Specialized in market research, Ampere Analysis has published a study specifically dedicated to the console market. This believes that global equipment expenditures, games, additional content and subscriptions have reached the record $ 60 billion in 2021, compared with $ 56.6 billion in 2020.

According to Piers Harding-Rolls, the analyst in charge of this study, this growth would have been much more important without the shifting of the availability of the new generation consoles, the higher price, however, partly offsets the disappearance of the previous generation.

Expenditures in additional games and content of all kinds (DLC, microtransactions, combat passes) fell by only 1%, a result considered very solid since consumption was strongly boosted by the confines in 2020. Not surprisingly, the Box game sales continue to decline and represent for the first time less than 30% of total expenditures. Despite the resistance of the Nintendo Games in the traditional rays, Ampere already anticipates a further decline in the retail in 2022.

Side subscriptions, it’s the Xbox Game Pass who experienced the most notable growth in 2021. The combined revenues of Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Now and Nintendo Switch Online represent 19 % of total expenditure in 2021 compared to 15% in 2020, according to estimates. The PlayStation Plus and the Xbox Game Pass have respectively 48 million and 25 million subscribers, according to the numbers communicated at the beginning of the year by Sony and Microsoft.

Although the production capacity of the PS5 is more and more behind the PS4 in its time and has yielded significantly fewer consoles than Nintendo since 2019, Sony remains the market leader in expenditure. According to the study, the PlayStation ecosystem accounted for 46% of the revenues generated in the console market last year. Nintendo arrives second with 29% (against 31% in 2020) and Microsoft closes walking with 25% (compared to 24% in 2020).

Piers Harding-Rolls notes that the domination of Sony “_soulinia the strength of its digital activity” compared to Nintendo, which still a significant delay on the other two manufacturers with regard to sales of digital games, the monetization of the Games and Services. Ampere concludes its study by considering that the console market will continue to grow in 2022 and exceed $ 61 billion.