In early 2021, a number of market survey companies gave somewhat negative growth forecasts for the global gaming industry. They believe that Apple’s shortage of semiconductor chip, IDFA will make the market difficult and not easy to beat the 2020 results.
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However, reality did not happen as expected and Newzoo – one of the research companies that had a negative view of 2021 was surprised when the world gaming industry continued to have a year of growth, total revenue reached 180.3 billion USD, up 1.4% over the same period last year.
This is achieved by the popularity of mobile devices, and cloud gaming, eSports, and online gaming all hit various growth milestones, becoming hotspots for future growth.
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Tom Wijman, Head of Reporting and Forecasting at Newzoo, said: “At the beginning of the year, we thought the market would not be able to achieve the performance of 2020 for a variety of reasons. But after nine months, the company found the market was still going up, which shows that gaming is no longer a hotly growing or seasonal sector.”
While revenue from PCs and traditional gaming devices shows a slight decline because there are no longer new product launches as much as before, mobile devices become “the driver of the world’s gaming boat”.
Newzoo’s report shows that the total number of active smartphones globally is 4.6 billion devices (up 5.7% year-on-year). Of these, 15.4% (equivalent to 703.5 million) are 5G phones, up 230.9% at the same time in 2020.
“Despite the definite impact it has had on the mobile gaming ecosystem, the mobile market has been at the forefront of the biggest and brightest growth phase of the gaming industry. We believe the mobile market will continue to shine despite the impact of privacy laws,” said Tianyi Gu, head of Communications and Mobile Services Market at Newzoo.
Electronic Sports (eSport) is an indispensable factor in the bright picture of the gaming industry in 2021. E-sports fanbase has reached a record high: an estimated 465 million people worldwide have watched the games. eSport matches (6.7% higher than 2020). Of these, nearly 230 million are passionate about the sport (watch more than once per month), and 235.5 million are “seasonal fans” (watch less than once a month).
The eSports recovery also delivered revenue growth, although streaming operations have yet to fully recover because of Covid-19. According to statistics, eSports generates more than 1 billion USD in 2021, mainly from sponsorships.
China is still a hot market of the global gaming village. This is not only a place with a large number of players, but also the “hometown” of many companies that develop, publish and own the most interested games in the world in the past year.
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At The Game Awards 2021, Mihoyo’s Genshin Impact (China) was voted the best mobile game of the year. Recently, Steam also ranked Naraka Bladepoint – “PUBG martial arts” PC version into the Platinum list, where the best selling games of the year are gathered on this store. Not only strong in the number of games, China is also a “serious” country in eSports competitions.
In 2021, the Chinese teams achieved a lot of success in the international arena. At the 2021 League of Legends World Championship, their team Edward Gaming (EDG) defeated DWG KIA of Korea to become the new Defending Champion. Meanwhile, the PSG.LGD team also holds the runner-up position at TI 2021 of Dota 2.
This market is also relatively fierce when subject to strict control regulations from the government. In August 2021, Beijing enacted a law restricting online play time for children under 18 years old, making their time to participate in online video games less than 3 hours a week. In addition, China also suspended game licensing for more than 4 months, the longest ever recorded.
In Viet Nam, the game market also recorded many positive changes following the general momentum of the world. Even the report of Niko Partners confirms that Vietnam is in the Top 10 countries with the most gamers depositing money into video games in the world and is one of the 3 fastest growing game markets (along with Indonesia and Thailand). Lan). It is expected that players in Vietnam will surpass the 1 billion USD game deposit milestone by 2025.
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Previously, a survey conducted by Vero revealed that Vietnam has the highest percentage of adults playing games in the world, reaching 85%. With about 40 million people playing games (more than 40% of the population), almost half of these have played through eSports. Popular PC e-sports games in Vietnam include League of Legends, Dota 2. Meanwhile, Lien Quan Mobile, Free Fire, PUBG Mobile, League of Legends: Wild Rift are the top favorites on mobile.
The domestic game market in 2021 also does not have many notable changes or events. Popular games like League of Legends, Dota 2, LQM, PUBG Mobile, Free Fire continue to hold the top position in terms of downloads, players and revenue after many years.
The current market share “piece of cake” doesn’t have much room for new names if they can’t really make a breakthrough. Many games are released for domestic or international release, but they only operate at a level that generates profits to manage and operate. potential to replace the “old people”.
In general, MOBA (online multiplayer arena) is still the most favorite genre of Vietnamese gamers and is also a “spike” for Vietnamese eSport teams to have enough confidence to confront their opponents in the competition. regional as well as international.
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