80% of the world plays video games - 04/07/2024
Newzoo data lifts the lid on who plays, engages and spends in games around the world
New report from Newzoo shows that most of the world plays games
Cloud Imperium Games fined £30,000 by UK employment tribunal
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail add-on tops the week’s releases
Good morning to all VGIM readers and a Happy 4th July to my American friends,
It’s election day in the UK. I urge all readers heading to the polls to do three things before 10pm tonight: vote early, vote often and don’t forget to trick your Reform backing elderly relatives into thinking that polling day is tomorrow.
Anyway, I have three things to assail you with before the long read begins.
First, the very last tickets to next week’s VGIM Business Breakfast, sponsored by the lovely people at Big Games Machine, are up for grabs. There are fewer spaces available than I have fingers on my right hand, so get your ticket here before it is too late.
Second, I have good news for those of you who want to spread news via VGIM. You can now reach me on george@videogamesindustrymemo.com to pitch stories, share job news and tip me off about forthcoming events.
And finally, some minor humble bragging. I was fortunate enough to be approached by The New York Times to discuss Devolver Digital’s secret sauce in time for their 15th anniversary. I missed the piece when it was first published a couple of weeks ago but you can read it here now.
Everyone happy? Good. Let’s get on with the show.
The big read - 80% of the world plays video games
You all know how that old saying goes. You wait ages for a VGIM about consumer market data and then two come along at once.
Following last week’s deep dive into the Entertainment Software Association’s Essential Facts about the US market, the boffins at Newzoo released its Global Gamer Study which explores how 73,000 players across 36 markets engage with, and spend their money on, video games.
There are some juicy headlines in there. 80% of people across the world play video games, with 50% or more of every generation - including the beloved baby boomers - indulging in digital play.
Plenty of players are also regular payers, with 22% of console gamers and 15% of PC players spending $25 or more on games each and every month.
And while we discovered earlier this year that the best part of a quarter of play time has been hoovered up by five long running titles, 31% of people across the world are, thankfully, still actively hunting for new or trending games to play.
But what does the report say beyond those delightful headline numbers? Let’s go and take a look.
Playtime isn’t over
We’ll begin by looking at how engaged people are with play around the world.
As mentioned, 80% of people do play video games across the world. But Newzoo’s data, interestingly, identifies 85% of consumers as games enthusiasts - meaning there are those who love games but don’t play anymore in the global audience.
It does this by identifying two key ways that people engage with games outside of playing, including measuring how many people view video content about games (64% of consumers) and engage with the medium through other means like listening to a podcast about them (35%).
It shows, once again, that we are on the path to living in a halcyon utopia whereby kids will be bullied if they’re not playing video games (thank goodness for that, eh). That said, there is a generational divide in how deeply games cut into the broader cultural conversation.
As you can see from the wonderful chart below, Generation Alpha and Generation Z report more time playing games, watching games content and engaging with the medium in other ways than the average player. Boomers, on the other hand, may play games more than you might expect but they’re much less likely to pull open the latest video from Dunkey or read distinguished video games reporting outlets - such as VGIM (cough) - than their younger peers do.
These findings suggest that games companies wanting to reach players through influencers, creators and other media will likely end up reaching younger audiences by default, given the contrast in generational attitudes to wider games content.
But I would be willing to bet - in partnership with a wealthy backer, obviously - that there is an opportunity here to serve ‘older’ audiences such as Millennials, Gen X and Boomers with games content in forms they might digest (i.e. a mass audience podcast) to socialise their interest in games more broadly.
Finally, and semi-related to this point, there’s also an interesting trend in terms of how Gen Alpha prioritises their leisure time when it comes to games.
Unlike other groups, it spends as much of its leisure time playing and engaging with games content (17% of it) as it does with social media. It also spends more time on games than it does watching on demand film and TV (15%), linear broadcast telly (13%), listening to music (also 13%) and reading (9% of time which, interestingly, matches up to the average of all players).
For younger players, games aren’t just a form of entertainment - they’re a crucial part of their cultural and social mix. This means it has never been more important to both engage them where they are (in games and within games communities) and in a way that treats a serious part of their life, well, pretty seriously.
Time is money
This is borne out by how much time and money Newzoo suggests players are investing in games. Overall, it estimates that mobile, PC and console players are respectively spending an average of 1.6 hours, 2.1 hours and 2.1 hours (again, I promise) playing games per day.
