Online Gaming Statistics 2022

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In our ever-connected world, online gaming has seen considerable growth in recent years – thanks, in no small part, to the rise of mobile gaming. The online gaming market is predicted to reach a value of $79 billion by 2025 as more and more people move to game online. This growth is mirrored in the increase in internet gaming traffic too, which we see increasing from 33.7 Exabytes in 2015 to an impressive 127.8 Exabytes in 2020.
And, as more and more people choose to buy their games digitally instead of physical copies, with 80% of video games now being digital, this number is expected to continue to grow. This has been echoed in next-gen consoles releasing digital-only versions at lower costs to cater for this growing digital-only market.
Sources: Cisco, Entertainment Retailers Association, Adroit

Developer Platforms

Which platforms are game developers developing games for worldwide in 2021

Genre Share

Most popular game genres in the US 2021 1

Form Factor Share

Video game market revenue worldwide in 2021 2

Platformers are the highest monetizing F2P mobile game genre with a

0 %
share of respondents

The highest monetizing Free-2-Play mobile gaming genre is Platformers with a 15% share of respondents

Statista, 2021

Globally, Online Gaming traffic will reach

0 Exabytes
per month in 2022

Globally, Online Gaming traffic will reach 15 Exabytes per month in 2022, up from 11 Exabytes per month in 2021

Statista, 2022

Video game sales are now

0 %
digital rather than physical

80% of video game sales are now digital, rather than physical copies

Entertainment Retailers Association, 2020

The Online Games Market is predicted to hit a value of

$ 0 Billion
by 2026

The Online Games Market is predicted to hit a value of $34 billion by 2026

Statista, 2021

Overview

With the online gaming market predicted to hit a value of $79 Billion by 2025, it’s easy to say it’s going to remain popular for some time. And, it’s easy to see why when you learn that global internet gaming traffic will reach a whopping 127.8 Exabytes per month in 2020, up from 33.7 Exabytes per month in 2015. And since online gaming spreads across PC, mobile, and console, these numbers will always be high.
Sources: Adroit, Cisco

2022 Update

In 2021, the monthly active users of DOTA 2 dropped from 11.19 million in January 2019 to 5.7 million in February 2021.

2022 Update

Smartphone gaming takes up 45% of the games market revenue whilst console takes up 28% and downloaded/boxed PC games take up only 19%.

2022 Update

The Online PC gaming market was valued at 43.4 million U.S dollars in 2021.

2020 Update
Limelight, 2020
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Statista, 2020
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ESA, 2020
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Limelight, 2019
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Online Gaming Platform

Online gaming platforms have been growing in popularity over the last few years with services like PlayStation Plus, Xbox Live, and Nintendo Online becoming an almost necessary expense for console gamers and game streaming services like Google Stadia, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Apple Arcade also launching. While 42% of gamers in the US don’t subscribe to any of these online platforms, 39% pay for PlayStation Plus each month, and 33% pay for Xbox Live – so it is still a significant percentage.
Sources: Statista

2022 Update

As of September 2021, there were 47.2 million PlayStation Plus subscribers.

2020 Update
Broadband Search, 2020
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PC Gamer, 2020
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Limelight, 2020
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Limelight, 2020
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LendEDU, 2020
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ESA, 2020
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Leading Games

The most popular games in today’s market are online games, mostly FPS games, like PUBG, CS:GO, and Dota 2. And, with mobile gaming being the most popular platform in 2020, games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds are also on the top of these lists. Free to play games look set to continue to dominate the market as well, as reports predict it will grow by 12% by 2022.
Sources: Medium, SuperData Research

2022 Update

Fortnite is the leading battle royale game on major live-streaming platforms with 127 million hours watched in February 2021.

2022 Update

In 2021, it was reported that casual single player games such as Clash of Clans and Candy Crush were the most popular games globally at 87.9%. In second, first person shooter games like Call of Duty at 74.2%.

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Verto Watch, 2020
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Social Gaming

It’s no surprise that 81.5% of the social online gaming market belongs to app-based online gaming. Mobile gaming has become so popular in recent years that the majority of gamers indulge in mobile gaming regularly. But, with the rise of social media over the last few years, games rooted on social networking sites have seen considerable growth too. Candy Crush Saga had approximately 10 million daily active users on Facebook as of January 2018.
Sources: PwC;Venture Beat, GameHunters Club

2022 Update

According to gamers worldwide, important social aspects on online gaming interactions were of the following (measured in ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ percentage): ‘Video games help me connect with others with similar interests’ at 84% and ‘Video games help me to meet new people’ at 80%. An additional one says ‘Video games provide a safe outlet for trash talk’ which stood at 44%.

2022 Update

In January 2021, Xbox reported 18 million subscribers to it’s Xbox Game Pass.

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Limelight, 2020
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