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Released brakes on console supplies and high-profile blockbusters contributed to the stabilization of games sales in Germany in 2023.
The market researchers at GfK have ruined a historic milestone for the Game industry association: Because the definition of 'gaming PC' has been recalibrated internationally, sales of gaming PCs and notebooks are only half as high as in the previous year.
The result: Despite largely stable to sharply increasing revenues in individual sectors, the €10 billion mark was once again missed by a very narrow margin. Specifically, the video game industry generated sales of games, consoles and accessories 'only' €9.97 billion in Germany – an increase of 6 percent compared to the previous year's record value of €9.4 billion.
The sub-areas have developed very differently:
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- 2023 was a exceptionally good gaming year – with highlights like Baldur's Gate 3, Spider Man 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Super Mario Bros Wonder or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This is reflected in the growth in game purchases (disc, module, download), which stabilized at €1.103 billion (+4%).
- By far the largest block is still made up by them In-game and in-app purchases which increased by a further 6% to €4.7 billion. In the mobile games sector, the Free2Play business accounts for 98 percent of all revenue.
- Online gaming services – such as Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Switch Online, Ubisoft+, EA Play and Nvidia Geforce Now – are stalling despite substantial price increases: instead of €867 million (2022), sales recently amounted to €860 million. The subscription business was and is considered a beacon of hope, but real growth cannot be seen from the actual figures.
- By far the biggest increase is in… Game consoles, which are increasing by 44 percent: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo generated almost €1.1 billion in sales with PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch in this country. The explanation is that after years of delivery bottlenecks, especially for the PS5, the logistical brakes were released – the console has been available nationwide since the beginning of 2023 at the latest.
- In the wake of PS5 demand, there is also a significant increase in demand Console accessories: Gamepads, steering wheels and (VR) headsets generated €374 million in sales – 32% more than in 2022.
- The declines in the Gaming PCs (€547 million / – 17%) and at PC Accessories (€1.25 billion / – 7%) can be explained by the Corona boom years of 2020 and 2021, during which many consumers purchased new computers, monitors, headsets and mice for home office and schooling.
Remarkable: Despite the Sales volume-Increments is the number of sold Games have fallen by 8 percent, which the association attributes, among other things, to the increasingly longer playing time of blockbusters and the supply of new additional content. The players are simply tied to individual titles for a very long time. Conversely, the commercial expectations of the competitors were often not met, which led to location closures and layoffs, especially among studios and publishers in Germany. Incidentally, the home market share of German developers (most recently at less than 5%) has not been recorded and reported for several years.
Game managing director Felix Falk links the announcement of the market data with an appeal to politicians: “Game sales continue to rise in Germany, but a closer look at the data shows how challenging times are for games companies. This applies all the more to the mostly small to medium-sized companies in Germany, which almost always have a thin capital base and therefore feel the harsher investment climate particularly quickly. In such a situation, the unreliable framework conditions for game development in Germany unfortunately have an even greater impact. The federal government's application freeze for games funding has been in effect for almost a year and it is completely unclear when the additional 33 million euros made available will be available to games companies. In such stormy times, reliable and internationally comparable political solutions are even more needed.”
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