How this time is cut differs from platform to platform. Mobile players spend a pretty similar amount of time playing games per week as PC players (5.4 hours versus 5.7 hours) but play games more often (3.4 days per week versus 2.7 days). This makes sense in the context of each platform, with players who game on the go ‘snacking’ on content more regularly than PC and console players, who save up playtime for focused sessions.
The question is whether this affects the way players on each platform spend. And I’d say the answer to that isn’t entirely clear based on the data presented.
When it comes to how game players dish out their wonga, 26% of console players and 18% of PC players are only or mostly paying for ‘play-to-pay’ games (i.e. it has an upfront cost) compared to just 7% of players on mobile.
And when it comes to how much players spend, only 8% of mobile players spend more than $25 a month on games in comparison to the aforementioned 15% of PC players and 22% of console players. Mobile players are also more likely to access content for free, with 50% spending nothing compared to 42% of PC players and 34% of console gamers who choose to play without paying.
However, the report doesn’t really interrogate a crucial chicken and egg question at the heart of this dynamic. Are mobile players less likely to spend extensively in general and more likely to play for free because that’s their preferred habit? Or have market dynamics - namely, free-to-play essentially becoming the only game in town on mobile - denied them the opportunity to spend more regularly on excellent pay-to-play content? My sense is that it’s a ‘little from Column A, a little from Column B’ but it’s hard to definitively lock that answer down.
What I can say is that there is still plenty of money on the table, thankfully. Across all platforms, more than 50% of players are spending on game content. And on console and PC, 51% and 41% of players respectively are defined as mid to high spenders.
But while this wider audience of spenders is obviously of interest, it turns out that there’s a notable subsection of it who companies will really be interested in chasing after in the months and years ahead.
Welcome to the Superfandom
Arguably the most important conclusion of the Newzoo Global Gamer Report is that 31% of PC and Console players around the world are actively hunting for new and trending content. And there are a few reasons why I think they’re a key group to identify.
First, they’re, unsurprisingly, an incredibly engaged group of players. 80% of people in the market segment play games on more than a single platform. Their playtime is 50% higher than the average recorded by players in general. And these players are more likely to be high spenders on all platforms.
Second, they’re also widely engaged beyond play. In comparison to the general numbers, players hunting for new or trending games are much more likely to watch video content about games (94%) or engage in conversation about games more broadly (73%). This means they don’t just spend their time and money within video games; they’re doing so within the wider creator, media and business economy that props the sector up too.
Third, the demographics and habits of the group aren’t entirely what you’d expect. The audience trends younger, with 76% of the cohort being either Gen Z or Millennial, but its average age of 27.2 is closer to the average age of all players globally than expected - meaning this group can be firmly considered adult in its makeup.
While trend hunting players can be found across the world, they are much more likely to be found in growing markets such as China, Saudi Arabia and India (35%+ players) than in established or conservative markets such as Finland, Japan and Russia (sub 15%).
And though we have to be a little careful over preferred social media platforms given the ongoing fragmentation of the market around the world, trend hunters use Instagram (67% of people surveyed) and YouTube (65%) a significant chunk more than TikTok (53%) - reinforcing the suggestion that this valuable group is a little older than some might expect it to be.
But more important than their habits is what this group represents. For much of the time I’ve worked in the industry, it has been something of a nightmare to provide a delineation between the casual audience for video games (i.e. dabbles in a bit of Wordle, gets Call of Duty every year) and the segment of the market that pushes forward the entire video games ecosystem.
Newzoo’s identification of this group is therefore extremely handy for providing an easy way to explain how the wider ecosystem around video games functions - making it much easier to tell the story of the sector in the process.
Game(rs) on
So, what can we take away from this all (apart from loads of data to pinch for powerpoint slides)? Overall, there are three handy conclusions from the paper that I think you can thwack people over the head with.
Number one - and continuing the theme from last week’s VGIM - games are unashamedly mainstream in terms of audience penetration and cultural significance. Whether or not you are ‘into video games’, the majority of the population is. Reaching people where they are, either through literal video game campaign tactics or by embracing games as part of our wider cultural literacy, is key to remaining relevant to audiences in the long term.
Number two, the breadth of people who play across generations and their interest in content around games is gently widening the boundaries of the video games market over time. Some businesses have already taken advantage of this, such as The New York Times game team or the growth in the retro games market. But I’d hazard a guess that demographics like Granny Gamers and Hobbyists Dads aren’t fully being catered for yet - presenting space for growth.
Number three, and finally, the chunk of audience chasing new or trending content means that there is room for novelty in the market BUT providing that value in the market may well mean moving a lot faster than games companies typically have done so due to the existence of the user generated content economy.
