The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) has just published a wealth of consumer sales data on Australian video game spending for 2022, revealing that the local industry value for the year is an astronomical $4.21 billion.
Breaking down that huge number by sector, spending on digital games was up in 2022 with a 6% increase bringing the total to $1.5 billion, while physical video game retail spending was less in total but a bigger percentage increase at 7% for a total of $1.15 billion. Mobile game spending made up the largest portion of the market with $1.56 billion spent, an increase of 3% that I’m going to assume is spurred largely by my partner’s addiction to Marvel Snap.
Breaking the sectors down further, the most money spent on digital gaming was in-game transactions at $750 million, trailed by a fair margin by full game purchases at $499 million and then subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus at $251 million. The physical split came out at $607 million spent on gaming hardware, $412 million spent on buying games at retail and $128 million on first-party peripherals like controllers and headsets.
Take a look at a visual breakdown below and the full report here. For the sake of comparison, the New Zealand video game market was worth $608 million NZD last year.
“It’s great to see consistent performance of sales across games channels. Australia’s traditional games retailers continue to perform well, increasing revenue by 7% against 2021. Bricks-and-mortar retailers continue to play an important role in game distribution and are a strong indicator of the industry’s stability. Australians love to play video games; they use them for entertainment, to have fun, to relax and connect with friends and family,” IGEA’s CEO, Ron Curry, said in the published report. “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. The added benefit is that the consumer demand for games in Australia and internationally allows Australia to build a substantial video game development industry.”
