In 2024, the scale of the Chinese console gaming market grew by 55.13% to reach 4.488 billion yuan.

Recently, the 2024 China Game Industry Annual Conference Industry Development Forum, sponsored by the China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association Game Publishing Working Committee and hosted by Beijing Gamma New Media Culture Communication Co., Ltd., was held in Beijing. Tang Jiajun, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association and Secretary-General of the Game Working Committee, released the "2024 Global Console Game Market Survey Report" at the event. According to the report, the global console game market size decreased by 2.57% year-on-year, reaching $459.6 billion; the global console game user base increased by 4.5% to reach 460 million; the Chinese market size grew by 55.13% to reach 4.488 billion yuan; and the Chinese console game user base increased by 14.05% to reach 11.5463 million. Monitoring overseas console game companies, the console revenue for the first three quarters increased by 3%, but 55% of companies' revenue decreased compared to the previous year. Furthermore, based on the market performance of "Black Myth: Wu Kong", Gamma Data believes that the trend of "large-scale, high-quality original works in potential regions driving market growth" has more evidence to support it. It is worth noting that although the main sales platform for "Black Myth: Wu Kong" is currently PC, based on its buyout business model similar to console games, Gamma Data believes it still has significant reference value for the console game market. Current situation: Decline in the global console game market size, companies underperforming expectations Market situation - Global console game market size decreased by 2.57% "The decline" is the core feature of the overseas console game market in 2024. From a market perspective, the actual sales revenue of the global console game market in 2024 is estimated to be $459.6 billion, a decrease of 2.57% compared to the previous year. As overseas markets account for nearly 99% of the global console game market size, and the growth of the Chinese console game market in 2024 driven by "Black Myth: Wu Kong", it can be assumed that the decline in the global console game market size is due to poor performance in overseas markets. Company situation - Sales volume down by 6.4%, 55% of monitored companies' revenue decreased Some company data also fell below expectations, with Nintendo and Sony both having active user bases exceeding 100 million on their console game platforms, reflecting the overall condition of the console game industry to a large extent. However, the total sales volume of console games from both companies in the first three quarters of 2024 decreased by 6.4% compared to the previous year. Causes: Poor hardware sales, lack of high-profile new games, weakened advantage of high-quality products Core cause - Poor hardware sales Poor game hardware sales are the core reason for the decline in the overseas console game market size. Sales of mainstream game console devices have entered a period of decline in the long tail effect, leading to a decline in hardware sales revenue: Switch has been on the market for nearly 8 years and has fully explored user segment needs through models such as the Nintendo Switch - OLED Model and Nintendo Switch Lite, hence its user penetration rate is already high, making it difficult to grow quickly again; PS5 and Xbox Series X|S have been on the market for only 4 years, but with reference to the approximately 7-year period of the previous generation of consoles PS4 and Xbox ONE (referring to the time from PS4/Xbox ONE's release to PS5/Xbox Series X|S's release), the lifecycle of these new consoles is already in the latter half, most users have already upgraded their consoles, and the number of users needing to upgrade is further reduced. Note: Nintendo and Sony's data is from official sources, while Microsoft's data is from VGChartz. Influenced by the above factors, a total of 20.38 million game consoles were sold in the first three quarters of 2024, representing a 28.8% decrease from the same period the previous year, with declines observed across the Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S models. Other causes - Lack of high-profile new games A key factor affecting the revenue of console game companies is "the release of high-profile products", especially sequels of popular IP, and this factor affects all major game product companies, whether their console revenue is increasing or decreasing. Looking at specific company cases, the release of "Iron Fist 8" in 2024, separated by 6.7 years from the previous installment, drove Bandai Namco's console game revenue growth for the year; the release of "Street Fighter 6" in 2023, separated by 7.3 years from the previous installment, drove Capcom's revenue growth in 2023, but also created a high revenue base, and subsequently, Capcom failed to release a new game of similar popularity the following year, leading to a slight decline in the company's console game revenue in 2024. Underlying cause - Weakened advantage in high-quality products, industry needs transformation The attraction of console games to users has also decreased, with a growing disparity between companies and users over the concept of "high-quality console games". While game companies have released numerous new games, users are skeptical about or do not see the value in some games when faced with prices of 200 yuan, 