Global video game marketplace — including video game console hardware and software, online, mobile and PC games — is set to touch $93 billion in 2013, up from $79 billion in 2012.
Driven by strong mobile gaming and video game console and software sales, the market is forecast to reach $111 billion by 2015, according to a study by research and analyst firm Gartner Inc.
Mobile games are the fastest-growing segment of the market, with revenues set to nearly double between 2013 and 2015 from $13.2 billion to $22 billion.
“As mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) continue to grow, the mobile game category will show the biggest growth due to the entertainment value provided by games compared with other app categories,’’ said Brian Blau, Research Director at Gartner.
“This growth is fuelled by healthy premium mobile device sales globally and a desire by consumers to play games on these multifunction devices that are capable of displaying increasingly sophisticated game content,” Blau added.
2013, an important year
2013 is an important year for the game industry as Sony, Microsoft and recently Nintendo are releasing their next-generation video game consoles to a market that may be moving in another direction due to the popularity of mobile devices.
“Sony and Microsoft are releasing their game consoles in November and pent-up demand for these new consoles has caused a temporary reduction in game console hardware sales during 2013, but growth will resume during 2014 and the sales of existing console hardware are forecast to grow from $15.9 billion today to $22.7 billion in 2015,’’ Blau said.
“In stark contrast, dedicated game handheld devices and traditional PC games will play a smaller role in the game market and cease to be important game platforms,’’ he said.