Niko Partners: Asia and MENA spending $78.5bn on in-game purchases in 2023
Microtransactions account for 87.8% of spending, $7.8 billion spent on premium titles
A new report from Niko Partners has found in-game purchases accounted for 87.8% for the $89.4 billion gaming market share in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
Of the $78.5 billion spent on in-app purchases, premium games accounted for $7.8 billion while $3.1 billion was spent on subscriptions.
The report said that 62.3% of those surveyed bought premium games in the past 12 months across all platforms. A third of respondents used subscription services to access games, which increased to 51% when accounting for broader subscription services such as Prime Gaming.
However, high retail prices discouraged non-spending players from purchasing premium titles with 39.3% of mobile gamers and 44.3% of PC gamers citing it as their biggest issue.
Elsewhere, 30% of mobile gamers said in-game advertising was their most disliked aspect of playing games on the platform.
"Innovative monetisation is important to engage gamers and ensure the long-term success of games," said Lisa Hanson, CEO and president of Niko Partners.
"Just like with localisation and culturalisation of games for any given market, a game's success may depend on examining the local monetisation models that lend the most impact for revenue."
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