Weekly Gaming Reports Recap: July 8 - July 12 (2024)

Mat Piscatella shared the US May market numbers; AR/VR device shipments plummed down; the Turkish Game market in 2023 grew in local currency but went down in $.

Reports of the week:

1. IDC: Global AR/VR Device Shipments Plummeted by 67.4% YoY in Q1 2024

2. Gaming in Turkey: Turkish Gaming Market in 2023

3. Games & Numbers (June 26 - July 10)

4. Circana: The US gaming market declined in May 2024

---

---

IDC: Global AR/VR Device Shipments Plummeted by 67.4% YoY in Q1 2024

• According to estimates by Telecoms outlet, around 300,000 devices were shipped in Q1’24.

❗️It’s important to note that these figures refer to shipments, meaning that these devices still need to be sold by the stores.

• The average price of AR/VR devices has risen to over $1,000, driven by the release of the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3.

• However, IDC analysts believe that prices for devices will decrease in the future.

• Meta remained the segment leader (with 37.2% of the market), followed by Apple in second place, despite not having the most successful launch (with 17% of the market). Bytedance (11.9%), DPVR, and HTC are slowly increasing their market shares, while Sony, on the contrary, is actively losing ground.

• IDC believes that device shipments will return to growth this year, with a volume increase of 7.5% in 2024 compared to 2023. The company expects an average annual growth rate of 43.9% from 2024 to 2028.

Source

---

Gaming in Turkey: Turkish Gaming Market in 2023

• The population of Türkiye grew to 85.37 million people in 2023. The gender split between males and females is equal.

• 74.36 million Turkish residents are active internet users.

• Localization is important for Turkish users. The country ranks 66th out of 113 countries in English proficiency.

• Music plays a significant role in the lives of Turkish gamers. Therefore, collaborations with local artists are an opportunity to capture the audience.

Habits of Turkish Mobile Gamers

• Most players are between the ages of 18 and 35.

• 27% of mobile gamers spend 1 to 2 hours a day on mobile games; 20% spend 2 to 4 hours; the same percentage spend 1 hour a day.

• The main motivation for Turkish players is relaxation and stress relief.

• The top revenue-generating genres among Turkish users are strategy, RPG, Battle Royale, and MOBA. Hyper-casual projects lead in downloads.

Turkish Gaming Market

• The volume of the Turkish market in 2023 amounted to $580 million. There are 47 million gamers in the country. The market fell in dollar terms compared to last year, but grew by 34.46% in local currency (Turkish lira). This was influenced by inflation.

• Mobile games dominate in Türkiye.

• Due to the unstable currency exchange rate, many platforms (Prime Gaming, PS Plus, Xbox Game Pass) have switched their prices to USD.

• In 2023, 40 investment deals were made in Türkiye. However, the number of investments in startups decreased significantly, and there were no exits.

Source

---

Games & Numbers (June 26 - July 10)

PC/Console Games

• Total sales of A Way Out have reached 8 million copies. The game was released in 2018, and it sold 1 million copies in the first two weeks.

• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot achieved the same milestone, with 8 million copies sold.

• Players bought 5 million copies of the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree in 3 days.

• In a video dedicated to the anniversary of Dave the Diver, Mintrocket game director announced that total sales of the game have reached 4 million.

• The developers of Stellar Blade received $15.8 million in royalties from Sony by the end of May. According to their forecasts, game sales exceeded 1 million copies.

• The First Descendant may have had nearly 500,000 concurrent players at its peak. On Steam, there were 260,000, and Nexon reported that half of the active audience is on consoles.

• Drug Dealer Simulator 2 from Byterunners Studio sold more than 100,000 copies in 10 days. Moreover, sales of the first part increased by 66,000 copies following the sequel's release.

• Arc System Works shared that Guilty Gear Strive surpassed 3 million players. The game was available on subscription services, so it's hard to say what the actual sales are.

• The total number of players in XDefiant exceeded 11 million. Insider Tom Henderson reported that Ubisoft aimed for 5 million users in a month.

Mobile Games

• Zenless Zone Hero approached its launch on July 4 with 45 million pre-registrations. This is twice as many as Honkai: Star Rail (23 million). However, AppMagic data shows that the game launched weaker than both Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail—over the first 3 days, the game was installed more than 50 million times; but the revenue (after deducting commissions and taxes) for the first 5 days was $24.6 million (half of what Honkai: Star Rail made at launch).

• Pokemon GO has earned more than $8 billion since its release—not including payments outside of app stores.

• Garena Free Fire has earned over $4 billion after deducting commissions and taxes over 7 years of operation, according to AppMagic. Free Fire Max contributed $615 million to this amount.

• Toon Blast surpassed $2.5 million in revenue and had its best half-year since 2021. In the first half of 2024, the game earned $223.4 million after deducting commissions and taxes.

• World of Tanks Blitz has earned more than $1 billion since its release.

• Sensor Tower reports that Wuthering Waves earned $66 million in just over a month; the game was downloaded more than 15 million times. Most of the revenue came from Japan (18.9%), the USA (17.4%), and South Korea (16.8%). The highest revenue per download (RPD) was in Korea ($16).

• Using AppMagic, MobileGamer looked into how Warcraft Rumble is doing—over 8 months, the game earned $39.1 million after taxes and commissions. In June 2024, the game earned $1.7 million.

• One Piece Treasure Cruise is the newest billion-dollar game. It was released 10 years ago; in Japan, it earned 67% of all revenue; in South Korea—10%; in the USA—8%. The RPD in Japan is $60.

---

Circana: The US gaming market declined in May 2024

• In May 2024, Americans purchased gaming products worth $3.975 billion. This is 6% less than a year earlier.

• For the first 5 months of 2024, the volume of the American gaming industry amounted to $22.8 billion. This is 2% more than for the same period in 2023.

• Sales of gaming content fell by 3% to $3.6 billion. The 13% growth in the mobile segment could not offset the 40% drop in console game sales.

❗️Such figures for the decline in console sales can partly be explained by the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in May 2023.

• PlayStation 5 is the sales leader by units and revenue. Xbox Series is second in terms of dollar value; Nintendo Switch in terms of units sold.

• PS5 is currently 8% ahead of its sales dynamics in the US. Xbox Series lags 13% behind Xbox One and falls short of Xbox 360.

• Sales of accessories fell by 8% compared to the previous year. The most successful accessory in monetary terms in May was the PlayStation Portal.

Top-selling Premium games in the US in May

• Ghost of Tsushima returned to the top of the charts after 4 years. The game became the leader in dollar sales.

• At the same time, Ghost of Tsushima narrowly surpassed Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which only includes physical sales.

• Helldivers II still holds the top spot in sales in 2024. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is in second place; Dragon’s Dogma II is in third.

• The most profitable mobile games in the US in May 2024 are MONOPOLY GO!; Royal Match and Roblox.

PC/Console charts

• Top sellers on PlayStation are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III; MLB: The Show 24 and Sea of Thieves.

• Elden Ring, thanks to the release of DLC, made it into the top 10.

• There are updates in the PlayStation MAU ranking - XDefiant appeared for the first time (5th position), and Multiversus returned (10th position).

• On Xbox, the top sellers are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III; Minecraft and Elden Ring. F1 24 made it into the top 10 for the first time.

• The Xbox MAU ranking is more stable, and it also includes XDefiant.

• The new leader in the Nintendo sales ranking is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

• In the Steam MAU ranking in the US, Helldivers II holds the lead. In May, V Rising jumped to 6th position, and Hades II entered the ranking for the first time (8th position).

Source