The market
Last updated
Last updated
The video gaming industry as of December 2021 is estimated to be worth $178.73 billion, with a total of 2,9 billion gamers worldwide.
A PC game or computer game is a type of video game digital in nature, that is executed and played on a personal computer (PC) rather than on a video game console (PlayStation, Xbox), a mobile device (smartphones, tablets), or at an internet browser (chrome, bing, etc).
As per the monetization model, PC digital downloads revenues in 2021 were as follows:
Free-to-play PC downloads (where gamers access to the main content of the game for free and are monetized by microtransactions and/or advertising): $22.7b.
Premium PC (where gamers have to pay to access the game, which tipically unlocks all the content): $6.7b.
Pay-to-Play PC (online games that require the gamer to buy a membership subscription to the service to play): $3.7b.
PC games can be distributed at their websites by their developers and publishers, or at third party distribution marketplaces.
Top grossing developers that release triple AAA games (industry's name for titles developed by market leaders with huge budgets and teams) distribute all their titles at their own website, and they do not distribute third party games.
IDC Games is a third party game distributor, so it doesn't compete directly with top developers that self publish and distribute their games.
Traditional storefronts share the following main features:
They deliver digital games. Some platforms deliver only third party developed games (Itch.io, IDC Games); some only self-developed games (Bethesda Launcher, Battle.net, Origin, Uplay), and others both (Steam, Epic Games, GOG).
They have a client launcher that users need to intall at a computer in order to download, install an play the games (except GOG).
They provide an oline store for players to puchase digital games and in-game items via microtransactions, integrated with a payment gateway.
Users have to create an account at the store in order to install the launcher, play games, and make purchases.
The revenue model basicly consists in the platform taking a revenue cut from the sales and microtransacions generated by the titles published and played within the store, 30% for the platform in most cases.
Source: "Video game market revenue worldwide in 2021" chart, Article "", Last Updated: November 30, 2021, by WePC
Source: "2. Digital Game Distribution Industry Statistics", from article "", at FinancesOnline.com
