The gaming sector has been growing for a long time now but, in 2020, it went through some strange times. At one end, the demand for video games was at an all time high across all platforms because people had to sit at home for the best part of a year. At the other end, game development was not at its fastest or best, since offices were closed and game developers had to work in virtual environments. Taking a look back at 2020 reveals not just the gross estimated value of the gaming industry in early 2021, but also the impact 2020 has had on the growth of gaming as a whole, despite the pandemic.
2020 was the Biggest Year for the Video Game Industry in the United States
Although China does hold a bigger piece of the pie, the country’s trends are unique and have always held limited appeal to the global crowd. The United States have the second largest gaming market in the world (as a single nation), and several of the biggest companies within the industry originated from here. Therefore, following the US market provides us with a decent idea regarding global trends as well.
The US video games industry soared to all new heights in 2020 by grossing a net revenue of US$66.88 billion dollars. To provide you with a better perspective regarding how significant this figure is, the following comparison of annual gaming revenues should help:
- 2017: US$50.22 billion
- 2018: US$59.10 billion
- 2019: US$55.40 billion
- 2020: US$66.88 billion
- 2021 (estimated): US$65.50 billion
As we can see, not only did 2020 make up for the slump in 2019, but last year’s revenues also broke the industry’s previous record of US$59.10 billion in annual revenues (2018). In fact, the US$11.48 billion+ increase in YoY revenue was so big for the US video games industry that experts estimate this year’s annual revenues to come down by more than a billion dollars (US$65.50 billion).
Gaming Generates the Highest Revenue Across all Sectors within the Canadian Entertainment Industry
According to official industry data published by the Canadian Gaming Association, no other entertainment sector generates more revenue in Canada. Let’s take a quick look at some of the facts, as made official by the CGA:
- The Canadian gaming industry is worth roughly CA$15 billion at this time
- In government/government-sanctioned community improvement fundraiser events alone, the gaming industry generates nearly CA$9 billion annually
- More than 135,000 people work within the online and offline gaming industry of Canada
- The total gross revenue generated by the Canadian online gaming industry is about CA$31 billion/year on an average
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A Global Recap
Going through several financial reports published across the global gaming industry, a number of other interesting stats also came to light:
- The global video games industry is worth a whopping US$159.30 billion
- It will likely soar past the US$200 billion mark by 2023 and $250 billion mark by 2025
- Asia-Pacific holds the highest market share as a region (49.2%)
It should be noted that although developers could not deliver at the same speed that they did in previous years, 2020 was still the largest year for gaming ever. This fact was fueled by boosted sales of previously released games and higher sales figures for almost anything that was released last year.
Image Source: Unsplash
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