Last year, mobile games generated sales of 2.9 billion euros in Germany. The Games Industry Association provides this information in collaboration with market research company Data.ai. This corresponds to an increase of 4 percent compared to 2022.
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Mobile games are responsible for half of video game revenue in Germany. A little look back shows how strongly mobile games have developed in recent years: Since 2018, sales in the smartphone market have almost doubled, the industry association wrote in a statement. At that time, sales amounted to 1.49 billion euros.
The revenue of mobile games for cell phones and tablets comes almost exclusively from in-game purchases, also known as microtransactions: 2.885 billion euros were generated from the sale of mobile games. On the other hand, the revenue from the sale of games is only 5 million euros – you have to look very closely at the bar chart published by the Games Industry Association to see this ratio.
Evolution of sales of mobile games in Germany.
(Image: Sport)
Psychological tricks and gambling
Sales development confirms the dominance of in-game transactions: while revenue from in-game transactions has grown steadily over the past six years, revenue from game sales, which was weak from the start, continued to fall year after year. Mobile games are almost exclusively offered free of charge (“Free2Play”).
Players are then lured into spending money using various tactics and psychological tricks – for example in-game items, gambling elements such as loot boxes, new levels or the opportunity to continue playing at all. Not all mobile games work this way – but the most successful titles such as “Candy Crush” and “Clash of Clans” have perfected this gameplay principle and are racking up billions in sales worldwide.
According to the Game Industry Association, the average smartphone gamer in Germany is 40 years old. Men and women maintain an approximately equal balance. According to Game, the gaming industry in Germany has a total sales of around 10 billion euros in 2023. This includes sales of gaming hardware in addition to games.
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