Okay, I know gaming is a big deal. I keep saying it’s not some niche industry as people like to pretend it is. Gaming is big money, but even my mind gets boggled by the numbers. According to Super Data, the global digital games market rose 9.8% year-over-year, hitting $7.47 billion in January, presumably as the holiday season spilled into the new year. Holy Randelas that’s a lot of money, and that’s just the digital sales! Of course, how it’s spread is equally interesting.
Cast your mind back to 2013. Obama was president and people thought that Thrift Shop song was really rad. Also, GTA V was released. Now, four years later, people are not only still playing it – it’s the #2 top selling console game (behind FIFA 17). The third top console game went to CoD: Infinite Warfare, with ARK: Survival Evolved getting the fourth slot. That’s right, it beat out Battlefield 1, Star Wars Battlefront, and Destiny in January. The analysts from Super Data had this to say about it:
Ark: Survival Evolved continues upward swing. Launching on PS4 in December, the game is an unusual standout on the AAA-publisher-heavy top 10 console list. In January, the game continued a rise as it becomes popular on the latest generation of platforms and took the number 4 slot, ahead of titles like Battlefield 1.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has a sharp decline again. Infinite Warfare continued to slip, down 41% from Black Ops 3 in the prior year. This was partially offset by another month of solid average selling price growth thanks to continued sales of the Modern Warfare bundle.
Meanwhile, PC gamers continue to spend money primarily on older games, with League of Legends, CS: GO, WoW, Crossfire and DOTA 2 among the top 10. In fact, the only new game I spy in the #4 spot was Overwatch. Come join us in 2017, PC gamers!
I’m honestly still in shock that GTA V, and particularly GTA Online, is still so popular. I suppose this is why they weren’t in a rush to release Red Dead Redemption 2, although Red Dead Online could be something truly spectacular. Also, good job ARK – it’s great to see an independent game doing so well on console. I just wonder what’s going to happen to COD this year. The franchise is still really popular, but not nearly as powerful as it once was. I suppose it makes sense, though, as all the COD fans I knew are now Overwatch addicts.
Last Updated: February 27, 2017
Lu
February 28, 2017 at 07:15
“Come join us in 2017, PC gamers!”
Hahaha just remember that those non-2017 pc games are the core of eSports.
Also: “hur dur 5 year old pc games are still better than current gen console games”
*doritos dust flying from keyboard while typing*
*sips mountain dew*
*cries internally*
Magoo
February 28, 2017 at 07:30
Ever played GTA V? If you have it should come as no surprise. If there’s one word I could use for it, it’s just plain FUN.
miaau
February 28, 2017 at 08:38
It was, yes. I played it on my Xbox 360, before GTA online. I can imagine loads of people playing this online for the heists, just not for me.
I cannot imagine replaying to right now though, even the single player portions. Then again, MP hardly ever holds my interest
Magoo
February 28, 2017 at 10:12
The heists were a great fail. No one really plays those anymore. There’s TONS of better stuff to do now.
Captain JJ
February 28, 2017 at 08:36
ARK ratings went from 85% to below 60% in a very short time. It’s very clear why too. Those devs are skelm
miaau
February 28, 2017 at 08:37
ratings go down, sales go up?
Captain JJ
February 28, 2017 at 08:38
They put the game on console too, so there’s a whole new market that’s unaware of what they’re like, whereafter their attention got split and the game got stuck in early access.