The gaming industry in Germany achieved revenues of around €1.1 billion in the first six months of the year. Over the same period back in 2018, this sector was worth just €676 million. As new infographics from Block-Builders.de show, this rapid growth is sparking the interest of major tech giants such as Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon & Co.
Industry leaders have been expanding their presence in the gaming industry with numerous acquisitions in recent years. The Chinese company Tencent spent $8.6 billion to purchase the company Supercell. As you can see in the infographic, Microsoft, Activision and Facebook have similarly invested billions in promising gaming companies.
Above all the battle for the cloud gaming sector could yet prove exciting. Only recently Amazon announced that it would be offering such a service, with an integrated twitch connection. Facebook in turn acquired cloud gaming company PlayGiga. Cloud gaming gives users access to a range of games via a subscription, similar to the business model of video on demand providers such as Netflix & Co.
Gaming Over The Corona Crisis
The gaming industry has been showing considerable growth for several years now. As can be seen from the infographic, the pandemic has accelerated a trend that was already well underway. 12.4 million mobile games were downloaded via the Google Play Store in the second quarter, compared to just 8.2 million downloads in the same period last year.
Furthermore, gamers are increasingly willing to spend money on e-sports and on their pastime. 33% of the Germans surveyed reported investing more money into gaming since the corona crisis. Facebook was quick to embrace the trend. The company originally planned to launch its streaming service for mobile games in June, but due to the boom in the games industry over the corona crisis, the social media giant pushed the launch forwards to April.
A total of €6.2 billion in games, including software and hardware, were sold in Germany last year. This equates to a larger turnover than that of bookstores, toys or music, as illustrated by the infographic. Against this backdrop – and in view of the development during the pandemic – it is hardly surprising that gaming shares have been among the big winners of the crisis.
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