A report by the market analysis company Newzoo, reported by Reuters, confirms the fact that the video game market is stagnant and that the expected growth in the next few years it is lower than that seen in pre-pandemic years.
Until 2026the report reports that the market growth rate will be below that seen in the pre-pandemic years, from 2015 to 2021, mainly due to a general decline in user interest and the amount of time spent these intend to invest in video games.
Projected growth from the end of 2023 to 2026 is 2.7%, well below the 7.2% growth rate recorded from 2015 to 2021, linked to general decrease in time invested in video games by users.
As we have seen, the latter tend to play mostly old games, as the results of Newzoo's analysis have shown, with the sole exception of Starfield which managed to become the only new title among the most played games in 2023.
A cake that doesn't grow
Broadly speaking, the average playing time per quarter recorded from 2021 to 2023 has seen a 26% drop and the trend is expected to continue also in 2024, with a decline in the average playing time which already stood at around 10% in the month of January.
“Slower growth in the quantity of players will impact the industry's ability to expand the pie through organic growth,” Newzoo explained in its report, which paints a less than rosy near future for the video game market.
On the other hand, the panorama is not particularly prosperous given the continuous layoffs that are taking place in the industry, as well as team closures and project cancellations. According to Newzoo, there are fewer and fewer publishers capable of sharing the cake of gaming users, while only 5 popular games like Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V alone are capable of capturing 27% of all recorded gaming time in 2023.
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