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A new report from Ampere Analysis suggests the global games market might not be as “recession-proof” as it might have seemed. The report predicts the market will see a decline in 2022 — perhaps not by a dramatic amount but a notable one.
The report’s graphs show that the market expanded rapidly during the pandemic, adding $39 billion in spending from 2019 to 2021. The market performance of 2021 was $191 billion, while Ampere predicts the 2022 market will reach $188 billion. Ampere suggests that the decline has multiple sources, including hardware supply chain issues and game delays, as well as the more general effects of inflation.
Mobile gaming might also see a slight decline, thanks to privacy disputes on mobile platforms. The other platforms might also see either decline or no change, except for cloud gaming. That said, the report also predicts 2023 will be a more stable year, with fewer hardware shortages and delayed games finally launching.
Piers Harding Rolls, Ampere’s research director, said in a statement, “After two years of huge expansion, the games market is poised to hand back a bit of that growth in 2022 as multiple factors combine to undermine performance. Even so, the year will end well ahead of pre-pandemic performance, and the outlook for the sector as a whole remains positive, with growth forecast to return in 2023.”
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