Online Gaming Statistics 2022
In our ever-connected world, online gaming has seen considerable growth in recent years – thanks, in no small part, to the rise of mobile gaming. The online gaming market is predicted to reach a value of $79 billion by 2025 as more and more people move to game online. This growth is mirrored in the increase in internet gaming traffic too, which we see increasing from 33.7 Exabytes in 2015 to an impressive 127.8 Exabytes in 2020.
And, as more and more people choose to buy their games digitally instead of physical copies, with 80% of video games now being digital, this number is expected to continue to grow. This has been echoed in next-gen consoles releasing digital-only versions at lower costs to cater for this growing digital-only market.
Sources: Cisco, Entertainment Retailers Association, Adroit
Developer Platforms
Platformers are the highest monetizing F2P mobile game genre with a
The highest monetizing Free-2-Play mobile gaming genre is Platformers with a 15% share of respondents
Globally, Online Gaming traffic will reach
Globally, Online Gaming traffic will reach 15 Exabytes per month in 2022, up from 11 Exabytes per month in 2021
Video game sales are now
80% of video game sales are now digital, rather than physical copies
The Online Games Market is predicted to hit a value of
The Online Games Market is predicted to hit a value of $34 billion by 2026
Overview
With the online gaming market predicted to hit a value of $79 Billion by 2025, it’s easy to say it’s going to remain popular for some time. And, it’s easy to see why when you learn that global internet gaming traffic will reach a whopping 127.8 Exabytes per month in 2020, up from 33.7 Exabytes per month in 2015. And since online gaming spreads across PC, mobile, and console, these numbers will always be high.
Sources: Adroit, Cisco
In 2021, the monthly active users of DOTA 2 dropped from 11.19 million in January 2019 to 5.7 million in February 2021.
Smartphone gaming takes up 45% of the games market revenue whilst console takes up 28% and downloaded/boxed PC games take up only 19%.
The Online PC gaming market was valued at 43.4 million U.S dollars in 2021.
- More than 38 percent of gamers would like to become professionals if they could support themselves as professional video gamers, an increase of three percent in the past year
- User penetration of online gaming will be 12.5 by the end of 2020 and projected to hit 13.8% by 2025
- 56% of frequent gamers play multiplayer games online for an average of seven hours a week
- Online gamers spend an average of 7 hours, 7 minutes playing each week
- The revenue of digital games industry in the United States generated by mobile alone covered 39.9% of the overall generated revenue in 2016. (SuperData Research, 2016)
- The revenue of digital games industry in the United States generated by consoles covered 18.9% of the overall generated revenue in 2016. (SuperData Research, 2016)
- The worth of the global PC online game market in 2015 was 25.1 billion U.S. dollars. (Capcom, 2017)
- 26% of home console gamers say they spent between 61%-80% of their time playing multiplayer online games. (Statista, 2017)
- In the United States, 59% of gamers with ages 50 and over play online games. (AARP (Research), 2016)
Online Gaming Platform
Online gaming platforms have been growing in popularity over the last few years with services like PlayStation Plus, Xbox Live, and Nintendo Online becoming an almost necessary expense for console gamers and game streaming services like Google Stadia, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Apple Arcade also launching. While 42% of gamers in the US don’t subscribe to any of these online platforms, 39% pay for PlayStation Plus each month, and 33% pay for Xbox Live – so it is still a significant percentage.
Sources: Statista
As of September 2021, there were 47.2 million PlayStation Plus subscribers.
- By the end of 2019 47% of desktop and console gaming revenue came from online gaming
- In 2019 there were more than 30,000 games available to download on Steam
- Globally, 87 percent of gamers find the process of downloading video games frustrating, increasing slightly (two percent) since 2019. In India, that number was 94 percent
- New console-less gaming services are gaining traction. Globally, 44 percent of gamers reported they would subscribe to a service, with gamers ages 18-45, aspiring professionals and expert gamers the most interested.
- 68.8% of Fornite players have spent money on in-game purchases, of which the average amount spent was $84.67
- 50% of gamers consider online play capability as a factor in their purchasing decision
- In January 2018, the number of peak concurrent Steam users grew by 4%, up from 17.68 million users in November of 2017. (Steam; IGN, 2018)
- 42% of the gamers in the U.S. aren’t subscribed to any gaming services and platform. (Statista, 2017)
- 39% of gamers in the U.S. are subscribed to PlayStation Plus. (Statista, 2017)
- 33% of gamers in the United States are subscribed to Xbox Live Gold. (Statista, 2017)
- Microsoft’s Xbox Live had 39 million monthly users in the first quarter of 2016. (Microsoft, 2018)
- The number of monthly active users (MAU) Xbox Live will have in the Q3 of 2018 is expected to increase by 33% from Q1 of 2016. (Microsoft, 2018)
- In January 2015, PlayStation Plus had 10.8 million subscribers. (Gamasutra, 2017)
- The number of subscribers PlayStation Plus will have in March 2018 is expected to grow by 22.8%, up from 26.4 million subscribers in March 2017. (Gamasutra, 2017)
- In April 2017, Steam had 11.83 million simultaneous users at peak time. (Steam; IGN, 2018)
Leading Games
The most popular games in today’s market are online games, mostly FPS games, like PUBG, CS:GO, and Dota 2. And, with mobile gaming being the most popular platform in 2020, games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds are also on the top of these lists. Free to play games look set to continue to dominate the market as well, as reports predict it will grow by 12% by 2022.
