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Analyst: Game sales could reach $98 billion by 2020

A report from DFC Intelligence forecasts continued growth in video game sales, led by digital game sales and high-end hardware demand in both the PC and console markets.

Alissa McAloon, Publisher

October 19, 2016

1 Min Read
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While sales of physical games are slowing down, a report from DFC Intelligence forecasts continued growth in video game sales, led largely by the digital games market and high-end hardware sales.

Growth in video game sales is obviously a good thing for developers, but devs should still pay close attention to reports like this for the demographic and platform-related forecasts they offer.

The firm expects overall video game sales to be up 8 percent to $79 billion in 2016. By 2020 that number is expected to grow significantly, with sales in the video game market reaching $98 billion worldwide. 

“A major area of growth is occurring as digital products are able to embrace a more premium business model where consumers are willing to pay top dollar upfront for digital content.” said analyst David Cole. “This is a major change in the recent mindset where games are given away for free and forced to rely on a freemium business model that simply does not work for many games.”

While the rising digital game market makes up for decreased physical game sales, the video game industry as a whole is also seeing growth from increased sales of high-end PCs and new consoles like the PS4 Pro and Microsoft’s Project Scorpio. 

According to Cole, the recently released PlayStation VR will help Sony continue its reign as a market leader in the coming years but Nintendo’s mysterious NX console could help it reach markets that neither Sony nor Microsoft have targeted well. 

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2016

About the Author

Alissa McAloon

Publisher, GameDeveloper.com

As the Publisher of Game Developer, Alissa McAloon brings a decade of experience in the video game industry and media. When not working in the world of B2B game journalism, Alissa enjoys spending her time in the worlds of immersive sandbox games or dabbling in the occasional TTRPG.

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