The State Of The Worldwide MMOs Market, September 2015
Less players head to the store in 2015 as worldwide digital game sales reach $5.4 billion in September, according to SuperData Research. The market analyst firm provided an overall screenshot of the industry, revealing some fascinating facts.
As expected the pay to play MMO market dropped to $213 million, an 8% decrease—reinforcing the MMOs.com assertion that free to play will become an increasingly preferred business model as older games transition and new titles release. And mobile gaming such huge gains, hitting $2 billion (an overall 9% growth). The mobile boost is attributed to new players (an overall user account increase of 10% year-over-year to 2.2 billion), and emerging markets lining their pockets with smartphones.
The top games for 2015 saw some dramatic standings changes from the previous year. The #1 spot has not shifted—League of Legends remains king. But competitor MOBA Dota 2 rose from the #9 spot to #5, showing the alternative genre title is a strong competitor. Casino games became surprisingly popular, devouring the majority of social games with Candy Crush Saga holding on. Not surprisingly World of Warcraft dominates the P2P MMO sphere but Lineage I should surprise some Western players, showing the dedication of Korean players to older games.
Virtual Reality hits the mainstream market in 2016 with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive the forerunners of the PC market. While PC VR will appeal to tech-oriented enthusiasts, mobile markets want to attract casual players through affordable devices and non-gaming designed applications. The $99 Gear VR works with any Samsung Galaxy phone and releases shortly before Black Friday, and will feature a virtual Netflix experience.
The buzzword for the next 12 months is eSports. And fantasy sports websites Draftkings and Fanduel want a slice of the $143 million North American eSports market. Fanduel recently purchased Alphadraft, a fantasy eSports betting site, whereas Draftkings added League of Legends to its site offerings. Growth in NA and Europe is driven by digital publishers trying to compete with Korea and China's overall dominance of the $612 million global eSports market.
To the disappointment of some players there is an increasing trend to abandon single-player campaigns in favor of multiplayer focused gameplay. Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Star Wars: Battlefront have abandoned campaigns in favor of competitive multiplayer. It renders the titles dependent on large playerbases and can stifle longevity, at least until the next title in the franchise releases. But Superdata predicts an increasing focus on DLC content to promote game relevancy.
The MMO market is ever shifting and 2016 should prove interesting as mobile becomes the preferred gaming platform for emerging markets and VR lands in consumer hands.
Sources:
SuperData Research - Worldwide digital games market: Septemeber 2015
SuperData Research - eSports Marker Brief 2015
From Mega Man II to Ape Escape, I've been playing games for as long as I can remember. I've spent months killing porings in Ragnarok Online and more recently lived a second life in Eve Online. I usually play as gUMBY, gUMBLEoni, or gUMBLes in-game.
