Skip to main content

Global games market value rising to $134.9bn in 2018

Revenues grew by over 10%, mobile accounts for almost half at $63.2 billion

The video games industry is on course to generate just shy of $135 billion in 2018.

That's according to research by market analysts Newzoo and shared with GamesIndustry.biz for the 2018 edition of our Year In Numbers infographic.

The $134.9 billion market value marks a 10.9% increase over 2017.

As expected, mobile accounts for the bulk of the industry's revenue -- 47% of it, in fact, at $63.2 billion (up 12.8% year-on-year). Smartphones led the way here with revenues of $50 billion (up 14.2%), while tablets accounted for $11.4bn (up 7.8%).

Interestingly, tablet games account for 10% of the overall market, meaning $1 out of every $10 spent on games is on tablets.

Of the three major sectors -- mobile, PC and console -- it was the latter that saw the biggest growth, with revenues increasing by 15.2% year-on-year to $38.3 billion.

PC meanwhile accounts for 25% of the global games market -- $1 for every $4 spent on video games -- encompassing boxed, download and browser games. Revenues were reported as $33.4 billion, up 3.2% year-on-year.

You can see a more detailed breakdown -- plus insight into boxed versus digital revenues, and more besides -- in our 2018 Year In Numbers infographic.

Read this next

James Batchelor avatar
James Batchelor: James is Editor-in-Chief at GamesIndustry.biz, and has been a B2B journalist since 2006. He is author of The Best Non-Violent Video Games
Related topics