How is Increasing Tablets and Smartphones Penetration Driving Webgame Market?
The global webgame market is expected to generate a revenue of $6.5 billion by 2030, rising from $3.5 billion in 2019, advancing at a 5.7% CAGR during the forecast period (2020–2030), according to a P&S Intelligence report. The major factors leading to the growth of the market are the increasing adoption of tablets and smartphones, surging utilization of social media, and rapidly rising internet penetration. People are becoming increasingly inclined towards online browser games, owing to the increasing internet connectivity.
On the basis of player type, the market is divided into multiplayer and individual, between which, the individual division accounted for the major share of the market in 2019. These games usually involve playing against the computer, where some AI element is in lay. Individual player type games provide much more freedom to the user, since they do not have to depend on other gamers for any decision-making activity, which is why, a large number of gamers adopt this type.
When game play is taken into consideration, the webgame market is categorized into scenario based, real-time, and turn-based, out of which, the real-time category accounted for the major share of the market in 2019. These games offer a real-time interaction among gamers. They are becoming widely popular, owing to their fast-paced nature and thrill of on-the-spot strategy making provided by them. The category is further projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to such factors.
Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region dominated the webgame market during the historical period (2014–2019), and the region is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period as well. The increasing consumer spending, surging penetration of tablets, personal computers, laptops, and internet, and presence of huge gaming population are driving the regional domain. Other than this, North America and Europe are also expected to register considerable growth during the forecast period, owing to high internet penetration in these regions.
The increasing adoption of tablets and smartphones in both developing and developed countries is a major driving factor of the webgame market. According to the GSMA Intelligence, the worldwide smartphone penetration is predicted to grow to 79% by 2025, from 60% in 2018. Moreover, devices now have higher speeds, HD displays, better processors, and larger screens, thereby making it easy for users to play a game anytime and anywhere. They don’t need laptops now for playing games, owing to advancements in smartphones.
The growing utilization of social media is also resulting in the expansion of the webgame market. At the present time, social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, are introducing novel forms of social interaction. It has been observed that about 3.5 billion people are actively using social media on a daily basis. Game developers are leveraging this and offering games on social media platforms, which is leading to the growth of the market.
Hence, the market is growing due to the rising penetration of tablets and smartphones and increasing utilization of social media platforms.
