Newzoo published two excellent articles – about transmedia and the DLC effect; the Chinese gaming market declined but remained the largest; The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dominated the UK market.
This week:
- Newzoo: Transmedia in games: trends, success factors, market insights
- GSD: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dominated the UK market in May
- Street Fighter 6 reached 1M copies in 4 days
- Newzoo: DLCs effect in PC and Console titles
- Niko Partners: Chinese Gaming market in 2022 surged to $45.5M; the Chinese PC market is gigantic
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Newzoo: Transmedia in games: trends, success factors, market insights
General trends
- About 10% of all console releases since 2016 were based on IPs. Since the pandemic, the share of IP-based games increased due to the smaller amount of non-IP releases. IP-based titles tend to have better retention than non-IP games.
- Most IP-based games are made in 4 genres: adventures, fighting, RPG, and shooters.
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History
- The first attempt to make an IP-based game happened in 1982. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial release on Atari 2600 was such a big disaster that the next try was only in 1988 with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
IP-based games market status
- Despite the view that the number of IP-based games is increasing, its amount has been consistent since 2016 – from 180 to 228 releases per year. In 2022 there was even a decline with 150 IP-based games being released.
- On a console market, there are 30-40 IP-based releases per year.
- The share of IP-based games from the overall amount of titles in Steam, App Store, and Google Play is below 2%.
IP games retention
- On April 2023, the average IP-based title has 2.5M gamers’ lifetime, while non-IP based only 1.4M players.
- IP-based titles are better working with the retention of Premium titles since 2020.
- IP-based F2P games are not only better in terms of retention compared to non-IP titles, they even managed to increase the MAU from 2 to 4 million in 2022. Games without transmedia IPs were declining by MAU the whole year.
Most popular IP
- Games based on comics or books IPs are considered the most popular. But even in this case out of 88 analyzed games, only 9 had more than 10M users. 51 titles haven’t surpassed the million thresholds.
- Top-10 most successful IPs based on the number of users are Spider-Man, DC Comics, The Witcher, Batman, Dragon Ball, LEGO Marvel, Jurassic Park, Naruto, Alien, and Monopoly.
GSD: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dominated the UK market in May
Games
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom reached #1 on the chart even without the digital sales numbers which Nintendo is not sharing.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the largest launch in the series’ history in the UK. Overall game sales are now behind only Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild.
- Amid the success of a new Nintendo exclusive, game sales increased by 30% YoY to 2.17M copies.
- Hogwarts Legacy launched on past-gen consoles. In May, 53% of sales came from PS4 and 24% – from Xbox One.
Hardware
- 96k game consoles were sold in the UK in May. It’s 10% lower than in last year; and a 14% drop to April.
- Nintendo Switch, which sales increased by 28% YoY, took first place by sales from PlayStation 5.
- 35% of all Nintendo Switch sales in May came from the OLED-version bundle with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- PlayStation 5 sales decreased by 23% to the previous month. May was the first month of 2023 when console sales dropped below 2022.
- Xbox Series S|X experienced a decline of 10% YoY.
- At the end of May, overall console sales in 2023 increased by 16.6% compared to the previous year. The growth is led by PlayStation 5 (+81% YoY). Nintendo Switch declined by 8%; Xbox Series S|X – by 19%.
- 441.2k accessories have been sold in May – a 5% drop from the previous year. DualSense is still a leader but had great competition with Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.
Street Fighter 6 reached 1M copies in 4 days
- Overall series sales surpassed 50M copies.
- Street Fighter V had 7M copies sold at the end of 2022.
- Capcom is planning to reach 10M copies with Street Fighter 6.
Newzoo: DLCs effect in PC and Console titles
Newzoo analyzed more than 1,600 DLCs released from April 2020 to April 2023.
General conclusions
- DLCs are responsible for 13% of all PC revenue and 7% of console revenue in 2022 in the US.
- On average, DLCs increase MAU by 11% on PC and consoles. However, the following month after the release, there was a decline from 2% to 13%, depending on the game size.
- Games of medium size (from 250k to 2M MAU at the moment of DLC release) are benefitting the most from new content – an increase by MAU is reaching 22%.
- Strategy games are in first place by MAU growth after the DLC release (+30.5%). RPG (+21.1%) and Simulation (+19.6%) are next.
The Sims 4 case study
- At the end of 2022, EA announced The Sims 4 transition to the F2P model. After a spike (+189% WAU) game WAU stabilized at +56% to the paid version numbers.
- EA launched the free Infant Update in March 2023, and two days after – paid Growing Together update. A combination of free and paid releases made Growing Together the most successful DLC in The Sims 4 history with WAU up by 16.7%.
Dead Cells case study
- The average MAU growth in the new DLC launches (company released 3) is 156%.
- The most successful DLC is “Return to Castlevania” – in March 2023 it boosted the MAU by 225%.
- The share of new users in the MAU in months of DLC release varies from 16% to 43%.
- Despite the large numbers by MAU growth, 87% of users haven’t returned to play the DLC.
Niko Partners: Chinese Gaming market in 2022 surged to $45.5M; the Chinese PC market is gigantic
Chinese Gaming Market
- Despite the 2.4% decline, China is still the largest market in the world according to Niko Partners.
- China is responsible for 31.7% of worldwide gaming industry revenue, and 33.4% of PC segment revenue.
- Mobile games generate 66% of Chinese gaming market revenue; 31% – from PC games; 3% – from consoles.
- By 2027 it’s expected that the market will reach $57B. The number of gamers will increase to 730M.
- Niko Partners assume that in 2023 1,000 local developers and 100 foreign developers will receive the ISBN.
Chinese Mobile Gaming market
- The volume of the Chinese mobile gaming market in 2022 was $30.1B. In 2023 according to analysts, it will grow to $32.3B, and to $39.6B in 2027.
- 640.6M mobile gamers were in China in 2022. By 2027 this amount will increase to 679.2M.
Chinese gaming companies
- Chinese gaming companies are responsible for 39% of worldwide PC revenue (including the Chinese market).
- Chinese gaming companies’ revenue in the West on PC increased by 22% in 2022. Niko Partners expects that their CAGR by 2027 will be 13.8%.
- Tencent and NetEase are responsible for 61% of local PC revenue in 2022. Despite the large percentage, it’s lower than in 2021.
