Video Game Revenue Declining

Couchpotato

Couchpotato

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Bloomberg has a reverse game sales chart over the last twenty years, and it looks like sales are expected to fall 1 percent to $136.5 billion this year. Here are the details.

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Link - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-25/video-game-sales-set-to-reverse
The meteoric rise of video games turned button-mashing into a bigger money-maker than Hollywood, but one veteran analyst is predicting the first industry downturn in a quarter century. Video-game revenue is headed for its first decline since 1995, with sales expected to fall 1 percent to $136.5 billion this year, according to Pelham Smithers, owner of an eponymous London-based research firm. He sees the drag lasting until at least 2020, blaming China’s stricter approach to game approvals, a shortage of big console hits and fatigue among players for battle-royale titles like Fortnite.
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Silver said:
Looking at the mobile share you would have to surmise most of that revenue is microtransactions.
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Yep that to mobile is overtaking every market in amount of money earned.:nod:
 
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FYI:
https://www.superdataresearch.com/market-data/market-brief-year-in-review/

TL;DR:
  • The games and interactive media industry grew 13% in 2018 as Fortnite disrupted the status quo.
  • Free-to-play titles amassed 80% of digital games revenue in 2018 but premium games still performed well in Western markets.
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 earned $516M in Q4, helping to grow premium games revenue 10% year-over-year.
  • GVC earned $5.2B as viewership hit 850M unique viewers.
  • XR revenue rose from $4.4B to $6.6B as new headsets offset declining earnings from existing platforms.
 
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duerer said:
FYI:
https://www.superdataresearch.com/market-data/market-brief-year-in-review/

TL;DR:
  • The games and interactive media industry grew 13% in 2018 as Fortnite disrupted the status quo.
  • Free-to-play titles amassed 80% of digital games revenue in 2018 but premium games still performed well in Western markets.
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 earned $516M in Q4, helping to grow premium games revenue 10% year-over-year.
  • GVC earned $5.2B as viewership hit 850M unique viewers.
  • XR revenue rose from $4.4B to $6.6B as new headsets offset declining earnings from existing platforms.
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It's based off new data forecasting this year will be less not 2018.

So TLDR & FYI the analysts are forecasting 2019-2020 not 2018.

Update: My other thread talked about 2018.

Link - https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41588
 
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Couchpotato said:
It's based off new data forecasting this year will be less not 2018.

So TLDR & FYI the analysts are forecasting 2019-2020 not 2018.

Update: My other thread talked about 2018.

Link - https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41588
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Touchy today, aren't we? ;)
Btw, thanks for the other link, and for the record, here's my business mantra:
all upcoming year forecast is speculation, all past year report is fact
 
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The revenue up there is calculated not on videogames only. It added $ being spent by whales on phones in pay2win rubbish. Those whales are slowly getting tired of spending dozens of thousands on something that goes offline in a year because everyone left the server 'xcept them.

Videogames revenue is getting higher and higher. It's previously highly profitable scam that's declining.
Note that EA finally decided not to go to Court but to remove lootboxes from FIFA in Belgium.
 
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Yes I'm touchy when people don't read the link but post off-topic links.;)
 
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I'm just happy to see that PC levels doubled from 2008. Developers & publishers woke up from their console fetish. With every kid on the planet having a phone these days the mobile numbers don't surprise me
 
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I'd no idea that people would actually pay so much to play on those tiny devices. I just cannot imagine being that desperate to play something, I'm perfectly fine with waiting until I'm at home to fire up a game. I recently got myself a Kindle though, so I do get the convenience of having thirty books to pick from in my pocket, rather than just one. Then again, I'm a much bigger reader than game player, and I doubt that will ever change.
 
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Kids. My son the other day was playing Witcher 3 on xBox One and said he "burnt out". Two seconds later he fires up some casual phone game while Snap Chatting. Kids play phone games at every available time slice. Usually when being driven somewhere.
 
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What I find interesting from the graph over the last twenty years.

1. Arcade games have almost become extinct
2. Handheld sales have plummeted
3. Consoles are still doing well
4. PC Market has grown
5. Mobile is quickly dominating the market
6. VR is steadily growing year by year
 
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About time it declined a bit if you ask me. Lots of products scream over confidence and under development at the moment.
 
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Nintendo Switch is pretty popular. I'm shocked that the sales segment doesn't describe a bump. Arcade will always have a viable small market given it is now part of the "upgraded" experience of combined upscaled bowling, dining & arcade experience (Pinz, Dave & Busters etc. Happy to see that I still dig arcade games :)
 
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I gave my Switch away over the holidays, hadn't touched the thing in three months, but the kids it went to give it quite the workout!!! I doubt I'll ever acquire another hand held gaming system. When I got my Switch, I also thought it would have a built in web browsing capability, which it sadly did not. If that had been enabled, I likely would have used it more.
 
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Carnifex said:
I'd no idea that people would actually pay so much to play on those tiny devices. I just cannot imagine being that desperate to play something, I'm perfectly fine with waiting until I'm at home to fire up a game. I recently got myself a Kindle though, so I do get the convenience of having thirty books to pick from in my pocket, rather than just one. Then again, I'm a much bigger reader than game player, and I doubt that will ever change.
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I have a few games on my cell phone when I travel. They are mostly interactive board games, which I find nice for shorter playtimes and when I'm tired. I prefer playing on the p.c. though. I'm a teacher in primary school, and my daughter is in high school now, and a lot of kids (especially boys) play on their telephones during the breaks in school, underway, or when they are waiting. Every teenager has a cell phones, and many kids do to. I think far fewer have their own computer or console.
 
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I'm astounded that all kids have those, as I know I wouldn't let a child of mine carry such a thing around all day long. And schools actually permit them??? Granted, I've not had a child in the school system in almost twenty years, but I recall children that brought electronic devices to school usually had them confiscated shorty thereafter by teachers and such.
 
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To be fair, modern technology and raising kids is not a trivial topic. There's probably a sweet spot somewhere. When / how often do you let them use a computer, a cell phone, etc. Hard to know, I certainly don't have the ultimate answer.

I can just say for myself, if I had started a year or two later getting familiar with computers, I'd probably have a completely different job now. For good or for worse?
 
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Depends on the kid. My youngest is 15, excellent student, in multiple programs, sports etc so I don’t micromanage his spare time. If he wants to burn some hours with tech who am I to judge. I fondly recall the 100’s of hours burnt with Atari 2600
 
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Glad my parents let me mess around on nintendo, atari, C64, etc. It led to my interest in IT and a very nice paying job today.
 
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