Germany has been a hotbed of board gaming and computer gaming for decades, and the latest survey figures show that gaming continues to grow in Germany — with mobile game sgrowing much faster than other categories. The IHS data cited in a July 2014 BITKOM report shows that martphone and tablet game revenues came to €465 million ($620 million) in 2014, which was about 33 percent greater than the revenues for 2013, and more than double the revenues from two years ago for mobile games.
Meanwhile, digital and online sales of console and computer games continued to grow, but at a much slower rate. Revenues from physical game sales continued to decline from the high point reached in 2008, which mirrors the decline of physical game sales in North America.
Looking at the platforms that Germans used for gaming shows clearly why the revenues are growing for mobile and shrinking for physical games. Smartphones showed a massive increase in gaming usage, leaping from 44 percent of German gamers to 78 percent of German gamers in 2014. At the same time, desktop PC usage declines to 69 percent from 74 percent, so smartphones leaped past desktops in a single year to become the most popular gaming platform among Germans.
Tablets are still far down the list, with only 36 percent of Germans listing them as a gaming platform, but that represents an incredible growth rate, up from only 10 percent in 2013. While this tremendous growth was occurring in mobile devices, traditional consoles shrank from 43 percent to 39 percent, while handheld consoles rose from 24 percent to 32 percent. Laptops also rose in popularity, climbing to 53 percent from 40 percent in 2013.
It will be interesting to see if the strong sales of next-gen consoles can slow down the loss in consoles gaming in Germany, but it doesn’t look like anything will get in the way of mobile gaming’s growth. Expect next year’s numbers to show even more growth in tablets, and probably a continuing loss among PC gaming.
Source: eMarketer
