The gaming industry marked another year of record revenue in 2021, reaching $180.3 billion, which translates to a growth of 1.4% over the past year. This year’s revenue benefited heavily from global lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The mobile sector growth (7.3% year-over-year) contributed heavily to the rise in revenue as well as PC and console markets exceeding expectations, generating $800 million and $1.2 billion more in revenue than previously estimated by experts.
“We started the year thinking it would be impossible for the market to match 2020, as delays for AAA releases and ongoing supply shortages for new gaming hardware gave people little opportunity to spend,” said Tom Wijman, Head of Reports and Forecasting at Newzoo. “Yet, nine months into 2021, we realized that the market would grow again. If anything, this shows that the games market is definitely no longer the seasonal, hit-driven business it once was. New gaming content no longer means new games or new hardware—a new season pass is just as likely to drive revenues.”
The gaming industry’s cloud market also experienced significant growth this year, registering over twice the revenues of last year. That’s not all, as the esports and live streaming sectors of the games industry have also expanded throughout 2021. Esports revenues grew 14.5% year-over-year, while the games live streaming audience got bigger by 12.7% compared to 2020, with Twitch generating 23.3 billion hours of live viewership thus far in 2021, an all-time record for the platform.
The current forecast for 2024 paints an even prettier picture. Newzoo anticipates the gaming industry to generate $218.8 billion of revenues in total that year, with $116.4 billion coming from the mobile section alone. Cloud gaming will also grow to $6.5 billion and esports to $1.6 billion, with engagement going up across the board.
(All information was provided by Wccftech)
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