- More than twice as many revenues globally (US$1.57 billion) were generated by the cloud gaming market in 2021 as they did in 2020.
- According to researchers Newzoo, even more growth is anticipated, a growth that could potentially reach US$6.53 billion in 2024. Notably, cloud gaming is becoming one of the biggest use cases for 5G.
- According to researchers Newzoo, even more growth is anticipated, a growth that could potentially reach US$6.53 billion in 2024. Notably, cloud gaming is becoming one of the biggest use cases for 5G.
More than twice as many revenues globally (US$1.57 billion) were generated by the cloud gaming market in 2021 as they did in 2020. According to researchers Newzoo, even more growth is anticipated, a growth that could potentially reach US$6.53 billion in 2024. Notably, cloud gaming is becoming one of the biggest use cases for 5G.
According to market consultant Guilherme Fernandes, “The cloud gaming market is well-positioned to meet the strong growth that Newzoo predicts for next year and beyond.”
‘“Many consumers will search for alternative ways to play new releases, as gamers struggle to upgrade their hardware and new components will be hard to come by until late 2022 at least. Cloud gaming is a perfect solution for these players.”
In parallel to this, telecom and mobile services lead Tianyi Gu also said “This represents an impressive year-on-year growth of 230.9% in the number of active 5G-ready smartphones worldwide.”
“One of the most influential changes has been Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. Key players in the mobile (gaming) ecosystem—including developers, publishers, ad tech firms, and app stores—all need to adapt to these new changes and the challenges they present,” she further added.
“Yet, the mobile market has led some of the biggest and brightest evolutions in gaming, and we are confident that the mobile market will continue to thrive under the new privacy norm.”
Newzoo also said that 2021 marked a landmark year for live streaming. It should be noted though that 2020 was also a particularly big year for streaming due to the pandemic. From there, the audience continued to grow in 2021.
According to streaming market analyst Luca Chiovato, “We are quickly closing in on one billion people watching live-streamed gaming content.”
“Twitch generated 23.3 billion hours of live viewership so far in 2021, an all-time high for the platform; YouTube generated 4.5 billion hours [to mid-December] in 2021; Facebook Gaming, which we started tracking in April 2021, generated 3.5 billion hours.”
In parallel to this, Senior market analyst Jordan Fragen said “YouTube is attracting many Twitch streamers, as Google’s platform requires fewer hours of streaming per month, giving creators a better work/life balance and more opportunities to build their brand outside of streaming.”
In terms of hours watched, Twitch remains the clear market leader in the West. It also continues to innovate beyond games, according to Newzoo.
Chiovato further said, “Going into the next year, we expect the engagement with live-streaming platforms to keep growing as creators and platforms continue to connect to and resonate with their communities.”