North America

Free-to-play games generated $14.8billion in total in North America in 2018, and are expected to generate $16billion in 2019.(Superdata, Jan 2019)

North America is the second largest region with estimated revenues of $25.4 billion in 2016, a YoY growth rate of 4.1%. (Newzoo, May 2016)

In 2015, Paypal (32%) and Visa (21%) dominate the popular payment brands in the US for digital games. Mastercard comes a distant third at 8.2%. (Superdata, Apr 2016)

Mobile gaming market continues to grow with 141.9m gamers (+27% from 2013) who spent an average $32.65 in 2014, for a total $4.6bn revenue. Gamers that play both on smartphone and tablet drive majority of revenues, as they have a higher average yearly spend ($48.45). The majority of revenue is indeed still generated by 6% of spenders (8m, spending an average of $293.70 per month), who generate half (51%) of mobile gaming revenue. Close to half (45.7%) of players don’t pay to play. (EEDAR, June 2015)

In the US audiences for iOS, Android and PC/Mac, for the period Q3 2015 there was an almost exactly evenly-split between male and female players. PC/Mac players were statistically older, with 59% aged 45+. (App Annie / IDC, Mar 2016).

In North America, more than half of mobile and tablet players are female (56%). The average age of player is 27.7 years old, a decrease from the previous data, which is attributed to more affordable smartphone devices on the market becoming available to younger consumers. (EEDAR, June 2015)

Casual mobile gamers tend to be younger (26 years old) and more likely to be female (70%) while core gamers tend to be older (30 years old) males (58%). These core gamers tend to be the biggest evangelists for mobile games (75% are also active sharers compared to 23% of casual mobile gamers). (EEDAR, June 2015)

USA

The US has 178.1million players who spent $30.4billion in 2018, making it the 2nd largest games market. (Newzoo, Aug 2018)

The US video game industry’s value added to US GDP is more than $11.7 billion. (ESA, July 2018)

There are 2,711 video game company locations across 84 percent of the congressional districts in America. (ESA, July 2018)

There are now 65,678 workers directly employed at game software publisher and developer locations in the US. (ESA, July 2018)

Employees in the industry earned an average compensation of $97,000 per year. (ESA, July 2018)

The total consumer spend on the video game industry was $36 billion in 2017. (ESA, July 2018)
- Content: $29.1bn
- Hardware: $4.7bn
- Accessories, including VR: $2.2bn

In 2017, 79% of video game content sales were on digital content, an increase from 74% the previous year. Physical content represents 21% of 2017 revenues. (ESA, July 2018)

There are 3,090 games companies in the USA, 935 of which are based in California. (ESA, July 2017)

The US games industry directly and indirectly employed more than 220,000 people and contributed $11.7bn in GVA to the US economy in 2015. (ESA, July 2017)

The U.S. computer and video game industry generated $30.4 billion in revenue in 2016. This is an increase in total consumer spend from reported 2015 sales, which were at $30.2 billion. (ESA, Jan 2017)

Video game software revenue grew 6% to $24.5 billion in 2016, up from $23.2 billion in 2015. (ESA, Jan 2017)

US digital console revenues grew 16% year-on-year for December 2016, compared with a 16% drop year-on-year in retail sales during the same period. Combined physical and digital sales hit a record $1bn revenue in the final quarter of the year. (SuperData, Jan 2017)

In 2019, there were 692 active video games companies in Canada, a 16% increase on 2017. (ESA Canada, Nov 2019)

In 2019, the Canadian games industry directly employed 27,700 FTEs, an increase of 28% from 2017. In total, 48,000 FTE jobs are supported by the sector. (ESA Canada, Nov 2019)
- 79% of all FTEs directly employed in the sector work for companies that employ more than 100 people.
- Women make up 19% of the Canadian workforce.
The average age of a Canadian games worker is 31 years old, with an average salary of $75,900 (approx £44,200).

In 2019, video game companies in Canada generated an estimated $3.6bn (approx. £2.1bn) in revenue from all sources, a 15% increase on 2017. 76% of this revenue was generated from export markets outside of Canada. (ESA Canada, Nov 2019)

The Canadian games sector contributed $4.5bn (approx. £2.6bn) to GDP in 2019, a 20% increase since 2017. Of that, $2.6bn (£1.5bn) was contributed directly by the sector and a further $1.9bn (£1.1bn) through indirect and induced impacts. (ESA Canada, Nov 2019)

Canada has 21.2million players who spent $2.3billion in 2018, making it the 8th largest games market in the world. (Newzoo, Aug 2018)

In 2016, the Canadian games industry comprised 472 games companies, with 20,400 directly employees on a $71,300 (Canadian) average salary (£43k approx.) (ESA Canada, Jan 2017)

Canadian games companies added $3bn Canadian to GDP (£1.8bn approx.) (ESA Canada, Jan 2017)