on the sales of digital copies.

Games

• 3.5 million games were sold in the UK in September 2023. This is 1% more than the previous year.

• EA Sports FC 24 debuted in the top spot. Game sales in the UK, after the name change, were 8% lower than FIFA 23.

• In the second spot is Starfield. Game sales were worse than Forza Horizon 5, but the racing simulator was available on Xbox One.

• In the third spot, you have Mortal Kombat 1. Sales of the reboot in the first three weeks were 24% worse than Mortal Kombat 11.

• The Crew Motorfest started on the British market 30% worse than The Crew 2. In Europe, the situation is the opposite; the game sold better (by 6%).

Hardware and Accessories

• Console sales in the UK grew by 44% in September compared to the previous year.

• Xbox Series S|X sales increased by 136% compared to the previous month. The console took the second spot in sales after PlayStation 5.

• PS5 sales also increased by 24%.

• 663.2 thousand accessories were sold in the UK in September 2023. This is 11.6% less than in the previous year. The White DualSense controller is the sales leader.

Source

ESA: Games help cope with stress; socialize; become better

The results are based on a survey of 12,847 active gamers from different countries worldwide.

• 69% of people play games for enjoyment; 63% to "kill" time; 58% to combat stress and relax.

• 71% of people find that games help them cope with stress; 61% with anxiety. Additionally, 55% of respondents noted that games help them feel less lonely.

• 64% of people believe that games help them deal with daily challenges; 63% feel happier because of games. 52% say games have helped them overcome difficult moments in life. 

• Players believe that games develop positive qualities - creativity (73%), problem-solving skills (69%), and cognitive abilities (69%).

• 26% of people play games with others online daily (and 51% do so weekly). Offline, 15% do this daily (and 38% do so weekly).

Source

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 sold 2.5 million copies on the first day

• This is the fastest-selling game in the history of PlayStation studios.

• The first part of Marvel's Spider-Man sold 3.3 million copies in the first 3 days. God of War Ragnarok sold 5 million copies in 5 days.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is one of the best games of this year. The average score of the game on Metacritic is 91.

Source

Niko Partners: The 6 largest gaming markets in Southeast Asia will reach $5.8 billion in 2023

Niko Partners considers Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam as the primary markets in Southeast Asia. The company refers to them as SEA-6.

Revenue

• In 2023, the market size of these countries will reach $5.8 billion. By 2027, it will grow to $7.2 billion. Niko Partners' analysts predict an average annual growth rate of 5.4%.

• Currently, Indonesia and Thailand account for 46% of the total revenue in these countries.

• In 2023, the size of the Indonesian gaming market increased by 9.9% compared to the previous year. In Singapore, during the same period, growth was 8.2%. These are the fastest-growing major markets in Southeast Asia.

• In 2023, 66.4% of the total revenue in SEA-6 countries will come from mobile devices. By 2027, the share of mobile revenue will increase to 70%.

Audience

• The number of players in SEA-6 countries in 2023 will reach 288.5 million. By 2027, this number will increase to 344 million. The average annual growth rate is 3.6%.

• Indonesia and Vietnam have the largest player populations. These two countries account for 63% of the entire gaming audience in SEA-6 countries.

Further Growth Drivers

1. Esports. The SEA-6 countries competed for medals at the 19th Asian Games in China, where esports disciplines were added. Thailand and Malaysia won the most medals in esports.

2. Government support.

3. The investment attractiveness of the region.

Source

Newzoo: Top 10 Games by MAU on PC and Consoles in September 2023

PC

• Counter-Strike 2 took the top spot in terms of MAU on PC. Players are frustrated with bugs, network code issues, and the lack of Mac OS support, but they continue to play.

• Minecraft dropped to the second position, while Fortnite moved to the third.

• Cyberpunk 2077 soared 14 places (to 6th place) thanks to the release of Phantom Liberty and the 2.0 update. The developers themselves say that this is now the game that CDPR originally intended to create.

Consoles

• Fortnite, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and GTA V are the leaders on the console MAU chart.

• In September, NBA 2K24 and EA Sports FC 24 entered the charts. Surprisingly, the basketball simulator outperformed the football one in terms of MAU. However, NBA 2K24 was released at the beginning of the month, while EA Sports FC 24 was released at the very end.

Source

Farm Heroes Saga has earned over $1 billion

• King claims that Farm Heroes Saga is the first mobile game developed in the United Kingdom to surpass the $1 billion revenue mark.

• In 2022, the number of players in the project exceeded 50 million.

• Currently, the Monthly Active Users (MAU) of all King's games are over 200 million.

Source

Newzoo: Starfield ranks third in MAU on PC among all RPGs in September

• In September 2023, 7.4% of the entire gaming audience on PC and consoles played Starfield. For comparison, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim had 0.8%.

• Starfield is the third game in terms of MAU among RPGs on PC and the first in this regard on consoles.

• The game has the most overlap in the audience with players who bought Cyberpunk 2077 (45.2%), Red Dead Redemption 2 (40.9%), and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 / Warzone (35.5%).

• The key markets in terms of MAU are the United States and the United Kingdom.

• Starfield ranked 4th in revenue in the United States and the United Kingdom on PC and consoles.

• In September, Starfield was in 2nd place in terms of views among all RPGs, with a total of 38.6 million hours of viewing.

• The average player's time in Starfield is 29.8 hours, ranking 20th among all RPGs.

