Global gaming market to hit another all-time high this year as US revenue surpasses China

In a nutshell: A new report on the global video game market predicts that 2022 will not experience the same post-pandemic downturn as other tech industries. Revenue is expected to hit another all-time high this year, with the US surpassing China in consumer spending.

Newzoo report predicts that global gaming revenue will hit a record $203.1 billion this year, with gamers hitting a record 3.09 billion, or nearly 40% of the world’s population.

Looking at individual countries, Newzoo believes that the US ($50.5 billion) will outpace China ($50.2 billion) in gaming revenue this year. The report attributed this to the stricter rules set for games in the Asian country; Chinese regulators last month approved the country’s first video game license since July 2021.

Asia Pacific as a whole ($96.3B) still far outpaces North America ($54.3B), with the former accounting for almost half of all global gaming revenue, but North America is seeing double the annual growth rate than in the Asia-Pacific region. We are also seeing rapid growth in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Mobile games also continue to skyrocket and are expected to break the $100 billion mark for the first time this year. The $103.5 billion from mobile gaming will account for over half of global gaming revenue.

Consoles are said to account for most of the growth in non-smartphone sales this year, with more people buying Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and Switch consoles, though Nintendo may experience supply issues later in 2022. Console game revenues are expected to increase. reached $58.6 billion, up 8.4% from the previous year, while PC game sales are forecast to rise 3.2% to $38.7 billion.

Gaming appears to be one area that has been immune to the post-pandemic slowdown, with several big tech stock prices plummeting, Netflix losing viewers and websites cutting staff.