Today the game – Association of the German Games Industry has its almost 60 pages long Annual Report 2022 released. This provides a comprehensive overview of the German industry and deals with topics such as market development or regional support measures.
The 2021 financial year was very eventful and marked by uncertainty for the games industry in Germany due to the ongoing pandemic situation. The development of computer games in the home office became everyday life for many companies and events such as the gamescom in Cologne could not take place on site again. Despite all adversities, there were positive developments for the German games market this year. As in the previous year 2020, the strong growth continued and sales increased significantly again.
Video games in Germany more popular than ever
This year, too, the number of players in Germany continued to grow. Every sixth German regularly plays games on a PC, console or mobile device. The largest group of players are the 50 to 59 year olds with around 18 percent and the over 60 year olds with almost 11 percent. Both age groups have been familiar with the medium since the 1980s and 1990s and still remain loyal to it. It is therefore hardly surprising that the average age of gamers in Germany is 37,6 years. A balance can now be seen in the gender distribution: 48% of the players are women and 52% men.
According to the annual report, games are probably played most frequently on smartphones, with 23,5 million players. This is followed by around 17,8 million console users and 14,3 million PC gamers. A look at the 2021 sales charts for PC and console shows that multiplayer games are becoming increasingly important. First place goes to the football simulation FIFA 1 from EA SPORTS, followed by Rockstar Games. GTA V. Third place goes to the fun racer Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch.
Sales record for the German games market
Revenue generated from gaming hardware in fiscal year 2021 increased by 18% to EUR 3,6 billion. Despite immense supply bottlenecks, consoles such as the PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch were sold for a total of 808 million euros. Accessories for this were able to achieve sales of 306 million euros. Gaming PC accessories such as monitors, headsets, graphics cards and the like posted sales of 1,5 billion euros. Gaming online services such as gaming subscriptions were also able to increase their sales to around 720 million euros. On the other hand, there has been a decline in cloud gaming. The end of Google Stadia, for example, contributed to this. Games sales also increased by a strong 19% to EUR 5,4 billion. In-game purchases, especially for smartphone apps, account for the lion's share. Around 59% of the games for the PC and console were acquired digitally - hardly an increase compared to the previous year 2020.
Employment figures on an upward trend
According to the published data, the total number of employees in the German games industry will increase from around 27.000 in the previous year to 28.650 – an increase of a good five percent. In detail, the increase employment figures in the core market, i.e. developer studios and publishers, by three percent to 11.242. The extended market (e.g. retail or game editorial offices) posted an increase in employees of 6%.
The number of companies that develop or sell video games in Germany also increases to 786. 358 of them develop exclusively, 36 specialize in publishing and 392 do both.
