Gaming spotlight
THE NUMBERS GAME
Lexi Sydow, head of insights at
data.ai sheds a light on the mobile gaming market
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022 was a turbulent year, with economic uncertainty driving major changes in the way consumers interact with brands. The gaming market was no
exception and faced hurdles after more than a decade of dizzying growth. While it still remains one of the most profitable mobile
sectors, the rising cost of living forced new and seasoned gamers to re-evaluate where they spent their hard-earned cash. Gaming apps were among the first sectors to feel the financial squeeze. Global consumer spend in mobile gaming dropped 5% to $110 billion in 2022, with $2.01 billion of this coming from the UK — down 16% year over year. This saw app publishers at a crossroads in their development strategies and left 2023 open to question in terms of what will come next and how best to position for this new climate.
It’s not all bad news Despite the decline in mobile game spend last year, it’s important to remember that this still represents an increase from pre-pandemic levels, where consumers spent $85.7 billion in 2019. After years of unparalleled growth and the catalysing force of a global pandemic, the market began to stabilise. Combined with the rising cost of living, consumer spend in mobile games naturally cooled. However, it’s not time to wave the white flag for mobile gaming. Purse-
strings may have tightened, but demand for mobile games continued to rise. Last year saw 90 billion new mobile game downloads, an 8% increase from 2021. Clearly, users are still looking to mobile for gaming experiences and seeking digital connection. As we head into 2023, we aren’t seeing indications of any further drops in
consumer spend. Rather, gamers are spending $1.63 billion per week globally in Q1. Should this continue, it will be a strong year and looking ahead, there are some clear trends and opportunities that publishers can take advantage of.
Breathing life into ‘old’ titles One standout trend from 2022 is that fewer new releases are entering the market, and instead, past releases are being downloaded at greater volumes.
44 | May 2023
Last year, only 201 games were released that garnered strong traction in the UK (among games that ranked in the top 1000 by downloads), which is down 23% from 2021. Older games in the UK saw 18% more downloads than new titles released in 2022 — classic names are winning the hearts of mobile gamers. For publishers, this highlights a clear opportunity in
the market to reinvent and relaunch some of the public’s favourite gaming titles. This is something we’re already witnessing in 2023, with Linden Lab, the brains behind Second Life, announcing plans to launch the iconic game on a mobile platform. Known as the ‘world’s first
metaverse platform’, Linden Lab is capitalising on the trend toward known IPs, breathing life back into once-popular brands.
The community feel In the UK, there’s also a clear appetite to engage further in the metaverse. Creative Sandbox games, home to the likes of ROBLOX, absorbed the most time from mobile users in 2022. If we reflect back a few years to games like First Life and Sims, world-building and avatars have held a place in the gaming world for many years. Allowing users to traverse a virtual world, it supports highly immersive qualities, fosters user- generated content and encourages user interaction. While not every game is going to lend itself to the metaverse, there’s a clear sense of ‘community’ and integrating this into more games could be a way to capitalise on the metaverse hype. 2022 was certainly a more difficult year for the gaming industry.
However, it also uncovered many trends and opportunities to take advantage of. Namely, the record interest in mobile games, measured both by downloads and total time spent, is a very positive sign for the industry. Combined with the latest figures from Q1 2023, we are set to see a strong performance for mobile gaming, despite ongoing economic headwinds. But in this climate, competition is high. And the publishers that rise above the rest will be those that keep a steady pulse on the changing interests and priorities of the mobile gamer. After all, $110 billion is loud and clear: mobile is the world’s favourite form of gaming.
www.pcr-online.biz
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