300 yuan, or higher, leading to a lack of purchase and subsequently impacting the size of the console game market. A typical example of this phenomenon is French company Ubisoft, whose new games under the Ubisoft umbrella, "Star Wars: Outcasts" and "Assassin's Creed: Shadow", were highly anticipated by the company but did not meet expectations. "Star Wars: Outcasts" failed to perform as expected, and "Assassin's Creed: Shadow" stirred controversy before launch, leading to a lukewarm reception in the console game market, resulting in a continuous decline in its stock price on the Paris Stock Exchange, hitting a new low in stock price in nearly 10 years. Future - New hardware bringing incremental growth, new user preferences waiting to be explored Switch2 is expected to launch in 2025, new hardware bringing incremental growth Upcoming new game console devices are expected to stimulate a re-growth in hardware sales, with Nintendo's new generation console Switch2 set to launch in 2025, attracting many users to purchase the new device. In addition, three new models of the Xbox Series X|S were launched on October 15, 2024, and the new model of the PS5, PS5 Pro, was launched on November 7, 2024, with improvements in storage space, performance, and other areas expected to attract users who value game quality.Je veux manger une pizza pour le dner.New user preferences need to be explored - peripherals and peripheral accessories with segmented scene services. Around host games, there is still potential to explore users' willingness to pay. For example, in peripherals, peripheral accessories, and segmented scene services, 59.9% of surveyed users purchased host game accessories such as chargers, portable displays, game controllers, tempered glass film, stickers, etc. within a year. The market space for peripherals, peripheral accessories, and segmented scene services is mainly composed of two factors. The first factor is practicality, such as improving the gaming experience and having corresponding scene demands. The second factor is emotion, such as liking game IPs and liking host manufacturers. Among them, liking host manufacturers (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft) is a unique advantage of host games. Different from other terminals, the devices of the vast majority of host users are provided by only three companies - Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, which means that users' memories of host games are usually associated with the above-mentioned three companies, making it easier for users' emotions towards host games to be linked to host devices. In addition to practicality and emotion, appearance, "limited edition" labels, and giving to others are also reasons for some users to consume peripherals and segmented scene services. New user preferences need to be explored - large-volume, high-quality original works developed locally The inherent logic driving market growth is that compared to mature regions, one characteristic of potential regions is that "although the overall gaming scale of the region is high, the proportion of host games is small," meaning that the region has gaming consumption capability but lacks the willingness to pay for host games. Large-volume, high-quality original works can better stimulate this willingness. This is because potential regions usually have the characteristic that "almost all large-volume, high-quality host games are produced overseas," making users have higher expectations and attention towards local products. Therefore, when the region truly produces products that meet users' expectations and are of high quality, and even have the qualification to be discussed and compared with globally "recognized" top products, the scarcity of products is expected to greatly realize users' expectations, thereby boosting the performance of the local host game market. From the market performance of "Black Myth: Wukong," Chinese users account for about 90%, making single-player games and host games the core driving force of the Chinese game industry's monthly market growth for the first time in nearly 10 years, showing excellent driving effects. New user preferences need to be explored - user groups in the stage of game quality improvement Gamma Data believes that users who actively seek quality upgrades may become new growth points. This is because when users actively seek better game quality, it usually means that their willingness to pay for quality and try out games has increased. While host games are facing challenges, they are still one of the terminals with the most concentrated high-quality games among all terminals. Therefore, they are expected to meet the needs of these users and drive their own user growth. On this basis, some industry trends will also accelerate users' demand for quality, providing more conversion opportunities for potential host users. Gamma Data believes that one of the relevant trends is the trend of refinement. Refinement not only helps more users understand what high-quality games are but also helps deepen users' understanding that "game quality is affected by devices." Typical results of deepening cognition include: the PC version of mobile games driving the growth of client game market. In the field of host games, there are already more games considering native host game versions, including high-profile products such as "Echo of the Tide" and "Wild Origins", which are expected to stimulate more users to consider their own quality needs once the products go online.