ISFE: in 2020, the European gaming market earned €23.3 billion

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic boosted the revenue of the video game industry around the world. The markets of European countries were no exception, whose total revenue in 2020 for the first time exceeded the €23.3 billion mark. Console titles brought the most money, and FIFA 21 became the best-selling game.

FIFA 21

This was reported in a joint report by the European Interactive Software Federation (ISFE) and the European Federation of Game Developers (EGDF).

The main thing from the report:

• €23.3 billion — that’s how much all European countries earned in a year. However, the bulk of the amount was brought by the markets of only five countries: Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. They were responsible for €17.6 billion;

Note that further analysts write about the state of affairs only in these five countries.

• console games generated the largest share of revenue — 44%. A little behind them was mobile, which provided 40% of revenue;

• online sales (browser games, digital copies of titles for consoles and PCs, DLC) accounted for 40% of market revenue. The same amount was accounted for by paid mobile applications and IAP in them. The sale of physical copies brought the remaining 20%;

• total revenue from the sale of “figures” amounted to € 14 billion — 31% more than in 2019. In-game purchases generated 64% of this amount;

• as for gaming streaming services, they earned €397 million last year. This is 16.5% more compared to 2019;

• The top five best-selling games included: FIFA 21, GTA V, FIFA 20, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Animal Crossing: New Horizons;
• in 2020, half of the European population aged 6 to 64 was addicted to games. Although the average age of European gamers is 31.3 years, most of the players were 45-64-year-olds. They turned out to be 23% of all gamers;

• but if we talk about how many gamers there are among different age groups, it becomes clear that teenagers play the most. 79% of young people aged 11-14 are gamers. Europeans aged 15-24 are also actively playing — 72% of people. But among the aged people (45-64 years old), only 31% of people play at times;

• on average, European gamers spent 9.5 hours a week playing games — an hour more than a year earlier.