Coronavirus effects on videogames

2020 was undoubtedly a unique year in the recent history of humanity, which in fact changed or changed our way of life forever. In this context, some economic sectors have and are still struggling, while others are paradoxically more prosperous than before.

This mechanism is fueled by the fact that people have been forced into their homes for some time: among these activities obviously all the delivery services (ecommerce, grocery shopping and food at home, and so on) and home entertainment stand out. The video game sector, as a good exponent of the latter category, has experienced an unprecedented year, mainly because many people, given the impossibility of other entertainment outside the home, have invested much more money in buying video games.

Record numbers, uncertain future

The game industry last year had a turnover more than North American cinema and sports combined, and if it seems strange to you the second term of comparison, once represented by music, you must take into account that in the great change in cultural consumption of the last fifteen / twenty years, the American sports market has far surpassed the music market, with the NFL alone making nearly half of the world’s music revenues in the same period in a year.

Obviously, however, 2020 was a difficult year for both cinema and sport, given the almost total impossibility of carrying out “in presence” events in stadiums and cinemas, but it is still a huge milestone to have exceeded the revenues of two industries combined. We are talking about a turnover of approximately 180 billion dollars, of which 91% (!!) are the result of digital sales, and the percentage includes the PC, console and mobile markets. For completeness of information, it is good to add that the latter obviously accounts for 100% of digital sales, while PC 98%, so all in all the interesting figure is 72% of the console market, which represents a real record, given the historical link between console users and physical media.