Video Gaming Monetization Statistics 2022

Last Updated:

Free To Play (F2P) games have begun to dominate the market in recent years, making up 80% of the total digital games revenue in 2018. Microtransactions now make up a huge portion of gaming industry revenue, with the console microtransaction market alone bringing in $2.94 Billion in 2017. This has also coincided with the rise of mobile gaming popularity, with 64% of freemium mobile gaming users making in-app purchases in 2016.

Sources: Statista

Revenue Share

Gaming Industry Revenue Share in 2020

Genre Breakdown

Most popular game genres in the US 2021

Consumers are predicted to spend

$ 0 Million
on in-game purchases in 2022

Consumers are predicted to spend 65,163 million U.S dollars on in-game purchases worldwide in 2022

Statista, 2021

Mobile games covered most of the F2P game revenue in North America at

0 Billion U.S Dollars
in 2020

Mobile games covered most of the F2P game revenue in North America at $13.2 Billion U.S Dollars in 2020

Statista, 2020

FTP games accounted for

0 %
of dollars spent on digital games in 2019

FTP games accounted for 4 out of every 5 dollars spent on digital games in 2019

SuperData Research, 2020

The revenue for F2P Console games was approximately

$ 0 Billion U.S dollars
in 2021

The revenue for F2P Console games was approximately 2.8 Billion U.S dollars in 2021

Statista, 2021

Overview

Game content monetization is no small amount, in fact, it took up 61% of the global revenue in 2017. And, an impressive 82% of the digital game market went solely onto free to play games – making them the biggest revenue stream. A great example of how this revenue split works can be seen in the Asian games market. 88% of the generated revenue there went to F2P MMO games in 2016, and just 12% went to paid MMO games.
Sources: gamesindustry.biz, SuperData Research

2022 Update

The Sims franchise has 500 million U.S dollars in yearly profits, The Sims 4 expansions were downloaded more than 30 million times throughout the years.

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DFC Intelligence, 2020
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Monetization Methods

The most popular game monetization method for mobile gaming is in-game ads with 70.7% of Android gaming apps and 80.38% of iOS gaming apps containing them. Compared to just 21.5% of Android gaming apps and 11.4% of iOS gaming apps that contain in-app purchases – showing us which method brings in the most revenue for mobile gaming companies.
Sources: Linkedin (Mobbo)

2022 Update

In 2025, it is predicted that loot boxes will generate 20.3 billion U.S dollars in annual revenues, this is an increase from the estimated 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

2022 Update

In a survey conducted within the USA in 2021, 52% of gamers claimed they had subscribed to at least one video game subscription service. The popularity of video game subscription services has increased in the last few years due to gamers needing a subscription to play with friends and family and to access additional games.

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Tamoco, 2019
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Newzoo, 2020
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VentureBeat, 2020
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eMarketer, 2020
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eMarketer, 2020
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MediaKix, 2020
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Venturebeat, 2020
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AppAnnie, 2020
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2CV, 2020
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F2P Games

Free to play games continue to dominate the video game market taking up 80% of the total digital games revenue in 2018. More than that, it takes up a total of 85% of the entire video game industry. This has also increased the regularity of gamers making microtransactions in games with 50% of players having done so in 2020.
Sources: Superdatat, Fortunately, ESA

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Gameindustrybiz, 2019
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AppAnnie, 2020
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SuperData, 2020
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Gameindustrybiz, 2019
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The Entertainment Software Association, 2020
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Fortunly, 2020
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Superdata, 2019
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As popular as free to play games have become, the paid games market still brings in considerable revenue for the games industry. The most popular way to purchase paid games is still online with Steam being the most popular game store with an impressive 20.31 million users as of 2020. PUBG is a great example of this as one of the leading paid games titles on Steam with 27.8 million units sold as of 2017.
Sources: Medium, Softonics Solutions, Statista

2022 Update

As of March 2021, FIFA was the number one franchise published by Electronic Arts (EA) with 325 millions unit sales.

2022 Update

PUBG mobile and Game for Peace players reached a total of 270 million U.S dollars in monthly global player spending in August 2021.

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Juniper Research, 2020
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SuperData, 2020
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Steamspy, 2019
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Metro, 2019
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