The gaming industry is going through a tough time but 2023 could be the year expected

The leading game market research company Newzoo has published its 2022 report on the PC and console game market. Although very strong productions entered the market last year, there was a decrease in game revenues. In fact, it is also reflected in the data that people play significantly less games.

Game revenues down

After two incredibly successful years due to the pandemic, 2022 has not been so good for the gaming industry. According to Newzoo’s report, PC and console games generated $92.3 billion in revenue last year, a decrease of 2.2 percent compared to 2021. In addition, there was a growth of 1.8 percent in the premium game market. According to Newzoo, the number of PC players last year was 1.1 billion, while the number of console players was 611 million.

Average gaming time for PC and console users also decreased by 23 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. However, analysts say it’s not a “disaster”, with gaming times returning to pre-pandemic times. Additionally, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is scheduled to launch (to Nintendo Switch on May 12) and Bethesda’s Starfield (September 6 for PC and Xbox Series S|X). Postponement of big games like ) has impacted both game time and spending in 2022.

The biggest game market in 2023 is USA and China

Despite this decline, over 100 billion hours were spent on PC and console games in 2022. An average of 15 games were played per player on each platform, and the average spend per platform in the US market was $200. However, the PC and console markets continue to grow by over 5% on average since 2015.

As in previous years, most of the game revenues were shared between the USA and China. While these two countries accounted for 48 percent of the revenues, the least spending on the games was in the Middle East and Africa. Of the total $92.3 billion revenue, 56.2 percent came from consoles, with 41.3 percent from PC and the rest from browser games.