Weekly Gaming Reports Recap: September 25 - September 29 (2023)
Candy Crush Saga revenue surpassed a massive $20B; Values Value & inGameJob provided benchmarks of the European salaries; PayDay 3 launch failed.
Reports of this week:
Valheim sales have exceeded 12M copies
Sensor Tower: Simulation Mobile Games Market in 2023
Cyberpunk 2077 CCU on Steam increased 8-fold following the release of update 2.0
Sensor Tower: Top Mobile Games by Revenue & Downloads in August 2023
Omdia: Nintendo Switch users spend 5 times less on DLC than PlayStation and Xbox owners
Values Value & inGameJob: European Game Industry Employment Study in 2023
Newzoo: The US, Russia, and the UK - top countries for Baldur's Gate III by MAU in August 2023
StreamElements & Rainmaker.gg: State of the game streaming market in August 2023
King: Candy Crush Saga's revenue has surpassed the $20 billion mark
Sensor Tower: Maple Story M surpasses $50 million mark in China faster than any Korean game
The launch of PayDay 3 on Steam encountered problems
Ubisoft: The Crew: Motorfest becomes the most successful launch in the franchise's history
Valheim sales have exceeded 12M copies
The game surpassed the 3 million copies sold mark just a few weeks after its release in February 2021. In April 2022, the studio reported 10 million copies sold.
Embracer Group also noted sales of Deep Rock Galactic - they exceeded 7 million.
Sensor Tower: Simulation Mobile Games Market in 2023
Sensor Tower's classification regarding this genre is extensive. Simulation games include such titles as Roblox, Township, and Frozen City.
From January to July 2023, Simulation games earned $2.7 billion. 43% of this revenue came from the US market.
Annual downloads of Simulation games settled at 6.8 billion after the pandemic.
Annual revenue reached its peak in 2021 ($4.9 billion). By the end of 2022, it dropped to $4.5 billion. At the end of this year, the results are 72% ahead of pre-pandemic 2019 figures.
The USA is the key market for Simulation games, accounting for 43% of total revenue. Europe follows with 23%.
The highest-earning subgenre of Simulation games is tycoons/farms. From January to July 2023, this subgenre earned $1.3 billion, half of the total revenue.
In second place are sandboxes, with $700 million in revenue for the same period. Roblox is the leader in this category and in revenue among all Simulation games.
Sensor Tower also notes Burger Please! - a game from the Koreans at Supercent, which received over 40 million downloads from January to July 2023.
Cyberpunk 2077 CCU on Steam increased 8-fold following the release of update 2.0
On September 20th, the peak number of users was 21,307, but by September 24th, there were already 169,711 players in the Steam version of the game.
In addition to update 2.0, the DLC Phantom Liberty will be released today, which received 88 points on Metacritic.
The peak online for Cyberpunk 2077 occurred 3 years ago - at its release. At that time, the game had 1.054 million simultaneous players.
Sensor Tower: Top Mobile Games by Revenue & Downloads in August 2023
Revenue
Honor of Kings is the revenue leader in August 2023. The game earned $238 million on iOS & Android.
PUBG Mobile takes the second place with $140 million (including Game for Peace). 50% of this amount came from Chinese iOS. The American market accounted for 10.4% of the revenue, and the Indian market for 7.1%.
Honkai: Star Rail occupies the third spot. 41.1% of the total revenue came from China (iOS); 25.1% from Japan; 11.9% from the USA.
In total, users spent $6.59 billion on mobile games in August 2023, the same as in August 2022.
The USA is the largest mobile market by revenue ($1.9 billion - 28.5% of global revenue). China accounts for 20% (iOS only), and Japan for 17.1%.
Downloads
Garena Free Fire - the most downloaded game in August, with 22 million installations. India generated 31.4% of this number. Vietnam accounted for 8.9%, and Brazil for 8.6%.
Subway Surfers continues to actively grow its audience; the game was downloaded 19 million times in August. India accounted for 19.4% of the downloads, Brazil for 9.4%, and the USA for 6.7%.
The total number of downloads in August 2023 decreased by 2% compared to the previous year, reaching 4.54 billion installations.
India leads in downloads (778 million - 17.1% of the total). Brazil follows with 8.7%, and the USA with 7.9%.
Omdia: Nintendo Switch users spend 5 times less on DLC than PlayStation and Xbox owners
On average, one Nintendo Switch user spends $19 per year on DLC.
On PlayStation platforms, the revenue is significantly higher - $83 per year. On Xbox - $79 per year.
❗️ The producer of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom stated in an interview with Famitsu that the company currently has no plans to release additional content for the game.
400 people worked on the DLC for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 39% of the original development team.
Values Value & inGameJob: European Game Industry Employment Study in 2023
The survey was conducted from March to June 2023. It involved 1,610 respondents from 78 countries. All salaries are gross annual earnings in euros, and all figures are median values.
The company employs two classifications: Europe (EU + UK + CH), which includes countries within the European Union along with the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and Europe (non-EU), which includes countries outside the European Union (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine).
Entry-Level Specialists
Junior-level specialists in Europe (EU + UK + CH) earn annual salaries ranging from 19,817 to 24,758 euros. In countries outside the European Union, the salary range is significantly lower, from 7,740 to 12,500 euros. These figures represent yearly salaries.
Mid-Level Specialists
The median salary for mid-level specialists in European Union countries, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland ranges from 16,080 to 36,900 euros per year. QA/testers are paid the least, while analysts receive the highest salaries.
