German mobile game revenue growth surpasses whole market growth in 2017

As mobile gaming revenue stands to overtake the rest of the global market, Germany in particularly is seeing rapid growth.

The German Games Industry Association reported from data collected by market research company GfK that, in 2017, mobile gaming revenue grew faster than the entire German gaming market, generating €497 million ($588 million) in revenue.

The report, published by the German trade body Game, shows that number up 21 per cent from 2016, and more than double the €241 million ($285 million) in revenue generated in 2014. The majority of this revenue stemmed from in-app purchases, which brought in €481 million ($569 million), a 23 per cent increase from 2016. The remainder came from purchases of mobile games themselves, which was down slightly from last year at €16 million ($19 million).

In Germany, as in the global market, consumers are growing ever more likely to spend money on customization, extra levels, or in-game shortcuts to speed up progress in free titles rather than drop a set amount on a game up front. With Newzoo predicting mobile revenues to make up 50 per cent of global games industry revenue in 2018, rapid growth in mobile sales in Germany isn't likely to slow down any time soon.

In addition, the German gaming market's overall revenue continued to grow, though not quite at the same clip as mobile gaming specifically. Sales revenue for the market as a whole was up 15 per cent at over €3.3 billion ($3.9 billion), marking the first time revenues have breached the €3 billion mark in the country. Consoles and peripheral sales were up 26 per cent at €938 million ($1.1 billion), while software was up 12 per cent at €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion).