Market Context

Why did we choose to become pioneers in the field of Web3 Gaming?

Total players & annual revenue remain stable in the post-COVID-19 pandemic

For the first time since Newzoo started tracking global games market revenues, we forecast the market to decline year on year. We now estimate that the games market will generate $184.4 billion in 2023

And Estimate In 2025:

The global games market will generate revenues of $211.2 billion.
Mobile games alone will generate $103.1 billion via consumer spending.
Cloud gaming will generate $8.2 billion.
VR gaming will generate $3.2 billion by 2024.

The number of global players is still growing across the globe. Price-sensitive players may spend less during tougher economic times, but engagement remains high across segments.

But what about the trends powering revenues and engagement in the games industry in the upcoming years? Stay tuned! We will start publishing our 2023 Trends to Watch for these markets in the coming weeks and months.

The number of people watching game tournaments is very large

Via Esport Chart, the two seasons of the Indonesian MPL Mobile Legends tournaments — Season 9 and Season 10 — are among the Top 3 most-watched tournaments of the year. Each of these championships amassed more than 80 million HW, making them the all-time leaders in the discipline by this metric. It should be noted that the HW gap between this year's Spring and Fall MPL seasons is very small, while the Spring 2021 tournament outpaced the Fall 2021 tournament by 42% of HW.
LCK Spring 2022 is in fourth place with 74.2 million HW, a new record for the Korean league. Compared with the previous year, the Spring Split outpaced all CS: GO tournaments and climbed one place in the ranking. LCK Summer, on the other hand, showed remarkable stability and once, and takes eighth place in our ranking, although its HW went up by almost 10%.
IEM Rio Major 2022 and PGL Major Antwerp 2022 are in 5th-6th places of the ranking, accumulating 69.5 and 68.1 million HW, respectively. They have made it into the Top 3 CS: GO tournaments of all time, just a few percent behind PGL Major Stockholm 2021, the leader in this metric.
Similar to 2021, the only Dota 2 tournament in the Top 10 is The International. TI11 didn't have the best statistics and ranks seventh in our ranking with 67.7 million HW. This is almost 37% fewer compared with TI10, which took second place last year.
VALORANT Champions 2022 became the most-watched tournament in the discipline, amassing 60.8 million HW and attracting more than 1.5 million PV. The Valorant main event ranks ninth in the 2022 Top 10 most-watched tournaments, one spot higher than last year, and is also in the Top 10 for the first time by PV.
Mid-Season Invitational 2022 rounds out the Top 10 most-watched tournaments of the year with 48.2 million HW. The event dropped 21% from last year's Mid-Season Invitational, moving three spots down in the ranking. In addition, the event ranks outside the Top 10 by PV.
All the same major LoL, Mobile Legends, CS: GO, Dota 2 and Valorant tournaments made it into the Top 10 most-watched tournaments of the year. The only difference is that 2022 featured two CS: GO majors, not one, and both reached the Top 10. The ML: BB World Championship, ranked sixth last year, is not included in the ranking, as it has not yet been held: it will take place only in January.

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Last updated 10 months ago

Total players & annual revenue remain stable in the post-COVID-19 pandemic

And Estimate In 2025:

The global games market will generate revenues of $211.2 billion.

Mobile games alone will generate $103.1 billion via consumer spending.

Cloud gaming will generate $8.2 billion.

VR gaming will generate $3.2 billion by 2024.

The number of global players is still growing across the globe. Price-sensitive players may spend less during tougher economic times, but engagement remains high across segments.

The number of people watching game tournaments is very large

Via Esport Chart, the two seasons of the Indonesian MPL Mobile Legends tournaments — Season 9 and Season 10 — are among the Top 3 most-watched tournaments of the year. Each of these championships amassed more than 80 million HW, making them the all-time leaders in the discipline by this metric. It should be noted that the HW gap between this year's Spring and Fall MPL seasons is very small, while the Spring 2021 tournament outpaced the Fall 2021 tournament by 42% of HW.

LCK Spring 2022 is in fourth place with 74.2 million HW, a new record for the Korean league. Compared with the previous year, the Spring Split outpaced all CS: GO tournaments and climbed one place in the ranking. LCK Summer, on the other hand, showed remarkable stability and once, and takes eighth place in our ranking, although its HW went up by almost 10%.

IEM Rio Major 2022 and PGL Major Antwerp 2022 are in 5th-6th places of the ranking, accumulating 69.5 and 68.1 million HW, respectively. They have made it into the Top 3 CS: GO tournaments of all time, just a few percent behind PGL Major Stockholm 2021, the leader in this metric.

Similar to 2021, the only Dota 2 tournament in the Top 10 is The International. TI11 didn't have the best statistics and ranks seventh in our ranking with 67.7 million HW. This is almost 37% fewer compared with TI10, which took second place last year.

VALORANT Champions 2022 became the most-watched tournament in the discipline, amassing 60.8 million HW and attracting more than 1.5 million PV. The Valorant main event ranks ninth in the 2022 Top 10 most-watched tournaments, one spot higher than last year, and is also in the Top 10 for the first time by PV.

Mid-Season Invitational 2022 rounds out the Top 10 most-watched tournaments of the year with 48.2 million HW. The event dropped 21% from last year's Mid-Season Invitational, moving three spots down in the ranking. In addition, the event ranks outside the Top 10 by PV.

All the same major LoL, Mobile Legends, CS: GO, Dota 2 and Valorant tournaments made it into the Top 10 most-watched tournaments of the year. The only difference is that 2022 featured two CS: GO majors, not one, and both reached the Top 10. The ML: BB World Championship, ranked sixth last year, is not included in the ranking, as it has not yet been held: it will take place only in January.