Gaming Industry Worth – What is the value in 2024?
Ever wondered what the gaming industry worth is in 2024? There have been a bunch of spending cuts for employment, but the gaming industry is pulling better numbers than ever.
How much is the gaming industry worth in 2024?
As of 2024, the global gaming industry is valued at a jaw-dropping $200 billion.
This massive figure comes from various segments, including console games, PC games, mobile games, and the booming esports sector and esports organizations.
However, there have been plenty of redundancies, restructures and layoffs despite pulling these numbers. Gaming is getting more and more expensive to develop for, and higher ups are making budget cuts to continue padding their profits.
Console and PC games continue to be frontrunners in the industry, contributing around $80 billion. With the current console generation of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, digital sales have become a huge factor. Innovations like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus have taken a stab at keeping up with Steam’s juggernaut existence.
Mobile Gaming and VR continues to generate crazy revenue
Mobile gaming is still a juggernaut, accounting for nearly $100 billion of the industry’s worth. Games like Genshin Impact, PUBG Mobile, and Candy Crush Saga dominate the charts, printing money every single day. Many of these smartphone titles also make use of desktop versions of their game, breaking away from the original stigma of Mobile Games, and reaching even wider audiences.
Tech advancements in VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) are also fueling growth. These technologies were a little slow to get started, but PlayStation has been pushing it hard, showcasing it alongside their main titles in State of Play.
Esports and Battle Passes
Esports is another big hitter, with its market value soaring past $20 billion. Tournaments for League of Legends, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike draw millions of viewers and feature huge prize pools. Some of these are community funded thanks to tie in bundles like skins and battle passes.
Skins and battle passes, are especially lucrative, generating billions each year. These new revenue darlings allow some games that were once pay to play, to become free to play with these micro transactions.
With ongoing innovation and a growing player base, the market is set to keep expanding. Accessibility in the form of new controllers for disabilities is allowing more a more people to start gaming.
Cloud gaming services have allowed people to take more high power games on the go, using their phone, an internet connection and a controller. GamePass as a subscription lets people try out games for no financial cost, however the impacts of this have been felt by studios. Sure, more people are playing their games. But even if they do well, studios are closing.
Esports Industry Statistics
The future looks bright for both the esports and the gaming industry. Here’s some key stats and metrics from 2024 thus far:
- In 2024, the entire esports market was valued at $20.6 billion*.
- Sponsorships generated $1.4 billion in market revenue in 2023.
- Esports competitions had a collective prize pool of ~$200 million in 2023.
- The audience gap is closing, with 35% of the esports viewers being female.
- League of Legends World Championship 2023 is the most-watched tournament with a peak viewership of 6.4 million.
- Total audience size for esports is estimated at 500 million.
- Johan “N0tail” Sundstein is the highest earning esports athlete with $7.1M in prize money winnings.
- Free Fire, Mobile Legends and PUBG Mobile will overtake PC esports titles in viewership numbers and playerbase by 2025.
Next year, esports will officially join the Olympics. On top of that, the Esports World Cup games list is expanding and may become the single biggest go-to event for all esports by this time next year. Keep in mind, some of these stats may very well double by years’ end.
Since: June 4, 2024
