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Newzoo released its 2022 Final Report this week, forecasting the games industry’s final numbers in 2022. The industry overall appears to be experiencing a slight downturn this year, though Newzoo says this is due to a market correction. It also forecasts some numbers for 2023, although the numbers could change as in 2022.
The report reiterates Newzoo’s previously forecast numbers for the 2022 market. It predicts the market will generate $184.4 billion in 2022, down 4.3% year-over-year. It also predicts mobile games will generate $92.2 billion, down 6.4%. It has previously reported both numbers. Of all the games markets, PC is the only one where it predicts growth, particularly in downloaded or physical titles.
Tom Wijman, lead games analyst at Newzoo, said in a statement: “We see 2022 as a corrective year after two years of lockdown-fueled growth for the market. Looking back at our pre-pandemic forecast for the games market (as of January 2020), revenues in 2020 and 2021 were much higher than we expected, while 2022 is slightly lower. This revised forecast may seem like a setback for the games market, but the sum of revenues between 2020 and 2022 is nearly $43 billion higher than we originally predicted before the pandemic.”
The report also lists the top 10 games across all platforms, ranked by their monthly active user numbers. Of all the games, the only 2022 title is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. The others were more evergreen titles like Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite.
Newzoo concluded the report with some predictions about the future growth of the industry. It predicts that the games industry will generate $211.2 billion by 2025, while the mobile market will generate $103.1 billion. It also predicts that cloud gaming will grow to $8.2 billion, and reiterated its prediction that the VR market will double by 2024.
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