Working in gaming has its upside and downsides.
One of the downsides is that people always say: “Ah, so fun, playing all day, the perfect job!”
Other people dismiss it from the start: “Pfff, gaming! That’s not even a real industry!”
Even people close to me (good friends or family) have this false impression, that it’s something simple and cheap to do. On a casual talk with a friend, I mentioned a $2 million budget for a game. He was impressed and said: “That’s a lot of money! A game with a big budget, right?”
And… not so much (see the GTA5 numbers below).
Let me tell you some numbers about the gaming industry:
Global revenues in gaming: $56 billion in 2011 (the report here, page 5). In another report I have (not public), the numbers estimated for 2013 are closer to $70 billion.
The total market for casual/social/mobile games in 2013 (estimated) is about $18 billion.
Half a billion people play computer games. Out of them, about 150 million pay, in one way or another, for games.
The biggest money makers in mobile are:
– King’s Candy Crush Saga, more than $600,000 per day (yes, per day!) – Source: 1, 2
– Clash of Clans (more than $600,000 per day – source) and HeyDay (more than $300,000 per day – source) bring a big part of the $2 million per day revenue for SuperCell, the Finnish company that created them (source)
Finally, GTA5, the title launched last week, was in production for 8 years and, in the first 3 days, it had revenues more than $1,000,000,000 (yes, billion)! (source). It is the fastest selling entertainment product EVER! Before Avatar, before Titanic, before StarWars, before anything. And, to put it in context, it had a HUGE budget: $260 million.
Actually, I’ve seen some reports saying that the gaming industry surpassed the movie industry in the last 2 years or so (I can’t find the report now, sorry!).
Next time, when someone says “Pfff, gaming!”, just smile. You know better :)
Screenshot from Newzoo report
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