Outside the European Union, the median salary range is between 16,800 and 29,000 euros per year. Interestingly, QA/testers are paid more in these countries.
On average, median salaries in non-EU countries are 5-30% lower.
High-Level Specialists
Salaries in European Union countries, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland range from 46,000 to 75,600 euros. The median salary for top management is 84,000 euros per year.
In European countries outside the EU, median salaries range from 30,000 to 62,568 euros, with top managers earning 66,000 euros per year.
Financial Bonuses from Companies
The most common bonuses include paid sick leave, annual bonuses, and paid parental leave.
23% of companies in the EU (including the UK and Switzerland) do not offer any bonuses, while 29% of European companies outside the EU do not provide bonuses.
Only 12-13% of companies in the gaming industry pay for overtime.
Non-Financial Bonuses from Companies
Top non-financial bonuses include health insurance, corporate events, payment for foreign language learning, sports facility access (or an in-office gym), and relocation support.
In every tenth company, there are no non-financial bonuses at all.
Employee Satisfaction
The highest job satisfaction is reported among employees in service or product companies. The lowest job satisfaction is reported among indie developers and publishers.
Employees who work overtime 1-2 times per month are the most satisfied, while those who consistently work overtime (more than 2 times per week) are the least satisfied.
Employees at companies with 501 to 1000 employees are the most satisfied, while those in small teams (11 to 50 employees) are the least satisfied.
Hybrid work arrangements are most popular among employees.
There is greater job satisfaction among those working in hardcore, mid-core, and casual game genres. The least job satisfaction is among developers of kids’ games.
Other Aspects
Analysts from Values Value and InGameJob noted that gender inequality persists in the gaming industry, with men, on average, earning more than women.
Approximately one-third of employees use AI in their work. The highest adoption of artificial intelligence is in marketing/user acquisition (UA) and publishing.
Newzoo: The US, Russia, and the UK - top countries for Baldur's Gate III by MAU in August 2023
Baldur's Gate III earned the most on PC and consoles in the markets of the USA and the UK.
Baldur's Gate III is the leader among all RPGs in terms of both views and MAU on PC.
When considering all genres, Baldur's Gate III ranks 13th in MAU on PC.
13.8% of the entire audience of PC played the game, and on average, they played for 30 hours.
The USA, Russia, and the UK are the leaders in MAU for the game. This is surprising given that Russia has a limited set of payment methods left on Steam.
The audience of Baldur's Gate III also played Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, Remnant II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and BattleBit Remastered in August.
StreamElements & Rainmaker.gg: State of the game streaming market in August 2023
The record-breaking growth phase in Twitch viewership over the past 4 years has come to an end. In August, the number of viewed hours decreased.
This may be related to a decrease in viewership for Grand Theft Auto V (-26% in hours - 103 million) and League of Legends (-14% in hours - 93 million).
Baldur's Gate III had a significant launch on Twitch. Users watched 45 million hours of content in a month. The role-playing RPG outperformed Minecraft, Escape from Tarkov, Fortnite, and DOTA II in terms of views. This is a phenomenon. However, Diablo IV had higher numbers at its launch.
Views of Escape from Tarkov increased by 233% after the release of the latest update and wipe. Yes, developers reset the progress of all players.
King: Candy Crush Saga's revenue has surpassed the $20 billion mark
The game was released in 2012. Initially, it was available on the King website, then it was launched on Facebook, and eventually made its way to mobile devices.
The game has been downloaded more than 5 billion times on all platforms.
Sensor Tower: Maple Story M surpasses $50 million mark in China faster than any Korean game
The game earned $55 million within 35 days of launching in China.
The game's total revenue since its release in October 2016 is $600 million.
Currently, 37.7% of the revenue comes from South Korea; 13.6% from the United States; 13.5% from Taiwan; and 9.5% from Japan. China's share has already reached 9.1%.
However, if measured from the moment of release in China, the country's revenue share is 87.9%.
Maple Story M reached second in revenue among all MMORPGs in August 2023.
Factors of Success
The Maple Story brand has been well-known in China since the release of the original online game in 2004.
Collaboration with local publishers for proper localization and local events.
Updates and operations: Shortly after its release in China, the game received a significant update, increasing daily revenue by 29%. Developers also launched a special event in the first month, boosting revenue by 30%.
The launch of PayDay 3 on Steam encountered problems
During the first weekend after its release, the CCU for the game on all platforms reached 218,000. According to SteamDB, Steam accounted for 78,000 of those players.
The project's peak daily active users (DAU) across all platforms reached 1.35 million players.
However, within a week, the CCU on Steam dropped by three times, reaching 28,100.
❗️ The most concerning issue for Starbreeze Studios lies elsewhere. The game on Steam currently has only 35.91% positive reviews. Users are complaining about the lack of content, bugs, the absence of features from the previous game, server problems, and poor optimization. It's likely that these issues are observed on all platforms.
The declining interest in the project is also reflected on Twitch. The game has lost ten times the number of viewers compared to its release (from 90,000 at launch to 11,400 in the last 24 hours).
According to VG Insights estimates, the game has been purchased by more than 1.07 million people on Steam.
Ubisoft: The Crew: Motorfest becomes the most successful launch in the franchise's history
The game not only achieved the best sales during its first week but also boasts the highest ratings. The game has a score of 76 on Metacritic.
Over 40 million people have played games in the series since 2014. In July of this year, the franchise set a record for MAU, five years after the release of The Crew 2.