Both UK and European markets showed growth in June thanks to new releases; three top-grossing mobile titles of June are from Chinese developers; NetEase, probably, released a new mobile hit – Justice Online Mobile.
This week:
- Sensor Tower: Top Mobile Games by Revenue in June 2023
- GSD: The UK game sales in June 2023 increased by 7% YoY
- Niko Partners & AppMagic: 5 main mobile genres in Asia & MENA
- Famitsu: Japanese gaming market in H1 2023
- Polish Agency for Enterprise Development: Polish Gaming Industry in 2023
- GSD: European game sales increased by 20% in June 2023
- A new MMORPG from NetEase – Justice Online Mobile – is earning at least $1.5M daily since the release
- Carry1st & Newzoo: Sub-Saharan African countries gaming revenue reached $863M in 2022
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Sensor Tower: Top Mobile Games by Revenue in June 2023
- The 3 top-grossing games of June are Honor of Kings, Honkai: Star Rail, and PUBG Mobile. All of them are from Chinese developers.
- Honor of Kings earned $213M in June. The increase in revenue is connected to the release of an updated version of the game.
- 39.7% of Honkai: Star Rail revenue came from China (iOS only); 27.7% – from Japan, and 11.4% from the US.
- PUBG Mobile revenue in June reached $122M – 54.2% of which generated Chinese users. The US is accountable for 9%; India – for 7.5%.
- Dragon Quest Champions, a turn-based RPG from Square Enix, and Peak Spead, a new racing game from Netease Games & Codemasters, are among the prominent release of the previous week.
- Users spent $6.15B in games in June 2023. There is no growth compared to the previous year, but no decline as well.
- The US is the largest mobile gaming market in June ($1.8B; 29.3% of the overall amount). China is second (19.3% – but only iOS is counted); Japan is third (16.7%).
GSD: The UK game sales in June 2023 increased by 7% YoY
GSD is reporting only the fact sales numbers were received from partners. There are partners (like Nintendo), who are not sharing the digital sales numbers, which might affect the overall picture.
Games
- Game sales increased by 7% compared to June 2022. It’s happened because of a bunch of great releases this year.
- Diablo IV is the best-selling game of June in the UK. Currently, it’s the second title by sales dynamic after Hogwarts Legacy and, maybe, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (but Nintendo is not sharing digital data).
- 57% of Diablo IV sales came from PC.
- Final Fantasy XVI reached second place in sales. In the first two weeks sales numbers are 36% worse than Final Fantasy VII: Remake had. However, Square Enix seems to be satisfied with the results.
- F1 2023 is third. In the first 3 weeks of sales, it performed 49% worse than the previous installation. Interesting that 48.5% of sales came from the Xbox Series S|X – that’s a rare situation.
- Street Fighter 6 started from the 8 position in the chart. 52% of sales came from the PS5.
- 82% of all sales in June 2023 were digital.
Hardware
- Console sales in June 2023 increased by 15% and reached 110k.
- PlayStation 5 increased by 43% compared to May. Demand is partly connected with discounts.
- Nintendo Switch sales dropped by 20%. It seems that everyone, who wanted to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, already bought the console.
- Xbox Series S|X sales increased by 31% MoM.
- On June 2023, 722k consoles have been sold in the UK. It’s 11% more than a year before. PlayStation 5 sales increased by 66%. Nintendo Switch dropped by 10%; Xbox Series S|X – by 23%.
- DualSense, as almost always, is the best-selling accessory.
Niko Partners & AppMagic: 5 main mobile genres in Asia & MENA
- RPG, strategies, MOBA, Puzzles, and Battle Royale games generated more than 80% of revenue in Asia and MENA region in 2022.
- RPG is the largest genre with almost $15B in annual revenue. It’s 50% higher than combined strategies, MOBA, Puzzles, Battle Royale revenues.
- Puzzles is the most downloaded genre in Asia & MENA region with more than 2B downloads in 2022.
- MOBA players are the most loyal. They rarely play other games in the genre and spend a lot of time with a chosen title.
- Battle Royale players are interested in eSports. They’re watching tournaments, attending offline events, and participating in them.
Famitsu: Japanese gaming market in H1 2023
Famitsu is tracking physical sales only.
Games
- Nintendo earned $203M in H1 2023 from boxed sales. It’s 44% of the overall market volume.
- Square Enix had 10.6% of the boxed market in Japan; Pokemon Company had 7% ($34M). But Nintendo owns the former, so it’s fair to say, that Nintendo owns more than 50% of the Japanese boxed market.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the best-selling game of the first half in Japan, its sales surpassed 1.7M copies. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (719k copies) are second; Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is third (451k copies).
