Games sales expected to fall for the first time in years

After the video game industry has benefited from strong sales growth in recent years due to lockdowns caused by the global pandemic, the market is expected to see declining sales again this year. Market researchers at Ampere Analysis write that games and services are expected to fall by 1.2 percent.

After 26% plus now 1.2% minus

Since at least 2015, the video game industry has seen revenues soar, with new mobile business models in particular significantly increasing revenues. Recently, however, the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S game consoles from Sony and Microsoft have also boosted demand and sales, even though both were scarce or often still available. From 2019 to 2021, sales even grew by 26 percent to $191 billion a year. This year, on the other hand, a turnover of 188 billion dollars is expected.

Russian market collapses

It is no surprise that the high sales of the past two years cannot be sustained, but the current global economic developments do not stop at this sector either. At the same time, many companies, not least Microsoft and Sony, have completely shut down their operations in Russia, causing a drop in global sales. Russia is the 10th largest video game market in the world, according to Ampere, but is expected to fall to at least 14th this year. The Russian market alone is forecast to fall by $1.2 billion.

In 2023 it should go up again

Nevertheless, the video game market remains at levels well above pre-pandemic sales and the outlook for the coming years remains positive. Already in 2023, growth and an annual turnover of 195 billion US dollars is to be achieved.