Source

Tinuiti: A Gamer's Portrait in 2023

To create this report, 1,000 gamers were surveyed. The location of the study is not disclosed.

• 42% of the audience plays games to relax, while 34% do it for enjoyment.

• Interestingly, only half of the users behave in games the same way they do in real life. Approximately half of the respondents noted that they behave differently in games - feeling more competitive, confident, curious, and ambitious. There was also a small percentage of those who felt less confident in games.

• 78% of those surveyed played on mobile devices in the last month; 48% on PC; 36% on PlayStation; 25% on Xbox; and 24% on Nintendo Switch. The younger the generation, the higher the share of PCs and consoles.

• However, for 44% of users, mobile devices are the primary gaming device. For 21%, it's PC; for 16%, PlayStation; for 10%, Xbox; for 6%, Nintendo Switch.

• 31% of those surveyed stated that they had never made in-game purchases.

• 86% of console gamers made in-game payments. Among mobile gamers, only 58% did.

• 17% of the audience watches streams daily; another 17% at least once a week. 44% do not watch.

• Among millennials and Generation Z representatives, streams are more popular than among Generation X and Baby Boomers.

• 11% of players watch esports competitions daily; 14% do so at least once a week. 48% are not interested in esports.

• YouTube (54%); Facebook (35%); and gaming websites (28%) are the main sources of news for the audience.

• Meanwhile, Discord is rapidly gaining popularity as a news source, especially for Generation Z.

Source

TikTok & Newzoo: Promoting games on PC and Consoles in 2023

Market

• $95.2 billion - projected revenue for the PC and console segments in 2023.

• Worldwide, according to Newzoo's estimates, there are 892 million PC gamers and 629 million console players.

• In 2022, 7 out of the top 20 games by MAU were released after 2020. 5 of them were franchise games, such as FIFA or Call of Duty.

• 18 out of the top 20 MAU games were released before 2022.

• 6 of the top 20 games are from the Call of Duty series. Newzoo combined Modern Warfare and Warzone, as well as Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0.

• Hogwarts Legacy is the only 2023 release that made it into the top 20 by MAU in 2023. The period considered was from January to May.

• The number of game releases on Steam is increasing (in 2022, 12,690 games were released), but the number of games that break into an audience of 50,000 players is decreasing both on PC and consoles.

Audience

• The gaming audience is growing among Generation Z (+10% by 2023) and Baby Boomers (+3% by 2023). The number of gamers among Generation X has decreased (-4%).

• PC and console games remain popular among representatives of all generations.

• For Generation Z and Millennials, games are more than just entertainment. They discuss them with friends and family, read the news, and listen to podcasts.

Payments

• 41% of Baby Boomers make payments in games. Average monthly spending on PCs is $9.96; on consoles, it's $18.28.

• Among Generation X, 61% make payments. Average monthly spending on PCs is $13.94; on consoles, it's $20.16.

• Three-quarters of Millennials make payments in games. Average monthly spending on PCs is $16.65; on consoles, it's $20.4.

• 72% of Generation Z representatives make payments in games. Average monthly spending on PCs is $17.1; on consoles, it's $19.16.

How to Promote Games in the Modern Market

1. Use IP in development. Examples: Hogwarts Legacy; Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

2. Develop existing IP and launch projects in new media. Examples: Castlevania anime; and The Last of Us series.

3. Create cross-franchise collaborations. Examples: Dead by Daylight; Mortal Kombat 1.

4. Don't forget about the old IP. Examples: Mega Man Legacy Collection; Resident Evil 4 Remake; Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

5. Collaborate with bloggers and content creators. Examples: Dead Island 2, The Sims 4.

6. Collaborate with brands outside the entertainment industry. Examples: Nintendo & Oreo; Animal Crossing & ColourPop Cosmetics.

Source

Apptopia: Less than 1% of Netflix's monthly audience plays their games

• According to Apptopia estimates, in September, 2.2 million people played Netflix games. Currently, Netflix's audience consists of 247.15 million users.

• As of September 2023, Netflix games were downloaded over 70.5 million times.

• The peak of the Netflix game audience was in January 2023, with 2.7 million Monthly Active Users (MAU). The lowest figures for 2023 were observed in March and July, with 1.45 million MAU.

• The number of games on the platform has grown from 24 to 77 in the last year.

According to Netflix management's statements, they will not stop trying to succeed in the gaming market.

Source

Sensor Tower: Pixel Hero is the leader in the Korean mobile market by downloads

• Since its release in June of this year, the Idle RPG has earned $85 million and has been downloaded more than 6 million times.

• Japan accounts for 32% of the total revenue; South Korea - 29.4%; Taiwan - 18.1%; China - 7.8% (excluding Android stores).

• When it comes to downloads, South Korea leads (43.3% of all downloads - 2.6 million); Japan (29.9%); China (13.6%), and Taiwan (6.5%).

• Even though Pixel Hero was released in June, the game has already become the most downloaded game in South Korea in 2023. It has managed to surpass, for example, Royal Match.

• In addition, Pixel Hero is the only Idle RPG in the top 10 in terms of revenue in South Korea.

• Korean users like the nostalgic style of the game, the cute characters, and the absence of aggressive monetization. Effective user acquisition (UA) has also contributed to the project's growth - in September, 55% of all installations were driven by paid traffic.

• The success of Pixel Hero has helped the publisher Ujoy Games rise from 84th place to 13th in terms of revenue in the South Korean market. In terms of downloads, the growth is even more significant - from the 90th position to the 2nd.

Source