From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


I dunno; maybe some of you will find these interesting.
Pulled from a variety of websites. Who knows how accurate they are.


Money Stuff
- 2024 value of the worldwide video games market: $283 Billion USD
- 2024 total US box office earnings Hollywood movies: $8.6 billion USD
- 2024 mobile gaming revenue: $99 billion USD
- 2024 in-game purchases revenue: $71 billion USD
- 2024 PC gaming revenue: $46.7 billoon USD
- 85% of all gaming revenue comes from free-to-play games
- The Entertainment Retail Association says 89.5% of all games in the
US are digital purchases... but they include mobile in that.


Demographics stuff
- 2024 total people playing video games worldwide: 3.26 billion
- 85% of US households have a 'gaming device'
- 74% of USAian gamers play online games at least once a week
- 60% of USAian gamers play at least once a day
- GenZ dominates the gaming population, representing 81% of gamers
- 94% of GenAlpha prefer playing on mobile (32% of millenials say its
their preferred device)
- Average gamer age is 35, with 1.7 billion men and 1.4 billion women
- Most used gaming devices in US are phone (58%); console (37%) and PC
(29%)
- GenX/Millenials trend towards loyalty towards platforms or genres
(e.g., 'PC Gamer' or 'FPS') whilst GenZ and Alpha identify more as
players of specific games.


But here's a weird one:

Digital video game purchases in the US (2023) by store
Amazon: 37%. Makes sense.
Google Play Store: 36% Sure, mobile is popular
Amazon App Store 33% Ditto.
Playstation store 34% Okay, consoles still dominate
Microsoft Store 23% Ditto (Xbox just can't compete)

but here's where it gets weird
EA Play/Origin 26%
Epic Game Store 22%
Blizzard Battle Net 21%
Steam 17% Yeah, I'm calling shenanigins
(GOG is 13%, Humble 10%, UPlay 9%)




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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 7/29/2025 8:36 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

I dunno; maybe some of you will find these interesting.
Pulled from a variety of websites. Who knows how accurate they are.

Money Stuff
- 2024 value of the worldwide video games market: $283 Billion USD
- 2024 total US box office earnings Hollywood movies: $8.6 billion USD
- 2024 mobile gaming revenue: $99 billion USD
- 2024 in-game purchases revenue: $71 billion USD
- 2024 PC gaming revenue: $46.7 billoon USD
- 85% of all gaming revenue comes from free-to-play games

This strikes me as pretty damning for _how_ the game industry makes its
money.

- The Entertainment Retail Association says 89.5% of all games in the
US are digital purchases... but they include mobile in that.

Demographics stuff
- 2024 total people playing video games worldwide: 3.26 billion
- 85% of US households have a 'gaming device'
- 74% of USAian gamers play online games at least once a week
- 60% of USAian gamers play at least once a day
- GenZ dominates the gaming population, representing 81% of gamers
- 94% of GenAlpha prefer playing on mobile (32% of millenials say its
their preferred device)
- Average gamer age is 35, with 1.7 billion men and 1.4 billion women
- Most used gaming devices in US are phone (58%); console (37%) and PC
(29%)
- GenX/Millenials trend towards loyalty towards platforms or genres
(e.g., 'PC Gamer' or 'FPS') whilst GenZ and Alpha identify more as
players of specific games.

But here's a weird one:

Digital video game purchases in the US (2023) by store
Amazon: 37%. Makes sense.
Google Play Store: 36% Sure, mobile is popular
Amazon App Store 33% Ditto.
Playstation store 34% Okay, consoles still dominate
Microsoft Store 23% Ditto (Xbox just can't compete)

but here's where it gets weird
EA Play/Origin 26%
Epic Game Store 22%
Blizzard Battle Net 21%
Steam 17% Yeah, I'm calling shenanigins
(GOG is 13%, Humble 10%, UPlay 9%)

I'm not sure you should be calling shenanigans here considering "Most
used gaming devices in US are phone (58%)". One suspects that many more "phone/mobile" games are bought per person than game station or PC
games. (Remember Spalls, you are waaaaaayyyy out there on the end of
the bell curve. :) )
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:40:58 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 7/29/2025 8:36 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

I dunno; maybe some of you will find these interesting.
Pulled from a variety of websites. Who knows how accurate they are.


Money Stuff
- 2024 value of the worldwide video games market: $283 Billion USD
- 2024 total US box office earnings Hollywood movies: $8.6 billion USD
- 2024 mobile gaming revenue: $99 billion USD
- 2024 in-game purchases revenue: $71 billion USD
- 2024 PC gaming revenue: $46.7 billoon USD
- 85% of all gaming revenue comes from free-to-play games

This strikes me as pretty damning for _how_ the game industry makes its >money.

But not really suprising. There _is_ a reason that the triple-As keep
pumping out live-service games. There is a reason they keep absorbing
companies that produce mobile games (it's the main reason Microsoft
purchased Activision, after all; they wanted King Developer
(publishers of "Candy Crush" and other similar games) far more than
they wanted "World of Warcraft"). These are extremely lucrative
markets, all the moreso since -at least on mobile- the investment
costs are relatively low.

The markets would LOVE to turn console/PC gaming into a similar market
but -so far- they've only had limited success. People demand more from
their games on this platforms, which makes the cost of entry much
higher. Plus, gaming habits are different; players don't mind if a
mobile game is shitty because they aren't sticking with it for more
than five or twenty minutes at a time. But people sit in front of the
TV (or monitor) for hours, and demand much better production values.
So costs for PC/console games are higher. This also means there's only
room for so many successful live-service games too. So the risk is
much higher. Which is something publishers are starting to slowly
realize and (hopefully) diversify away from chasing entirely after live-service.

At least until they can frog-boil us into thinking we should be
playing PC games the same way we do mobile ;-)

But here's a weird one:

Digital video game purchases in the US (2023) by store
Amazon: 37%. Makes sense.
Google Play Store: 36% Sure, mobile is popular
Amazon App Store 33% Ditto.
Playstation store 34% Okay, consoles still dominate
Microsoft Store 23% Ditto (Xbox just can't compete)

but here's where it gets weird
EA Play/Origin 26%
Epic Game Store 22%
Blizzard Battle Net 21%
Steam 17% Yeah, I'm calling shenanigins
(GOG is 13%, Humble 10%, UPlay 9%)

I'm not sure you should be calling shenanigans here considering "Most
used gaming devices in US are phone (58%)". One suspects that many more >"phone/mobile" games are bought per person than game station or PC
games. (Remember Spalls, you are waaaaaayyyy out there on the end of
the bell curve. :) )

The shenanigans aren't about the first part, but the second bit. As I
said, I completely understrand how Amazon or Android app store take
the top roosts. But Epic game store over Steam? _ORIGIN_ over Steam?
These aren't mobile platforms, so the fact that mobile dominated video
gaming isn't an issue. Epic Game Store still isn't profitable!


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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 7/29/2025 8:36 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

but here's where it gets weird
EA Play/Origin 26%
Epic Game Store 22%
Blizzard Battle Net 21%
Steam 17% Yeah, I'm calling shenanigins
(GOG is 13%, Humble 10%, UPlay 9%)

I'd guess they're counting give-aways, FTP etc. You're helping Epic and Amazon's numbers every time you post their "freebies." :)
--
-Justisaur

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