Weekly Gaming Reports Recap: March 4 - March 8 (2024)
Famitsu shared the retail sales numbers for Japan in 2023; Niko Partners provided insights of the MENA-3 market; AppMagic helped to figure out the best mobile games of February 2024.
Reports of the week:
Famitsu: $2.7 billion was spent on physical gaming products in Japan in 2023
Niko Partners: MENA-3 is expected to reach revenue of $2.65 billion by 2027
AppMagic: Top Mobile games of February 2024 by Revenue and Downloads
Game sales Round-up (21.02.2024 - 05.03.2024)
Famitsu: $2.7 billion was spent on physical gaming products in Japan in 2023
Total sales reached $2.7 billion (¥403.8 billion), which is 7.8% higher than in 2022 ($2.5 billion - ¥384.6 billion).
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom became the best-selling game of the year with 1.9 million physical copies sold. In second place is Super Mario Bros. Wonder (1.5 million physical copies).
All games in the top 10 for sales were released on Nintendo Switch. 7 of them were published by Nintendo. If you consider The Pokémon Company, then 8 out of the 10 best-selling games in Japan on physical media are from Nintendo.
Nintendo Switch became the best-selling console in Japan in 2023; more than 2.8 million Nintendo Switch OLED units were sold alone.
In second place is the PlayStation 5 (2.587 million units sold); in third place is the Xbox Series S|X (141 thousand units).
Sales of PS5 in the region more than doubled, yet there are no PS5 games in the chart. Possibly, the increase in sales in the country is related to increased demand from China. Simon Carless wrote about this in his article last year.
Niko Partners: MENA-3 is expected to reach revenue of $2.65 billion by 2027
MENA-3, as defined by Niko Partners, includes KSA, UAE, and Egypt.
The total revenue of the three markets in 2023 amounted to $1.92 billion, which is 7.8% higher than the previous year.
It is expected that by the end of 2027, revenue will reach $2.65 billion. The cumulative growth rate is 8.2%.
The number of players in KSA, UAE, and Egypt in 2023 was 68.4 million people (+2.9% compared to the previous year). It is expected that by 2027, this number will increase to 79.6 million.
71.5% of residents in MENA-3 countries interact with esports. They either play esports disciplines or watch tournaments.
KSA is the largest gaming market among the mentioned countries, accounting for 57.6% of total revenue. Next are UAE (31.9%) and Egypt (10.5%).
However, in terms of population, Egypt leads (58.5%); followed by KSA (30.4%) and UAE (11.1%).
Smartphones are the most popular device for gaming in MENA-3 countries. 87.2% of players use them. On average, people play for 8.7 hours per week.
PUBG, EA Sports FC, and Call of Duty are the most popular franchises in the listed markets.
AppMagic: Top Mobile games of February 2024 by Revenue and Downloads
AppMagic provides revenue data net of store commissions and taxes.
Revenue
Honor of Kings ($120.6 million), MONOPOLY GO! ($105.9 million), and PUBG Mobile ($103.4 million) were the highest-earning mobile games in February.
Pokemon GO jumped up 7 positions in the ranking. The game earned $57.6 million in February compared to $35.6 million in January.
Honkai: Star Rail also showed significant growth, climbing 8 positions. In February, the game earned $51.4 million, up from $32.8 million in January.
The most interesting project in the top 10 is Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle. The game earned $51.2 million in February, jumping up 30 positions (from $19.7 million in January). February coincided with the project's anniversary celebration. The majority of the project's revenue comes from Japan (around 80%), and the game itself was released in early 2015. Everyone wishes for such longevity.
Downloads
There are no significant changes in the download charts. Royal Match (21.4 million downloads), Roblox (19 million downloads), and Block Blast! (17.9 million downloads) are the leaders.
Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle by the Vietnamese ABI Games Studio entered the top 10 for downloads. It had 11.9 million installations in February.
Game sales Round-up (21.02.2024 - 05.03.2024)
Sifu has surpassed the mark of 3 million copies sold. It took the game just over 2 years to achieve this.
Owlcat Games announced that sales of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader have reached 500 thousand copies.
Tales of Arise by Bandai Namco has also reached 3 million copies sold. The game has been released in 2021.
Enshrouded reached 2 million players in Early Access within 3 weeks of release. Even Palworld didn't stop it.
Elden Ring - a super hit. The game has been purchased 23 million times, and this is probably not the limit. The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion will be released on June 21st, which should boost sales even further. The original game was released on February 25, 2022, and by mid-March it already had 12 million copies sold.
NieR: Automata, released in 2017, sold 8 million copies.
Palworld continues to hype. The number of players in the project has reached 25 million. The developers are, of course, very pleased with this fact.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor was bought over half a million times in the first week after release. Sales dynamics are faster than the original Deep Rock Galactic.
Baldur’s Gate III sales are "significantly more than 10 million copies", said the publishing director of Larian Studios.
Tekken 8 sold 2 million copies in the first month. This is better than all previous games in the series.
Stardew Valley turned 8 years old, so the game's creator (Eric Barone) shared sales. Over 30 million copies, not bad for a game made by one person.
Black Desert Online has earned over €2 billion lifetime since 2014. A solid amount.
The number of registrations in Eggy Party has exceeded 500 million users. The game was released in the Western markets on February 23rd.