A Whopping 55% Of American’s Took up Gaming in 2020
With COVID-19 forcing millions of people to stay at home for months on end, it’s no real surprise many turned to video games. In fact, over half the population of America decided to pick up a controller. Nielsen company SuperData found 55% of American’s turned to gaming while in lockdown.
The industry itself grew 12% to $139.9 billion in 2020 from $120.1 billion in 2019, making publishers and designers a tidy sum. The vast majority of income came about thanks to free-to-play games, with the report from SuperData stating these online games made up 78% of 2020’s gaming revenue. 58% of this came from the Asian market.
Mobile games continued to be a hit, experiencing 10% growth. These games were big in Asia where titles such as Honor of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite both generated over $2 billion each throughout the year.
The premium gaming segment grew a tidy 28% thanks to the release of blockbuster titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last Of Us: Pt 2. North America and Europe alone combined for 84% of the premium games revenue in 2020.
The video game content industry also rose sharply, turning into a $9.3 billion industry thanks to 1.2 billion views. So if you’ve ever thought about streaming yourself playing games, now is the time to get on it.
Games also connected people during the pandemic, with 27% of American’s playing video games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Call Of Duty: Warzone to keep in touch virtually with friends and family.
Speaking of COD, the critically acclaimed Call Of Duty: Modern Warzone became the highest earning premium game of 2020. The first person shooter from Infinity Ward made a massive $1.91 billion. It’s no wonder they keep releasing new versions annually when it’s making money like that.
Check out the top 10 earning premium games of 2020 below and read the full report by SuperData for free here.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare ($1.91 billion USD)
- FIFA 20 ($1.08 billion USD)
- Grand Theft Auto V ($911 million USD)
- NBA 2K21 ($889 million USD)
- NBA 2K20 ($771 million USD)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War ($678 million USD)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons ($654 million USD)
- Cyberpunk 2077 ($609 million USD)
- The Sims 4 ($462 million USD)
- Doom Eternal ($454 million USD)
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