Over 70% of all game sales in 2023 were digital downloads: A new analysis from the statisticians at NewZoo makes for interesting reading as the year draws to a close and companies who specialize in crunching numbers look back over the past 12 months to identify trends, facts, and figures related to gaming, retail, prices, sales, and player behavior.

According to NewZoo, the worldwide value of the video gaming industry is an astounding $184.4 billion. This is the vast majority of all digital game sales, including those for PCs, consoles, and mobile devices. It should also be emphasized that Nintendo game sales are not included in this already astounding statistic, as the publisher has always been oddly coy about disclosing its own financial results.

Over 70% of all game sales in 2024 were digital downloads

Over 70% of 2023 game sales were digital

Of this overall market value, $51.8 billion came from console games, $38.2 billion from PC games sold digitally or in retail packaging, and $2.3 billion from PC games played in a web browser. With a staggering $92.2 billion in total sales, mobile gaming clearly dominates. Honor of Kings by TiMi Studios and PUBG Mobile by PUBG Corporation are the top-grossing mobile games worldwide, bringing in billions of dollars per year.

The majority of video game console sales (72% in 2015) were digital downloads, while only 28% were for physically distributed games. This follows a pattern we’ve seen develop over several years: consumers increasingly preferring digital downloads to physical copies of games.

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