Newzoo released a report about how consumers engage with video games in 2023; the US gaming revenue grew by 2.4% in 2022; Unity released a 2023 mobile games monetization report.
This week:
- Unity: Mobile Games Monetization in 2023 Report
- Newzoo: How consumers engage with video games in 2023
- PwC: The US gaming market revenue in 2022 grew only by 2.4%
- Famitsu: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sold 1.5M retail copies in May in Japan
- Newzoo: 10 best-selling games on PC and Consoles in the US and UK in 2023 (January – May)
- data.ai: Diablo Immortal earned $525M in the first year on mobile
- Sensor Tower: Honkai: Star Rail earned more than Genshin Impact in May outside of China on Mobile
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Unity: Mobile Games Monetization in 2023 Report
In-App Purchases
- Currency sales are generating 22% (iOS) or 23% (Android) of all IAP. Limited-time offers are responsible for 15% (iOS) or 20% (Android) of revenue. Bundles are taking 18% (iOS) or 15% (Android) of revenue share. This means, that more than 55% of IAP revenue is generated by mentioned three types of IAPs.
- In 50% of cases, the first purchase of the user is between $1.01 to $5.
- 77% of paying users are spending money in the first two weeks. If the user hasn’t converted during this period, it makes sense to implement additional monetization methods to it.
Ad monetization
- In more than 55% of games, Rewarded Ads are placed between levels. That’s the most popular placement.
- People do want to get an additional reward (in 20% of cases), currency (14%), and gacha (13%) for watching ads.
Offerwalls
- On average, offerwalls are generating 33% of ad revenue.
- The publisher earns $4.68 for each user that is doing tasks in offerwall. And $0.27 for each who enters the offerwall section.
- Offers with multiple rewards are working 3 times better than offers with a single reward.
- Users, who are using the offerwall, are showing 5x better Retention from D7 to D120 compared to the normal users.
Newzoo: How consumers engage with video games in 2023
74.3 thousand people from 36 different countries participated in the study. It was performed from February to May 2023.
Overall behavior
- 79% of the online population is interacting with video games – playing, watching, and discussing.
- The younger – the larger percentage is. Across the generation alpha, 94% of the population is interacting with games. Among baby boomers – only 47%.
- Three out of four people online are playing games. Mobile devices attracted 60% of players; PC – 33%; consoles – another 33%.
- 54% of the online population watched game content. 27% watched eSports events.
Cross-platform
- 52% of users are playing on one platform. 32% on two. 15% on three.
- There are 35% of users, who are playing only on mobile. It’s much more than those who are playing only on consoles (9%) and only on PC (8%).
- There is a direct correlation between the probability of payment and the number of platforms on which the user is playing. If the platform is 1, the conversion rate is 41%. If two – 69%. If three – 85%.
- The same correlation might have seemed in the time consumption. Users with 1 platform are spending about 4 hours per week on games. With 2 platforms – 8 hours 24 minutes. With 3 – 11 hours 18 minutes.
- Multiplatform players tend to be male (64%). They’re choosing more hardcore genres than those who are playing on one platform. They’re also more likely to watch the gaming content.
Spending
- 57% of players are paying in games.
- Conversion to the payer on mobile devices is the lowest – 45%. The PC is next with a 55% conversion. Consoles are leaders with a 66% conversion to the payer.
- The main reasons for buying something are sales (34%), an opportunity to unlock more content (34%), and customization (29%).
- 87% of the money in the last half a year was spent on in-game currency (29%), content updates (25%), and equipment (25%).
Brands
- 50% of players are discovering new brands while playing.
- 47% tend to buy a brand that was in their favourite title.
- 42% bought an item or a service that was advertised by a favourite streamer.
- Gamers have overall more positive attitudes toward brands than those who are not playing games.
PwC: The US gaming market revenue in 2022 grew only by 2.4%
State in 2022
- $54.1B the US gaming market (including eSports) generated in 2022.