Sources: Medium, SuperData Research
Fortnite is the leading battle royale game on major live-streaming platforms with 127 million hours watched in February 2021.
In 2021, it was reported that casual single player games such as Clash of Clans and Candy Crush were the most popular games globally at 87.9%. In second, first person shooter games like Call of Duty at 74.2%.
- 62.7% of Fortnite players are between the ages of 18-24 and that 72.4% of the game base is male.
- 67% of the global F2P PC games revenue was from Asia. (Various sources (DVD and Beyond), 2017)
- 11.8% of the global F2P PC games revenue was from North America. (Various sources (DVD and Beyond), 2017)
- PUBG took the first place as the leading paid game titles on Steam with an estimate number of 27.795 million units sold. (Medium , 2018)
- Taking the second place among the leading paid game titles on Steam is CS:GO, with an estimated 12.54 million units sold. (Medium , 2018)
- PUBG is the leading paid game titles on Steam in 2017 by having generated 600 million U.S. dollars revenue from sales on Steam. (Medium, 2018)
- CS:GO, which generated 120 million U.S. dollars revenue from sales on steam placed second among the leading paid game titles on Steam in 2017. (Medium, 2018)
- North America covered the third most largest revenue generated by both F2P and P2P MMO games, covering 12.4% of the shares worldwide. (gamesindustry.biz, 2016)
- Latin America covered 5% of the revenue generated by both F2P and P2P MMO games worldwide and the rest of the world covered only 1.3% of the shares. (gamesindustry.biz, 2016)
- 88% of the generated revenue in Asia goes to F2P MMO games and only 12% goes to P2P MMO games. (gamesindustry.biz, 2016)
- 81.8% of the generated revenue in Europe goes to F2P MMO games and only 18% goes to P2P MMO games. (gamesindustry.biz, 2016)
- 76.6% of the generated revenue in North America goes to F2P MMO games and only 23.3% goes to P2P MMO games. (gamesindustry.biz, 2016)
- In 2016, the free-to-play PC game market generated 19 billion U.S. dollars. (SuperData Research, 2017)
- The F2P games market revenue is expected to grow by 12% in 2022 from 22 billion U.S. dollars revenue made in 2018. (SuperData Research, 2017)
- In 2016, the worldwide F2P (free-to-play) PC games revenue is estimated to have amounted a 18.6 billion U.S. dollars. (Various sources (DVD and Beyond), 2017)
Social Gaming
It’s no surprise that 81.5% of the social online gaming market belongs to app-based online gaming. Mobile gaming has become so popular in recent years that the majority of gamers indulge in mobile gaming regularly. But, with the rise of social media over the last few years, games rooted on social networking sites have seen considerable growth too. Candy Crush Saga had approximately 10 million daily active users on Facebook as of January 2018.
Sources: PwC;Venture Beat, GameHunters Club
According to gamers worldwide, important social aspects on online gaming interactions were of the following (measured in ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ percentage): ‘Video games help me connect with others with similar interests’ at 84% and ‘Video games help me to meet new people’ at 80%. An additional one says ‘Video games provide a safe outlet for trash talk’ which stood at 44%.
In January 2021, Xbox reported 18 million subscribers to it’s Xbox Game Pass.
- Watching gamers play video games online is more popular than watching sports for 18-25 year olds
- Candy Crush Saga had an approximate number of 50 million monthly active users (MAU) on Facebook, making them the most popular Facebook games as of January 2018. (GameHunters.Club, 2018)
- Texas Holdem Poker, Clash of Clans, 8 Ball Pool, and Farm Heroes Saga comes in second in the second among the list of the most popular Facebook games as of January 2018 as they all had 10 million monthly active users (MAU). (GameHunters.Club, 2018)
- Playtika/CIE is leading the market share of leading social casino publishers globally, taking up 26% of the global shares. (SuperData Research, 2016)
- 11% of the market share is covered by IGT, making its way as the second on the list among the leading social casino puiblishers around the world. (SuperData Research, 2016)
- Zynga, covering 10% of the market share during the same measured period is third on the list of the leading social casino publishers globally. (SuperData Research, 2016)
- In 2018, the social online gaming market value was estimated to be worth 2.25 million U.S. dollars. (PwC;VentureBeat, 2016)
- The app-based online gaming market is estimated to cover 81.5% of the social online gaming market value. (PwC;VentureBeat, 2016)
- The browser-based online gaming market is estimated to cover 18.4% of the social online gaming market value. (PwC;VentureBeat, 2016)
- Mobile games market is estimated to cover the most revenue generated in the digital games industry in the U.S., covering generate 39.9% of the share. (SuperData Research, 2016)
- PC games market is estimated to cover 12% of the generated digital games industry revenue in the U.S..(SuperData Research, 2016)
- In 2015, social gaming accounted for 2.9% of the United States social advertising expendistures and is expected to go down to 1.6% in 2018. (eMarketer, 2016)
- Candy Crush Saga had an approximate number of 10 million DAU (daily active users) on Facebook, making them the most popular Facebook games as of January 2018. (GameHunters.Club, 2018)
- Clash of Clans, 8 Ball Pool, and Farm Heroes Saga comes in second on the list among the most popular Facebook games as of January 2018, with 5 million daily active users (DAU). (GameHunters.Club, 2018)