Fresh data from the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) and Newzoo has revealed Australians spent a whopping AU $4.21 billion on video games in 2022, across a range of categories – hardware, software, peripherals, and more.
The majority of expenditure was on mobile games and in-app purchases, with AU $1.56 billion spent. As IGEA notes, this is a 3% rise on data from 2021. Next up, digital games enjoyed a 6% year-on-year rise in expenditure, with AU $1.5 billion spent. This was followed by traditional retail games at AU $1.15 billion, a growth of 7%.
Video game buyers also spent AU $251 million on subscriptions in 2022, AU $499 million on full games, and a whopping AU $750 million on in-game transactions.
As IGEA notes, sales rose in all categories, likely as a result of more people picking up gaming as a hobby, a steady rise in blockbuster game releases, and improved supply of console hardware. Overall, these trends contributed to a 5% year-on-year growth for video game sales in Australia.
Read: Australians spent $4 billion on video games in 2021, here’s a breakdown
‘The Australian video game market thrived in 2022, driven by a diverse range of new software releases and improved hardware availability compared to the year prior,’ Aidan Sakiris, Asia Pacific Regional Manager at data company Sparkers said in a press release.
‘The retail software market experienced a healthy growth of +10% in value spend, but the significant takeaway was the increase in overall spending in 2022 compared to 2021, attributed to a substantial portion of software sales being driven by new releases rather than the more typical back-catalogue titles’
Per Tom Wijman, Lead Analyst for Games at Newzoo, Australian video game players spending habits ‘outperformed the global average’, which actually saw a decline in 2022.
‘With such a strong retail and distribution base and a population that loves playing games, it is no surprise that sales have exceeded $4 billion,’ Ron Curry, CEO of IGEA said. ‘The added benefit is that the consumer demand for games in Australia and internationally allows Australia to build a substantial video game development industry.’
Expect Australian video game expenditure to grow in the coming year, as a raft of new blockbuster game releases drive local consumer interest.
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