Newzoo: RPGs Are Expected to Become the Highest-Revenue Genre in 2022

Newzoo has published a new report covering key insights into role-playing games which reveals that RPGs are expected to become the top-earning genre across all platforms in 2022.

The analysts claim that currently, RPGs are one of the most popular game genres and are played heavily
across all gaming platforms. RPG games ranked third by the number of monthly active users on Steam and sixth on consoles. The genre also takes fourth place in terms of average titles player by player, per month, and sixth place by average monthly playtime as well as by average daily sessions.

The major part of RPGs' revenue comes from mobile (63%). Revenue from console RPGs accounts for 21% and PC titles bring 16% to the genre's revenues.

Speaking of the genre's audience, Newzoo stated that the major part of all people who play RPGs are male players (58%). The largest segment of RPG players is aged 10-20 (30%), followed by 21-30 (29%), 31-40 (24%) and 41-65 (17%).

The largest RPG PC and console markets by MAU are the US, Japan, and the UK. And in terms of player share, the largest markets are Japan, the USA and Mexico.

The top 3 most popular RPGs on PC in June 2022 by the number of monthly active users were Genshin Impact, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XIV Online. The most popular RPGs on consoles were Elden Ring, Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker and Genshin Impact.

The top game themes in RPGs by player share were high magical fantasy (63%), dark fantasy (34%), and alien galaxy (33%), and the most popular game mechanics in the genre by player share were combat (100%), character progression (99%), and skill upgrade system (87%).

RPG was also among the most streamed and watch genres on Twitch and Facebook Gaming in June. It took fourth place by hours streamed (7.8 million hours) and fifth by hours watched (205 million hours). The top RPG games by live stream viewership were World of Warcraft, Lost Ark, and Diablo Immortal. The most streamed RPGs were Genshin Impact, World of Warcraft, and Elden Ring.

You can learn more by reading the full report here. Also, don't forget to join our Reddit page and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.