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Major increases in sales revenue in 2020 and 2021 led to the German games industry stabilizing at a high level by 2022. This conclusion was reached by game – the German Games Industry Association, who presented market data from market research companies GfK (data.ai) and other market research firms. While the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an annual growth of 32% & 17%, respectively, 2022 saw a rise in sales revenue from games and gaming hardware, as well as charges for online services, by an additional 1%.
“Despite many challenges, the German games market was remarkable stable in 2022. Many people expected that sales revenue would decline in 2022 after the Covid-19 pandemic. This was due to a number of factors, including the high inflation rate, the decrease in time spent playing video games and the postponement of many games’ release dates. “In light of these factors, the industry’s success in 2022 is further evidenced by the 1% growth that was achieved in 2022, as the German Games Industry Association manages to consolidate and increase its gains close to the ten billion-euro mark,” Felix Falk, managing director of game – The German Games Industry Association.
The Covid-19 years have seen a significant increase in video game players. In Germany, approximately six out of ten people aged six to 69 play video games. The gender gap is very small, with 48% of German video game players being women and 52% being men. The average age has increased slightly in recent years to 37.9 years. All told, 78% of German players are under 18 years.
Online gaming revenues are growing while the demand for gaming hardware is decreasing.
The market segment dedicated to games for mobile devices, consoles, and PCs has remained stable, just like the overall market. Sales revenue figures for computer and video games were comparable to last year’s (-1% to approximately 1 billion euros) and in-game and app purchases (+2% to approximately 4 billion euros). These include season passes and additional levels, cosmetic items (for instance skins), as well as subscription fees for individual online gaming games. The total revenue from PC, mobile and console games grew by approximately 1% to 5.5 Billion Euros in 2022.
Another year of strong growth was witnessed in the online gaming services market segment. Sales revenue from these services increased by 20% to 866 millions euros. This segment includes subscriptions that charge a fee and allow access to many games, cloud-based games, online multiplayer functions and the ability to save your game progress to the cloud. This market segment has seen a lot of growth. This can be seen not only in the significant increase in sales revenue but also in the variety of gaming services available. While some services were discontinued by large providers last year, others were updated and expanded. Many online gaming services now offer a variety of functions, making it obsolete to distinguish between subscription gaming services, online gaming services, and cloud gaming services. EA Play and Nintendo Switch Online are just a few examples of such services.
Gaming hardware has been a major growth driver in recent years. This includes gaming consoles and corresponding accessories. After huge growth rates of 30% and 18% over the last two years, this market segment saw a slight decline in 2022, with a drop in revenue of around 3% to 3.55 billion euros. This is due to the fact that consoles such as Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 were not widely available, as well as the lack of the most recent graphics cards. A large number of video game enthusiasts have the latest hardware because of the rapid growth over the last two years.
