SuperData: in four days of sales, players spent $3.9 billion — 10% less than a year ago

This year, during the period from Black Friday to Cyber Monday (November 27-30), the digital gaming market earned $3.9 billion. This is almost half a billion less than it was in 2019.

Such data was shared in the latest report by SuperData analysts. We have chosen the main one from the material:

• the console segment suffered the most during the sales. In it, digital sales immediately fell by 13% in annual terms;
• analysts explain the drop partly by the fact that gamers did not want to buy new games for old consoles. At the same time, it was very difficult to find a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X | S in stores;
• another reason for the decline in industry revenue was the growing popularity of subscriptions. The number of Xbox Game Pass users alone jumped by 216% in October compared to last year;
• but sales of digital games for PC for four days of sales increased by 6% relative to the same period of 2019;
• despite the lower earnings of the digital gaming market during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, its revenues for the year were still higher. In the period from January to October, global player spending on “digit” increased by 13% year—on-year (in the US – by 32%);
• sales of in-game content also grew well. Over the ten months of 2020, gamers around the world spent $92.6 billion through microtransactions — 12% more than in 2019;

• by the way, in-game content in 2020 was responsible for 89% of all video game revenue in digital retail;
• SuperData expects that sales in “digit” will maintain their dynamics during the winter holidays. In addition, the Christmas sales are likely to be more successful, as many players will finally be able to get a new generation of consoles;
• However, after Christmas and New Year, the industry may again face a delayed demand for games. The fact is that some titles (for example, Halo Infinite and Deathloop) have changed the release date to a later one due to the pandemic.

Also on the topic:

• Odnoklassniki users spent 47 million rubles in Black Friday gamesSuperData: Genshin Impact became the highest-grossing game of October
• SuperData: XR market revenues will amount to $6.7 billion by the end of the year
• Is there any news?