In response to a question from yours truly about whether players look for new content in places like Fortnite and Roblox in a similar way to finding games more broadly, Mary Brune, Newzoo’s Head of Consumer Insights, admitted the survey didn’t ask them this question on this occasion.
But in response to my query, Mary said that user generated content platforms offer players “games across many genres and themes” that “satisfy a variety of needs” in a way that may be akin to how trend hunters look for games across the market - raising a question of whether game developers may need to race to keep up with UGC rivals (or join them on their platforms).
But rather than end on a portent of doom, let’s finish optimistically. We may have had a bit of a horror show as a sector over the past 12 months but Newzoo’s Global Gamer Report shows we have an avid audience of enthusiastic players, an extensive community of people who appreciate games in the world and that there’s appetite for a healthy ecosystem around the medium to feed it.
And amidst the doom and gloom we’ve experienced, that’s a welcome ray of light for us all to, ever so gently, warm our faces with.
News in brief
Under a Cloud: Cloud Imperium has been ordered to fork out £30,000 by a UK Employment Tribunal after it discriminated against a disabled employee. The tribunal found in favour of Paul Ah Trion, a senior programmer, who was forced out of the business following the implementation of a return to work policy which did not account for his needs as someone diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Dr Demonetised: Formally popular streamer Dr Disrespect has had his YouTube channel demonetised after he was banned from Twitch for sending sexually explicit messages to a minor via the platform. The move came shortly after the streamer released a public statement admitting that he had sent messages, but that he didn’t intend to act on them. Right…
Deal Done: Swedish private equity group EQT has agreed to acquire Keywords Studios in a deal valued at £2.2bn. The company has taken on a 51% stake in Keywords but at a slightly lower acquisition price than initially reported after project cancellations threatened to eat into the Dublin based service provider’s bottom line.
Another bite from Apple: Mega giant Apple has managed to make itself even less popular amongst mobile developers by rolling out its 30% fee for anyone buying adverts within apps that run on iOS - including via major platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The “Apple Tax” was branded as an “unfair advantage over competitors” by Pedro Pavon, Meta’s Director of Privacy and Fairness Policy, and comes just days after the Cupertino based tech giant was warned that its new Core Technology Fee breached new EU competition rules. Fight, fight, fight!
It’s virtually coming home: The Esports World Cup has kicked off in Riyadh, with dozens of teams vying for $60m of prizes across tournaments for 21 popular video games. Is it a valuable shot in the arm for an ailing ecosystem? A representation of Saudi Arabia’s quest for modernity? Or is it reputational sportswashing in a digital context? Probably a bit of all three, to be fair.
On the move
Jerret West is the new Chief Marketing Officer at Roblox…Hollie Bennett is Square Enix’s new Director of Communications…Theo Lomas has become Public Policy Director at Epic Games, having previously held a similar role at AirBnB…Lauren Roberts has joined PREMIER as an Associate Director…James Marshall is the new Managing Director at The International Games Group…And Sadie Flayah is Nintendo of Europe’s new Product PR Team Lead…
Jobs ahoy!
Epic Games has reposted its Director, Public Policy (Online Safety) gig on LinkedIn…Moonbug Entertainment is hiring for a Director, Product Strategy to lead on its Roblox work…Zynga hopes that the force is with a new Social Media Manager - Star Wars…Media outlet The Gamer is searching for a Video Producer over in New York…And Niantic is hiring a Senior Game Designer out in San Francisco…
Events and conferences
Develop: Brighton, erm…Brighton - 9th-11th July
VGIM Business Breakfast, Brighton - 10th July
ChinaJoy, Shanghai - 26th-29th July
GDL Indie Games Expo, London - 9th August
Gamescom, Cologne - 21st-25th August
Games of the week
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail - New DLC drops for popular online game series that I’ve only experienced via the lamentably poor Crystal Chronicles (sorry, everyone…)
The First Descendent - It might be The First Descendent but it isn’t the first third person looter shooter in a sci-fi setting to be created, that’s for sure.
Resident Evil 7 - Capcom’s popular first person Resi reboot comes to iPhone and iPad for reasons that are beyond me.
Before you go…
Esports competitor RezDyloch exuberantly celebrated winning $565 in a Mortal Kombat tournament at the CEO 2024 Fighting Game Championships in Daytona Beach by hurling his chair away in glory.
Unfortunately for Rez, the flying furniture smashed a nearby light fitting valued at approximately $3,000 - leaving the newly crowned champion $2435 out of pocket at the end of the event.
FATALITY (for the lamp, at least).