Report: Video Game Industry Earned $91 Billion in 2016 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 December 2016 / 12,168 Views
2016 was the biggest year ever for the video game industry earning $91 billion, according to a report from SuperData Research.
People spent $40.6 billion on mobile gaming in 2016. This was driven by the success of Pokémon GO and Clash Royale. The PC gaming market brought in $35.8 billion, while console gaming earned $6.6 billion.
Gaming videos earned $4.4 billion and eSports earned $0.9 billion. Despite having a tough first year the VR market earned $2.7 billion.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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VR revenue more than 1/3 of console revenue? Posted by a sales analyst! in VGChartz. This data is selective distortion, which should be obvious for someone with marginal information on gaming industry.
"Consumers increasingly download games directly to their consoles, spending $6.6 billion in 2016. The move improves margins across the board, and allows publishers to generate revenue through the sales of add-on content, expansion packs, and micro-transactions."
This makes it sound like they only counted revenue from digital distribution.
Ssttt nobody wants too know that figure whas digital only and pc/mobile the full industry
Console gaming revenues are really low compared to PC and mobile. Consoles again are niche products, no doubt.
Back in the days things were different, but it was only a matter of time before the other two platforms caught up.
it doesn't make much sense at Sony's press conference for 50 million PS$'s they gave software figures that showed from march 2016 there last report till Dec 7th they had nearly a 100 million increase in software in around 9 months and that's just Sony.
Or Freemium strategies work obscenely well. You know, like the infograph says.
Which isn't to say other games don't help as well.
No one's saying normal game sales on PC are bad anymore.
But it'd be naive to think those numbers don't owe themselves to people dropping cash on hats and skins.
if you read the wording it's pretty obvious the 6 billion is referencing digital i'm not sure what you mean by the infograph supports freemium ,all I saw was a bunch of figures with no breakdown to show anything I'm sure it's a factor but it encompasses all sectors not just consoles.
@Azuren
But that heavily implies that tossing money on anything else is inherently bad and to be looked down upon. Look at all those on other platforms who double down cash on pre-ordering games before they are released, buying day 1 DLC, Pre-order DLC, Season passes, micro and macro trans alike.
I'm not saying that you are for bad sales of normal PC games, but I am noticing a pin on something as if it's a bad thing going on here.
I never said Freemium is bad. I only pointed out that it's successful. Hell, DCUO is Freemium and I LOVED that game. The point I made is console doesn't fully embrace this business strategy yet, which is a big factor in that revenue differential.
The problem here is that YOU were perceiving Freemium as bad.
I don't see Freemium as being bad as I play some games myself that are F2P based. That doesn't stop me from seeing people trodding all over F2P in general though.
"The point I made is console doesn't fully embrace this business strategy yet, which is a big factor in that revenue differential."
So if we were to say, factor in consoles actually fully adopting the model, then they would be leagues ahead of PC?. I'm not really seeing it happening. it's like going with how mobile is leagues ahead, but adopting the model so late doesn't absolutely guarantee you exploding and getting ahead of everyone else.
See, I never said Console would be ahead, either. You keep reading into things that aren't there, man. I feel it would be a pretty close race.
YOur part implies, otherwise, please give me an answer that is the polar opposite of what is being implied.
Pretty close?, so smaller numbers would be closer to millions out there, especially against mobile?. I don't really see that being the case. It's like saying the 1% of those who buy high end GPU's will someday encompass the number that the low to medium end market number at. No market is 50/50 square or close to one another, hardly for most anyway. MS and Sony aren't really that close this gen, not with the lead numbers, worldwide perception and deals being made. Same for Nintendo as well.
Okay, have fun with that idea. I'm not getting dragged into a console Vs PC debate with you.
Fair doos. I wasn't making it into one, you gave it the label though, which I'm going to assume is to then defang my original argument.
Oh wow!
40.6 for Mobile and 35.8 for PC, holy hell.
No way is that console figure correct, would mean sub 100 million in software.
If Nintendo continues with there smart phone games, then they will be ahead of MS and Sony.
Welp, mobile is taking over...
Don't expected such differences between mobile, pc and console
In numbers, there is an already expected and visible difference, in both numbers and different games, including revenue.
Video game industry crashing in 3...2...1...
How did you lead to such a conclusion?
Console gaming is such a small fish.
Well F*** we have entered in f2p era.
