Revenues in the German games market are set to rise again in 2023. The biggest drivers of this development include games consoles and in-game or in-app purchases
While games consoles were still rare a few years ago, the brakes on sales have now been lifted. This is one reason why sales on the German video games market continued to rise in 2023. As game e.V. – the association of the German games industry – announced, the previous year’s record figure was surpassed. The only slight downer: at 9.97 billion euros, the 10 billion mark was narrowly missed.
This was partly due to the fact that sales of gaming PCs and the respective accessories fell by 17% and 7% respectively. “Many gamers had already invested in their PCs and laptops during the coronavirus pandemic. Many of them seem to consider themselves technically well-equipped for the time being,” explains Felix Falk, Managing Director of game e.V., in a press release. In contrast, game consoles (+44% to 1.089 billion) and their accessories (+32% to 374 million) both recorded significant growth.
Almost half through in-game or in-app purchases
In-game and in-app purchases continue to be the biggest drivers. These account for almost half of total revenue (4.742 billion) and increased by six percent compared to 2022. The fact that many top titles were released in 2023, such as Hogwarts Legacy, Spider-Man 2 and Star Wars Jedi Survivor, is also reflected in the figures. The turnover generated from video game sales rose to 1.103 billion euros. Falk commented: “Many gamers seem to have bought top-class titles directly on release last year and not waited for the first discounts. As many of the top titles in 2023 were also particularly time-consuming, there was only room for a few games.”
Only online gaming services such as PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass suffered a slight decline. Turnover there fell by around one percent from 867 million to 860 million euros. Developments in this segment remain exciting, as Microsoft and Sony raised the prices for their services. The PlayStation manufacturer even restructured its subscription model
Despite the predominantly positive figures, Falk sees challenging times for the gaming industry. “This is all the more true for 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,” he explains and demands: “The application freeze for federal games funding has been in place for almost a year and it is completely unclear when the additional 33 million euros made available to games companies will be available. In such turbulent times, reliable and internationally comparable political solutions are needed all the more. “
