Analysts have estimated the paying audience in the UK gaming market
This year, the UK promises to become the second largest gaming market in Europe and the sixth in the world. Now there are 37.3 million gamers in the country who are fond of online games. Newzoo and ACI Worldwide specialists investigated their preferences and found out which of them and why is ready to invest in gaming products.
Analysts have focused on paying gamers who spend at least $5 per month on games.
By platforms
- 94% of gamers in the UK play mobile games. 85% — in PC and console games.
- The most popular gaming platform in the UK is Android devices. 44% of gamers in the country use them for games.
- Only half of mobile gamers belong to the paying audience.
- There are much more paying console players — 62%. It is the console segment that accounts for more than half of the revenue — $2.8 billion — in the British gaming market.
- The average British player spends more on games than gamers in the USA and Germany.
Distribution of players across platforms in the USA, UK and GermanyBy gender and age
- 62% of paying players in the UK are men. They are more likely than women to spend money on desktop and console games.
- In the mobile segment, women and men pay about equally.
- In the entire gaming market, the share of paying players among the age groups of 18-25 years and 26-35 years is greater than in the group of 36-40 years (regardless of gender).
The proportion of women and men playing in the UK on different platformsBy content
- PC and console players prefer digital copies of games and DLC. Such gamers — 62%. At the same time, 46% of the total number of players purchase games on physical media.
- Women are more likely than men to buy various amplifiers, new characters, cosmetics and skins.
- But men spend more money on loot boxes than women (28% of men versus 18% of women).
Preferences of female and male audiences for gaming content in the UK
Analysts also surveyed the non-paying audience to find out the most common reasons not to spend money on games. This:
- the ability to be content with the things that the game provides for free;
- the desire to save money for other purchases;
- lack of funds.
Analysts consider the first reason to be a serious problem for mobile developers in the UK, since it is in this market that most of the games are free.
In general, in 2018, the turnover of the British market reached $4.5 billion, according to Newzoo. By the end of this year, it will amount to $5.1 billion, and in three more years, according to the forecast, it will exceed $5.5 billion.
But, according to UKIE experts, revenue from games in the British market has already amounted to $ 5.2 billion in 2018.
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