Worldwide spending on the video game “ecosystem” will exceed US$74 billion in 2011, up 10 percent from 2010 spending of $67 billion – and by 2015, spending will reach $112 billion, research firm Gartner predicts.
In a major news report on the gaming industry, it says spending on gaming software will take up $44.7 billion in 2011 and will continue to dominate the overall gaming market in the next five years, absorbing almost two-thirds of consumers’ gaming budgets.
Spending on hardware and online gaming is tipped to reach $17.8 billion and $11.9 billion respectively.
Within the software market, mobile gaming will experience the largest growth rate, with its share of the spending money growing from 15 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2015.
“As the popularity of smartphones and tablets continues to expand, gaming will remain a key component in the use of these devices. Although they are never used primarily for gaming, mobile games are the most downloaded application category across most application stores,” said Tuong Nguyen, principal research analyst at Gartner.
– The report, Market Trends: Gaming Ecosystem, 2011, is available from Gartner. It does not give any breakdown of Australian or regional expenditure.
