Paid competitive gaming growing 6x faster than overall mobile gaming: RPT

With an annual growth rate of 31.9 per cent, paid competitive gaming (PCG) is growing six times faster than the overall gaming market, a report released on Friday showed. The overall global mobile games market is growing at 4.9 per cent per annum.

According to the “Global Paid Competitive Gaming Report 2023” released by gamer data firm Newzoo and gaming firm MPL, the PCG market is expected to reach $16 billion globally by 2024, while the overall mobile gaming market is expected to touch $223 billion.

It added that consumer spending on games had gone up by around 40 per cent in the last three years. The momentum is expected to continue in 2024 as well.

“Paid competitive gaming currently accounts for 7 per cent of the global mobile gaming market and this contribution is expected to double to 14 per cent by 2024,” the report said.

It also highlighted that the skill-based gamers, who have competed in paid competitions at least once, were more engaged as compared to traditional players.

On average, the gamers played skill-based games for 5.4 hours per week. On the other hand, traditional players, who do not play paid games, played for 4.4 hours per week. Moreover, in India, 40 per cent of traditional gamers expect to play skill-based games in future.

Among all the segments, mobile was the sector’s biggest and fastest-growing. In 2021, the global gaming industry saw 2.8 billion mobile gamers contributing over 50 per cent of the global gaming revenue. By 2024, they are expected to reach $113 billion.

PC gaming had 1.4 billion players in 2021 and is expected to rise to 1.5 billion by 2024. Console gaming had 871 million players in 2021 and is projected to increase to 943 million in 2024.

“As new players are drawn to it from traditional forms of gaming and adjacent entertainment realms like sports and social media, PCG will democratize and redefine the industry,” said Tony Habschmidt, head of consulting at Newzoo.