North America

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)

• 64% of the US population aged 13+ play games (Nielsen, Oct 2017)

• 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)

Canada

• 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)