A new report suggests a closer look at how the European gaming market does in comparison to the market in the US.
The Interactive Software Federation of Europe and the European Games Developer Federation released a new Key Facts report covering research on the European gaming market. A similar report dubbed Essencial Facts was also recently released by the Entertainment Software Association, ISFE and EGDF's American counterpart.
GamesIndustry.biz decided to compare the two reports and find out how the European and American markets are doing in comparison to each other. Here are the key takeaways.
- The gender breakdown is generally similar in both markets. 48% of American players identify themselves as female, and in Europe, this figure comes at 47.8%.
- Americans spent almost three times more money on gaming than European gamers last year. According to GameTrack and Newzoo data, revenue in key European markets amounted to €23.3 billion (around $23.2 billion) in 2021. Meanwhile, American gamers spent $60.4 billion during the same period of time, as per NPD Group and Sensor Tower data.
- The player base in the US is significantly larger than the one in Europe. The ESA reported that in 2021, there were 215 million active players in the US, while, according to ISFE and EGDF's data, this figure in Europe was just under 125 million.
- The US and Europe have different criteria for what makes a person a video game player. While the majority of players in Europe play games at least one hour a week, the respondents who play games at least once a year (7%) also considered themselves gamers. Meanwhile, the ESA's report only referred to people who play games for at least one hour per week as video gamers.
- European players generally spend less time playing games than players in the US. The average playing time in the US was 13 hours (up from 12 hours reported last year), while in Europe this figure was only 9 hours (down from 9.5 hours in 2020).
You can learn more about the differences between the European and American markets by reading GamesIndustry.biz's report here. Also, don't forget to join our Reddit page and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.