Digital sales to account for nearly 93% of all video game sales by 2021: report

The global digital game market is set to grow from €48.1 billion (CAD$71 billion) in 2017 to €73.1 (CAD$108 billion) in 2021, according to new projections issued by European digital industry observer IDATE DigiWorld Research. What’s more, digital sales will account for nearly 93 per cent of all game sales within four years.

The Montpellier, France-based firm’s newly released data forecasts the quickest growth of digital revenue in the home console market, climbing from €6.2 billion this year to €12.2 billion in 2021. This shouldn’t be surprising, given Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s collective push to make more content – both full games and add-ons – available within their respective digital stores.

According to the researchers, the growth in digital sales should prove sufficient to offset declining sales of physical media, including game discs and game cards, in the home console market. “The home console market is still growing inside life cycles of six or seven years,” Laurent Michaud, head of IDATE DigiWorld’s video game practice, told Post Arcade via email.

Michaud also confirmed that his projections, which forecast a gradually declining annual growth rate across all categories of digital game sales, will spike back up in 2021, which is when he believes the next generation of home consoles will launch.

But consoles make up only a fraction of the market. According to IDATE DigiWorld’s data, the biggest streams for digital game sales will continue to be computers and smartphones, though their growth won’t be quite as pronounced over the next four years. The former will increase from €17.3 billion in 2017 to €19.9 billion in 2021. The latter will see stronger progression, moving from €16.5 billion this year to eclipse computer online game revenue as early as 2018 before hitting €22.4 billion in 2021.

Growth in tablet game revenue, meanwhile, was calculated separately from phones, and is set to increase by about a billion euros each year from 2017 to 2021, eventually reaching €10.4 billion in 2021.

Also measured discretely from other forms of digital game sales is revenue for “artificial reality games,” which combines a range of technologies, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. This area is expected to see the steepest growth of any category, starting at just €0.1 billion this year but hitting €5.8 billion by 2021.

Handheld console digital revenue will see more sluggish growth, moving from just €1 billion this year to €1.7 billion in 2021.

IDATE DigiWorld’s research highlights how the growth of connectivity in game devices has impacted physical media. With virtually all game playing devices now connected to the web, players can purchase and download almost any game or game related content they want instantly rather than making a trip to a game shop.

“The Internet allows links between games and devices, whatever the segments,” said Michaud. “[Digital access to] games will soon be completely ubiquitous.”