Global gaming industry expected to generate $135bn by end of 2018

The global gaming industry is expected to generate $134.9 billion by the end of 2018.

According to market analysts Newzoo (thanks, GI.biz), that’s a 10.9 per cent increase over 2017. 47 per cent of the industry’s revenue is from mobile gaming – that’s up 12.8 per cent on last year, hitting $63.2 billion – and while smartphones hold the biggest share of that at $50 billion (up 14.2 per cent), tablet use is on the rise too, up 7.8 per cent from last year to reach $11.4bn.

The top mobile game by the number of downloads is Helix Jump with 328 million, but the most profitable was Monster Strike, which generated $691 million. Voodoo generated the highest number of downloads from a single publisher.

PC gaming reports mixed results; while it accounts for 25 per cent of the market and hit $33.4bn, up 3.2 per cent year-over-year overall, browser PC gaming is down a considerable 14.8 per cent on last year, coming in at $4.3bn. Boxed/downloadable games, however, saw a modest increase of 6.5 per cent to $29.2bn.

Console gaming, however, had the biggest growth this year, increasing sales by 15.2 per cent YoY to $38.3bn. Sony’s PlayStation dominated the market share, taking 44 per cent of all UK boxed sales. Xbox One lags behind at 31.8 per cent, with Nintendo Switch taking 19.6 per cent. 4.8 per cent consists of Nintendo 3DS, PC, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and others.

For the full stats, check out GI.biz’s 2018 Year In Numbers infographic.

The overall total industry consumer spending on video gaming in the US has reached $9.1 billion in the third quarter of 2018, a year-over-year increase of 24 per cent.

Video game content sales increased 25 per cent to $7.9 billion, with all content categories – including full-game, DLC/microtransactions, subscriptions, and mobile – seeing an increase. Mobile games and digital content for console and portable platforms, in particular, saw the biggest boosts, with Candy Crush Saga, Fortnite, Madden NFL 19, Marvel’s Spider-Man and NBA 2K19 all reported to have had the "most positive impact" on dollar sales in the first half of the fiscal year.