South Korea's gaming market has grown to $5.6 billion
Korea ranks fourth in terms of the turnover of the gaming market in the world, although a year ago it was sixth. According to Newzoo estimates, Korean gamers will spend $5.6 billion this year.
The population of the country is about 51.3 million people, of which 28.9 million Newzoo refers to gamers. Over the year, the South Korean gaming market grew by $1.4 billion.
The audience of video games in Korea is predominantly male, on all platforms without exception. Interestingly, the smallest gender gap is among console players, and not on mobile, as is usually the case in other countries.
Korea has a very active paying audience – 85% of the total number of paying gamers have spent on in-game purchases over the past six months. Moreover, in terms of purchasing behavior, gender does not play a special role: for example, 37% of men and 38% of women buy power-ups.
Despite the large gaming audience, less than half of Korean Internet users watch gaming video content – 39%.
Korea is also distinguished by the scale of the esports audience. In previous countries reviewed by Newzoo, 5-12% of those who know about this phenomenon were interested in esports. In Korea, the share of esports fans is 20%. Their most popular discipline is League of Legends.
Newzoo reviews on other gaming markets can be found in these articles:
A source: Newzoo