- The increase in revenue was 2.4%. This is the slowest growth in the last 5 years.
Expectations
- PwC analysts suggest that in 2023 the gaming market will grow by 5.1% to $56.9B.
- By 2027 the gaming market is forecasted to grow to $72B with a 10.24% CAGR from 2018 to 2027.
Verticals revenue
- The eSports industry in the US in 2022 generated $455M. It’s 0.85% of the overall gaming industry value.
- Social/casual games (I assume that mobile games are included) have the largest share in the overall revenue – 68.5% ($37.1B).
- In-app advertising ($19.3B) on mobile surpassed the IAP revenue ($17.6B) in 2022.
- PC/Console verticals are responsible for 27.5% of the overall gaming industry in the US ($14.95B). This segment dropped in 2022 by 0.8%.
- Console vertical generated $9.5B in revenue in 2022 (no changes to 2021). PC – $5.8B (-2.2% YoY).
- Analysts are skeptical about the console market’s ability to grow. They forecast that in 2027 this segment will be only 6.7% larger than in 2022.
Famitsu: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sold 1.5M retail copies in May in Japan
Famitsu is tracking only physical copies sales.
Games
- Gamers bought 1.1M copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the first three days of sales. It’s almost 4 times more than Breath of the Wild had.
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (47k copies) is second in sales. Hogwarts Legacy (43k copies) is third.
- Nintendo holds 8 places in the top 10 chart of best-selling games in Japan. That’s what the domination looks like.
Consoles
- Nintendo Switch OLED was responsible for 52.8% of all hardware sales in Japan in May. About 274k consoles have been sold. If we count all Switch sales, the number will increase to 345k in May.
- PlayStation 5 is second by sales with 145k sold copies (28% of the overall amount in May).
Newzoo: 10 best-selling games on PC and Consoles in the US and UK in 2023 (January – May)
- Hogwarts Legacy is first with a big margin. Moreover, game sales increased in May compared to the previous month, connected to the game’s release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is already second. It’s outperformed the previous installment Breath of the Wild by far. However, it’s unlikely that it’ll surpass Hogwarts Legacy because of the audience’s limitations.
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the third game by sales in mentioned markets. It means that 2 out of 3 games at the top are based on books or films IP.
- 3 out of 10 games in the top 10 are remakes or remasters. We’re speaking of Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, and Metroid Prime: Remastered
- MLB The Show 2023, and WWE 2K23 are the most popular sports games. FIFA 23 hasn’t reached the top as the US market is significantly larger than the UK one. If EU sales will be counted, the situation will be different.
- Sons of the Forest is 8 by overall sales. It’s a large success for the studio with less than 25 people, and it released its title on Steam only. The previous title – The Forest – had more than 5M copies sold.
data.ai: Diablo Immortal earned $525M in the first year on mobile
- The revenue number doesn’t include 3rd-party Android stores in China and PC purchases.
- 36.8% of revenue has been earned in China. The second market for the game is the US (24.4%).
- The game was downloaded 22M times.
- By revenue growth, Diablo Immortal is in the top-15 mobile games. Pokemon GO, Candy Crush Saga, and Genshin Impact are making a company.
Sensor Tower: Honkai: Star Rail earned more than Genshin Impact in May outside of China on Mobile
Honkai: Star Rail’s success
- Honkai: Star Rail revenue increased 3.7x times according to April. Okay, that happened majorly because the game’s release happened on the 26th of April.
- 38% of overall revenue came from Japan (the top market for the title), and the US is responsible for 21%.
- An update with Jing Yuan released on May 17 significantly increased HonkaI: Star Rail’s performance.
Other titles
- Whiteout Survival is growing firmly with a revenue increase of 29%. The game is #5 in the top chart by revenue.
- Despite Honkai: Star Rail’s fantastic results, the game dropped to third place in the downloads chart. PUBG Mobile rose with +42% MoM in downloads.
