“Gamers” got their hands on their wallets last year.
After a slight decline (1.6%) in 2022, the French video game market returned to growth last year thanks to the resumption of sales of latest generation consoles, crossing the 6 billion euro mark. turnover, according to a report published Wednesday.
This “new historic peak” at 6.1 billion euros, achieved in a macroeconomic context of high inflation, “establishes France today as one of the most dynamic markets in Europe”, underlines James Rebours, president of the Union of Leisure Software Publishers (Sell), author of the study with four partners (GSD, GameTrack, IDC and data.ai).
Also read: Video games, a more important market “than those of cinema and music combined”
While sales suffered last year from semiconductor supply shortages, preventing the manufacturers of the new PlayStation 5 (Sony) and Xbox Series (Microsoft) consoles from meeting strong demand from gamers, "the effect catch-up” was spectacular in 2023.
Consequence: console sales jumped 72% over one year, exceeding one billion euros in revenue for the first time since 2007-2009, according to the authors of the study.
Over the period, the French video game market also relies on other solid growth drivers, such as sales of games (“software”) on consoles and PC which continue to grow (+7% to 2.25 billion euros).
“EA Sports FC 24” and “Hogwarts Legacy”
As for the most popular games, it was once again the annual edition of Electronic Arts' football simulation which dominated the rankings despite the abandonment of the name "Fifa", with 1.477 million copies sold every year. platforms combined (physical and digital market, excluding Nintendo digital sales data).
“EA Sports FC 24”, which almost reached 100 million euros in turnover in 2023, was ahead of the game taking place in the world of Harry Potter “Hogwarts Legacy”, which accumulated 1.147 million of sales over the year.
Nintendo's Switch console placed four titles in the Top 20, notably thanks to "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" and "Super Mario Bros.
Wonder”, 3rd and 4th in the ranking with respectively nearly a million and more than 750,000 copies sold.
But also other older titles like “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe”, 8th in the ranking (384,860 sales) and still popular despite its release in 2017, or even “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” (20th, 154,126 sales).
“Assassin's Creed Mirage”, the latest opus in the successful series from French publisher Ubisoft, the plot of which takes place in Baghdad in the 9th century, ranks in 10th position with more than 300,000 copies sold.
The mobile gaming market on the rise
Growing by almost 5% over one year, the mobile gaming market reached 1.483 billion euros in 2023. It exceeds the PC ecosystem, which fell by 8.5% over the year, generating 1.432 billion euros. euros.
In the mobile segment, almost all revenue comes from microspending on games accessible for free.
Like “Monopoly GO: Family Board Game”, No. 1 in downloads in 2023, which announced on Saturday that it had reached $2 billion in just ten months since its release.