Hardware
- Nintendo Switch in H1 2023 reached 1.94M sales.
- PlayStation 5 was bought 1.4M times.
June results
- Japanese gamers bought 380k Nintendo Switch and 215k PlayStation 5 in June.
- Despite the Final Fantasy XVI release, Nintendo (422k boxed sales) outpaced Square Enix (364k boxed sales). Capcom is third (83k).
- Final Fantasy XVI is the best-selling game of the month (336k copies sold). The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is second with 182k boxed copies.
Polish Agency for Enterprise Development: Polish Gaming Industry in 2023
Gaming industry
- €1.286B gaming companies from Poland earned in 2022. They released more than 530 games.
- At the end of 2022, there were 494 companies in Poland involved in game development or publishing.
- 16 companies in the country have more than 200 people; 56 have more than 50. The average team size in Poland in 2023 will be 31.3 people per studio.
- The Polish industry had more than 15 290 gaming industry professionals at the end of 2021. The growth dynamics of people involved in gaming surpass all other European countries.
- 24% of the workforce are female. 2200 foreigners (14.5% of the overall amount) are working for companies located in Poland.
- There are 52 universities in Poland offering different gaming educational programs.
Gaming market
- In 2022 the Polish gaming market reached €1,225B. An increase from the previous year was 15%. This is the #19 market in the world.
- $68 is an ARPU for a gamer in Poland. It includes both mobile and PC/Console purchases.
- Physical distribution in Poland dropped by 14% in 2022.
- More than 20M gamers are living in Poland, 80% of them are adults. 47% are female.
GSD: European game sales increased by 20% in June 2023
GSD is reporting only the fact sales numbers were received from partners. Some partners (like Nintendo) are not sharing the digital sales numbers, which might affect the overall picture.
Games
- 15.5M copies were sold in Europe last month. It’s 20% more than it was in June 2022, which is related to plenty of new game launches.
- Diablo IV is the best-selling game of June and second by sales dynamics after Hogwarts Legacy. However, if Nintendo were to share its digital sales it’s highly probable that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was second.
- Diablo IV is the largest launch of June in the history of GSD records (since 2017). 66% of sales came from PC players; 21% – from PS5, and only 9% are playing on Xbox Series S|X. PlayStation 4 has 4% of the audience.
- Final Fantasy XVI is in second place by sales. The game launched in Europe 24% worse than Final Fantasy VII: Remake.
- F1 23 is third. The game started badly in the UK, in Europe the situation is the same – starting sales are 47% lower than the previous installation. 65% of sales came from PS5; 22.5% from Xbox Series S|X; 12.5% from PS4.
- 80% of all sales in June were digital.
- Counting only boxed sales, Diablo IV is first, but The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is only a little behind.
- GfK Entertainment also mentioned that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the best-selling retail game in Europe in the first half. Despite the fact that Hogwarts Legacy was launched earlier and on 5 platforms instead of only Nintendo Switch.
Hardware
- 500.7k consoles have been sold in Europe in June. It’s 33% more than in the previous year.
- PlayStation 5 sales increased by 116% YoY. That’s the top-selling console of the month.
- Xbox Series S|X sales dropped by 0.8%; Nintendo Switch experienced a 2.3% decline.
- DualSense is as often a leader in sales among accessories. Gamepad sales increased by 6.6% YoY.
A new MMORPG from NetEase – Justice Online Mobile – is earning at least $1.5M daily since the release
- Yicai Global reported that the game earned $3.6M on the first day after its release (30 June). In 5 days it reached $23.3M.
- AppMagic numbers are a little lower. According to the platform, the game earned $2.1M on the first day. Since the release (30 June) and by 20 July, the game earned $42M.
- From 14 to 20 July, the game earns on average $1.6M daily.
- As far as the game is launched only in China, only iOS sales are counting. It’s fair to suggest that the real revenue might be 1.5-2x times higher due to 3rd-party stores.
- According to Yicai Global, by the release, the game had more than 40M pre-registrations. The number of downloads according to AppMagic is now 6.2M.
- Game development cost $139M. That’s one of the most expensive games NetEase ever created.
- Justice Online Mobile reportedly is using AI. It’s used for realistic bots and NPC dialogues.
Carry1st & Newzoo: Sub-Saharan African countries gaming revenue reached $863M in 2022
Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of Africa located south of the Sahara.
- The gaming market size increased by 8.7% YoY.
- Mobile games are generating 90% of overall region revenue ($778.6M).
- PC games are responsible for $49.4M; console titles for $34.8M.
- The most significant regions of the market are Nigeria ($249M) and South Africa ($236M).
- It’s expected that the overall value of the Sub-Saharan Africa region will surpass $1B in 2024.
