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The 5 biggest gaming controversies of 2020
The end of the year is actually always under the sign of the bare numbers, the big cash drop is made everywhere. At the center of the omnipresent annual reviews is the question: How did it go overall?
The editors of GamesIndustry.biz have gathered loads of numbers and data from the games industry and from them exciting infographics about the game year 2020 created. Here are some of their findings at a glance.
Where do the numbers come from?
GamesIndustry is based on evaluations by various well-known analysts and market research companies from the gaming environment, including GfK Entertainment, Newzoo, Niko Partners and others. GameStar rates these sources as extremely reliable, but cannot definitively verify the accuracy of the data.
Mobile is bigger than PC & consoles
With annual revenues of $ 86.3 billion, the mobile market is making up the biggest slice of the revenue pie in 2020. Games on Smartphone or tablet therefore take significantly more money than the PC games market at $ 37.4 billion or console games at $ 51.2 billion.
The overwhelming share of these amounts is now earned purely digitally: Only 9 percent of total sales come from the sale of physical games on data storage media – with PCs it is only 2 percent.
Microtransactions as the main source of income
In total, gamers around the world have spent around $ 158 billion on games without actually holding a physical product – they only paid for it online. Go away $ 128.6 billion in in-game purchases alone, i.e. additional content in the form of skins, loot boxes, XP boosters, currency, story DLCs and so on. By the way, we discuss whether that’s good or bad in the podcast at GameStar Plus:
more on the subject
Podcast: Microtransactions aren’t bad, just dangerous
In most cases, downloading a game is just the start of the sales process. The various financing models from the battle pass to the skin shop were the major sources of income in 2020. According to Newzoo, in-game purchases now account for almost three quarters of total sales in the games industry.
We explain why real money purchases with random content are so hated by players, where they come from and why they won’t go away anytime soon, in the Plus report on the topic of loot boxes.
Review & Outlook at GameStar
At the end of the year, we will of course also take a look back at 2020 and show you 10 titles that you simply have to play or the bestsellers of the year on Steam in the video.
But of course you shouldn’t just look back, because the future is just around the corner! That’s why we’re taking you on an interactive journey to the game highlights 2021.
