It is another “war” between China and the USA

For a few years, video games They are the entertainment means that generates more income. It is estimated that the market is greater than that of cinema and the music Together, and 2024 was a very interesting year. The global benefits of the sector were around of 185,000 million dollars and, although we have many names of games that sell millions in the head, the “unexpected” data is that China is the market that starts the cod.

And this graph reflects it perfectly.

Two giants. First of all, the graph prepared by Visual Capitalist has been carried out taking into account the data of Newzoo. It is a firm that analyzes the state of the industry and, although the numbers can fluctuate if we take other sources, some of the largest companies in this sector work directly with Newzoo. That said, we must highlight the two giant markets of video games.

Of the estimated total of 182.7 billion dollars in 2024, more than half correspond to benefits generated only by two countries. China led with 48.8 billion dollars and a portion of 26.7% of the market. The United States followed them closely with an estimate of 47.6 billion dollars, for 26.1% of the total. They are two absolutely gigantic markets, but they could not be more different.

Duality. The United States is a market more similar to European and other Western countries. There is a balance between consoles, PCs and mobile platforms, which can explain that, if we think of the world’s largest video game market, for our perception the United States would have been the leader. We constantly have news about the millions that sell traditional video games and consoles, but the matter is that the mobile has a lot, very much to say here. HE esteem That mobile games generated 51% of those US benefits, consoles 31% and 18% PC.

In China, smartphone game is the standard. HE esteem That, of those 48,800 million generated in 2024, more than 32,000 million were made in mobile games. The exponents were titles like ‘Honor of Kings‘,’ Peace Elite ‘(which is the Chinese version of’PUBG‘) and other games such as the Moba or Minigions that are designed to share in streaming. And if, loaded with microtransactions.

Japan. With a population much lower than that of the other two countries, Japan is the third market in discord. The figures are far from the two giants, but the 16.6 billion dollars in revenue has merit thanks to a rich culture around video games and to have some of the main companies in the industry.

Not only do we talk about developers, but also console manufacturers like a nintendo that sweeps at home thanks to a Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 which are ideal for the Japanese market (desktop for those who want, but above all laptops) and PlayStation. The mobile segment is again dominant with a My dear Of 70% of the total, but the strong attachment to Nintendo, the hybrid concept of Switch and the love of the ‘great N’ franchises have weight in the total.

Curiously, The PC grew during the last yearbut it is still far from the consoles and, above all, from the mobile.

South Korea. And another curious case is that of South Korea. The country does not have a development industry such as Japan or the United States (although recent titles such as’Stellar Blade ‘ They show that they look more and more at the triple industry a). However, the mobile game, microtransactions and, above all, the passion they have for competitive titles on PC, caused it to be crowned as the fourth market worldwide.

Video games like ‘Starcraft‘,’League of Legends‘ and ‘Overwatch‘They are religion in the country (so much that even politicians They have used them in campaign to try to get young people). They are, yes, much more aligned with the rest of the countries.

The rest and perspectives. Between 2% and 4% of the cake we have European giants such as Germany, the United Kingdom or France, which remain important, but much smaller than the actors already described in the upper lines. Of course, the strength of Europe is that it is a much more united market, with titles that usually bring languages ​​such as French, German, Italian, English and Spanish; And together they represent a significant weight.

With the apparent opening of China in the global video game market and the weight of whales like Tencentas well as studies that are betting on gigantic developments (‘Black Myth: Wukong‘It would have been impossible a few years ago), you have to wait to see how the photo of this market can look for a few years.

At the moment, the global estimate is that the market will continue growing until it reached a figure of between 500,000 and 733,000 million worldwide. It depends greatCloud Gaming‘They will be the dominant tools in the video game segment for the next few years.

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