After the pandemic-induced gaming boom seen in 2020 and 2021, the gaming industry is set to witness the first-ever revenue drop. In 2022, video games are expected to generate $184.4bn in revenue, 4.3% less than last year, and most of that drop will come from the mobile games segment.
According to data presented by Fair Betting Sites, mobile games are expected to bring in $92.2bn in revenue this year, or 6.4% less than in 2021.
Mobile Games Revenue Down by $6.3B YoY
Although gaming has managed to weather 2022’s economic turbulence better than many other industries, global video game revenues are still expected to drop by $8.3bn in 2022, according to Newzoo. Around 75% of that loss comes from the mobile games market. But all other market segments will also see a yearly revenue decline.
According to Newzoo forecast, the mobile games industry will end 2022 with a revenue of $92.2bn, down from $98.5bn a year ago. Console games, the second-largest segment of the gaming industry, witnessed a 4.2% decline, with revenue falling from $54.1bn in 2021 to $51.8bn in 2022.
Statistics show browser PC games saw the biggest revenue drop of 16.7%. On the other hand, non-browser PC games witnessed only a 1.8% yearly decline to $38.2bn, the smallest of all market segments.
Besides making 75% of the total gaming industry revenue drop this year, mobile games also witnessed the first-ever user drop. According to a Statista survey, the mobile games industry lost almost 105 million players this year, and most of that drop came from China.
Chinese mobile games industry lost over 78 million players in 2022, but the downsizing trend hit all other major mobile game markets. The US mobile games industry saw a 5.7 million player drop this year. Japan, the world’s third-largest mobile games industry, will end 2022 with a 1.8 million user decline.
Gaming Apps Still Make 50% of Total Gaming Revenue, more than Console Games, Download Games, and Browser PC Games Combined
Despite huge revenue and user drop, mobile games still have the largest share in global gaming revenues. The Newzoo data show mobile games generated 50% of the overall gaming revenue in 2022, or more than console games, download PC and browser PC games combined.
Console games ranked as the second highest-grossing segment, with a 28% revenue share. Statistics show downloaded/boxed PC games made 21% of total gaming revenue this year, while browser PC games followed with a modest 1% share.
