The worldwide digital games market hits US$ 5.5 billion, up 7% year-over-year, a report from Superdata Research said. In the lead-up to the holiday season, total digital games sales hit their highest point for the year so far. With the exception of pay-to-play MMOs, all segments managed to grow their revenue. Digital console revenues rose 14% year-over-year to US$ 375M, driven in particular by a spending increase in North America. The growing install base for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One drove digital console earnings by 41%.
Global digital PC earnings were up 6%, totaling US$ 622 million, as gamers in Asia pushed sales by 53%, proving themselves more accustomed to purchasing full PC games upfront.
The size of the global mobile gaming audience maintains its momentum: the total monthly active users was up 13% year-over-year, totaling 2.3 billion in October. As emerging economies like India open up to mobile gaming, the growth curve behind average spending is slowing, increasing only 7% to US$ 2.1 billion.
Valve’s popular Dota 2saw a decline in revenue and player numbers fell for the second straight month. Bugs have been pestering the game since its latest update, cooling audience excitement together with a comedown following the all-time-high around The International 2015 tournament. This rare moment of weakness allowed Nexon’s (TYO: 3659) Maplestory to take Dota 2’s place, knocking it out of the five top-grossing free-to-play MMOs. Expansions for Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic, allowing both games to move up in their respective segments. As publishers held off on major new releases until late October and early November, legacy tiles with strong additional content sales won out on PC and console. EA’s (NASDAQ: EA) FIFA 16 earned 52% of its October digital revenue from additional content, and strong sales of FIFA Ultimate Team card packs also boosted the year-old FIFA 15, earning it a spot on the top-five digital console titles.
More information: Superdata Research
