An nameless reader shares a report: If you happen to’re sufficiently old to recollect when gaming was thought of extra of a distinct segment pastime, particularly amongst these over the age of sixteen, it would convey a smile to your face to know that 3.2 billion folks, nearly half the world’s inhabitants, will play video games this 12 months. They’re going to spend a mixed complete of $184.4 billion on their pastime, and whereas that’s down barely in comparison with final 12 months, it is the results of the pandemic-induced gaming increase of 2020/21.
Newzoo’s newest World Video games Market Report reveals that the variety of folks taking part in video games all over the world is up 4.6% this 12 months. That is particularly spectacular given how extra folks have been gaming in the course of the lockdowns when stay-at-home leisure, equivalent to video video games and streaming, exploded. Not solely have been extra folks making an attempt video games for the primary time, however lapsed gamers have been additionally returning. The pandemic additionally noticed an enormous leap in video games income — development between 2020 and 2022 was $43 billion greater than Newzoo predicted. Not like participant numbers, that hasn’t been sustained post-lockdown, with the $184 billion determine down -4.3% YoY; the primary decline in 15 years. Nonetheless, it is necessary to notice that gaming has nonetheless managed to climate 2022’s financial turbulence higher than many different industries.
