The time for euphoria is over for the French video game market.
After an exceptional 2020 financial year thanks to the confinements (+11%), followed by a sluggish 2021 (+1.6%), 2022 shows a decrease of 1.5% according to the figures revealed by the Syndicate of leisure software publishers (SELL).
Consumers spent 5.5 billion euros on games, accessories and hardware on consoles, PC and mobile, a return to the level of 2020. "
This relative stability is a good performance given the uncertain economic context
", underlines Julie Chalmette, President of SELL.
The French video game market had only declined twice in the past decade, in 2012 and 2019.
The industry is dragged down by the console ecosystem alone (-6.6%), which accounts for nearly half of French spending.
And a central element explains this situation: the insufficient supplies of Xbox Series and, even more, of PlayStation 5.
Purchases of these new generation consoles fell by 19% in 2022 not out of player disinterest, but because the latter had the greatest difficulty in obtaining these high-end machines.
Each time inventory was put up for sale, “
purchases would pick up again.
Consumer appetite for these consoles is strong, despite inflation
, ”continues Juliette Chalmette, who talks about purchases “
prevented
” by these shortages.
The decline in console sales naturally brought the accessories segment in its wake (-3%), in particular headsets (-17% in volume) and controllers (-5%).
Read alsoHow the massive arrival of the PlayStation 5 could revive the video game market
Fifa 23 best-selling game of the year
One would have expected that purchases of video games would also suffer.
And yet!
At 1.1 billion euros, the amount of expenditure remained at the same level as the previous year.
This data is partly misleading: the market was driven by more big releases than in 2021. The confinements linked to the Covid-19 pandemic had indeed disrupted the production schedules of creative studios, who have been forced to postpone outings by one to two years.
Blockbusters have sometimes achieved historic performances, such as the football simulation
Fifa 23
(EA) and its 1.7 million sales.
The new
Elden Ring
license (Bandai) has won over more than 400,000 French people.
Read also2021, a gloomy year for video games
A true cultural exception, video games in physical format are resisting in France.
The share of digital sales, which had increased sharply during the pandemic, fell to 45% last year.
“
Distribution still has its place in our market
,” applauds Julie Chalmette.
It must be said that the big brands have got into the habit of cutting prices.
It has not escaped consumers that new products sold for 75 euros on Sony's PlayStation Store can be found at 50 or 60 euros in stores.
In addition to the billion euros dedicated to the purchase of video games, 277 million are spent on the latter (additional playable content, virtual clothing, etc.), up 12%.
Subscriptions allowing unlimited play of a large catalog of games, such as Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra, are still Lilliputian: the French have spent 70 million euros on them.
But this figure jumped 49% in one year.
Read alsoThe PlayStation 5 is back in stores
The industry is now expecting a very good year 2023, again thanks to the PlayStation 5. Sony announced in February the end of supply difficulties, and the first effects are being felt.
“
Growth in console purchases is currently in double digits
,” says Julie Chalmette.
Like a virtuous circle, the catch-up in purchases of PlayStation 5 should boost sales of accessories, while games will be able to deploy their full commercial potential.
Released in early February, the game
Hogwarts Legacy,
taken from the Harry Potter universe
,
is currently number one in sales.
Worldwide, it sold more than 12 million copies in two weeks.
