For three months in a row — from November to January — the turnover of the digital video games market fell. February interrupted the series. In the last month of winter, users spent $8.2 billion on games, which is 2% more than in the same month a year earlier.
The main driver of growth was the mobile segment of the market. It grew by 9%. SuperData analysts who shared the information do not report what caused this.
The segment of premium games for personal computers, on the contrary, showed a 6% drop. This is explained by the lack of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds level novelties on the PC.
The main surprise of the month is that Anthem has overtaken Apex Legends in sales. The difference in revenue is relatively insignificant — $ 8 million, but the development of Respawn Entertainment was released two weeks before the creation of BioWare, and its audience is much larger.
SuperData experts also noted that Hearthstone sales plummeted in February. The total revenue of the game from PC and mobile for the last month was 52% less than a year earlier. The reason is the increased competition in the market and the burnout of the franchise.
NBA2K19 has the opposite situation. Over the past month, the basketball simulator was able to earn 42% more than NBA2K18 in February last year. It is claimed that this is one of the most significant gains in recent years among the older AAA series.
Also on the topic:
- Anthem earned more in February than Apex Legends
- In January 2019, game sales fell by 6% compared to last year
- Game sales in December 2018 were 10% less than a year earlier