Weekly Reports Recap: April 25 - April 29
Three reports - about the Chinese Gaming Market in Q1 2022, UK Gaming Market in 2021, and the US Gaming Market in March.
This week:
NPD: The US Gaming market dropped in March and Q1 2022 overall
Barclays: Women's spending on Games in the UK grew the most since 2019
Gamma Data: Chinese Gaming Market in Q1 2022 earned $12.1B
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NPD: The US Gaming market dropped in March and Q1 2022 overall
The US gaming March 2022 revenue was $4.9B, which is 15% lower than a year before.
Q1 2022 revenue during the same period dropped 8% YoY and was $13.9B. The decline touched all categories: software sales decreased by 7%; hardware - by 15; accessories - by 16%.
Speaking about March 2022, software sales was $4.1B (-13% YoY). The best-selling game was Elden Ring.
Elden Ring has all chances to become the most successful game of the year. For the last 12 months, it lost competition by revenue only to Call of Duty Vanguard.
Hardware sales in March 2022 were $515M (-24% YoY). Xbox Series X|S is first by revenue, while Nintendo Switch secured first place by unit sales.
In March 2022 Microsoft broke the Xbox records of sales in both dollar and unit counts.
Accessories selling went down by 23% in March 2022 - to $227M.
The Mobile revenue decreased by 12%. iOS experienced a tiny decline of -0,25%, while Google Play collapsed with -25% revenue YoY. The most successful game of March 2022 was Candy Crush Saga.
Barclays: Women's spending on Games in the UK grew the most since 2019
Bank Barclays analyzed gaming transactions and compared pre-pandemic 2019 with 2021 in the UK.
During the pandemic, women started to spend 51% more on games.
Men are still the dominant audience when it comes to absolute revenue. Since 2019 this segment grew by 43%.
When it comes to age, surprisingly, the 50-64 years old segment grew the most since 2019 - by 59%. However, it’s only 12.2% of the overall revenue in the UK.
The 16-24 years segment is the most loyal. In 2021 this segment's representatives were paying 2.5 times more often than others. Category growth was 27%.
The average amount of gaming transactions in the UK was £15.11.
The most popular transaction size was in the range of £6.00 и £6.99 (monthly Game Pass / PS Plus subscriptions). Second popularity - ranges from £3 to £3.99 (average microtransaction cost).
Videogames is the second segment of the UK market by growth during the pandemic. Only video streaming platforms overpassed it.
Gamma Data: Chinese Gaming Market in Q1 2022 earned $12.1B
It’s 3.17% more than during the same period a year before.
Growth rates declined in comparison to Q1 2021.
Mobile games are responsible for $9.2B of overall revenue. It’s 2.72% more than a year before.
Out of the new releases (2022 year), Civilization and Conquest was the top-grossing game of Q1 2022 in China. It earned $76.2M during this period. Second place was to Return of Empire (mobile version of Age of Empires from Tencent). It generated $45.7M of revenue.
Growth was secured by sustained titles such as Genshin Impact and Fantasy Westward Journey 3D.