Digital Gaming Soars to a High $61 Billion Sales In 2015

There is no stopping the rising popularity and need for digital video gaming as its global sales soars to an all-time high of $61 billion last year as avid gamers became more inclined towards console downloads and mobile market sales continued to rise.

SuperData Research, a gaming intelligence company, reports that the business for digital games presented an 8% growth from the 2014 figures to $61 billion.

Digital Gaming Soars to a High $61 Billion Sales In 2015
Digital Gaming Soars to a High $61 Billion Sales In 2015

Major contributors to the growth

The biggest growth was seen in console downloads such as Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft‘s Xbox by 34 percent in 2015.  Although the category’s share to the total pie still remained comparatively small at $4 billion.

The NPD Group also reported that in the United States, software sales at the traditional stores continued to slip from 13 percent to $5.3 billion.

Sales of smartphones and tablets, on the other hand, rose 10 percent to $25.1 billion in 2015. Sales from mobile spaces remain to be controlled by a small number of high earners as top 10 most popular games contributed to almost a quarter of the total returns.

SuperData CEO and founder Joost van Dreunen believes that the sales numbers indicate a change in the industry as consumers are more and more inclined to go for digitally circulated games and free to play.

The biggest earner in terms of absolute dollars was PC-based gaming that takes into account subscription-based games, free-to-play titles, social games such as “Farmville,” plus other downloads.  Games on this category produced $32 billion last year.

However, the platform also showed signs of decline.  Social gaming went down a little, subscription-based games went down 4 percent while free-to-play games remained to control sales for PC-gaming, earning for their developers revenue coming from premium in-game sales.

Most Downloaded Game?

Riot Games’ “League of Legends” was the most downloaded free-to-play game earning more than $1.6 billion in sales, leaving its closest opponent in this genre eating digital dust.

Digital Gaming Soars to a High $61 Billion Sales In 2015
Digital Gaming Soars to a High $61 Billion Sales In 2015

Activision earned the most among the publishers at $2.9 billion combined for the PC, mobile and digital console platforms.  It’s acquisition of King Digital in November further cemented its position in the mobile space.

Maker of the top mobile game “Clash of Clans,” Supercell, ranked second earning $1.64 billion in sales.  China-based Tencent came in third earning from the minor portion of Riot Games it purchased at $1.62 billion last year.

Top-selling digital games in millions

Digital console

“Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” (Activision, $355)

Digital PC

“League of Legends” (Tencent/Riot Games, ($1,628)

Mobile

“Clash of Clans” (Supercell, $1,345)