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Newzoo released its latest report predicting that the global games market will generate $187.7 billion this year. It also predicts the global player count will increase by 6% to 3.38 billion, and the global payer count (those who spend on games) will increase by 7.3% to 1.47 billion. In addition, the report shows that 49% of all consumer spending will come from the U.S. and China.
In addition to the size of the games market, the report also forecasts trends for the next few years. The research firm predicts that in 2026 revenues will hit $212.4 billion, and that player count will hit almost 3.8 billion.
Newzoo’s forecasts change with time, as it adjusted its prior 2022 figures from over $200 billion to around $184 billion. This smaller market size is expected to continues as it’s still not predicting the market will hit the high numbers it forecasted before. The $187.7 billion figure for this year is still lower than 2021’s revenue numbers, which were $192.7 billion.
Global revenue breakdown
Newzoo’s market report predicts a console sales boom thanks in part to a mitigation of the issues that caused a sales slowdown in 2022. Another driver is the release of several large console-only titles, including Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy XVI, Super Mario Bros Wonder and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. It also predicts that a successor to the Nintendo Switch will drive a large part of the market growth within the next three years.
Conversely, the mobile market, which has previously accounted for the majority of revenue, is projected to remain flat in 2023, which Newzoo attributes to new mobile regulations. One market that dipped precipitously with no explanation, however is the browser PC game market, which dropped by almost 17%, though it is a small part of the overall games market.
When broken down by region, Newzoo highlights the Middle East and Africa as the fastest growing region by players with an increase of 12.3% this year to total 574 million. However, the same region accounts for only 4% of global revenue or $7.2 billion. Meanwhile, Asia and North America still account for the largest percentage of revenue: 46% and 27%, respectively.
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