Due to various obstacles and challenges, the gaming industry lost 176 million users last year, and online games played a role in this decline. Even though there were 27.5 million fewer online gamers in 2022, the market as a whole is expected to recover this year and see impressive user growth.

SportsLens.com’s data show that the number of people playing video games is expected to rise by 100 million per year to 1.1 billion in 2023.

The pandemic has demonstrated that this is not at all the case, despite the widespread perception that gaming is a lonely and social activity.

Millions of people picked up controllers and keyboards to escape the boredom and isolation of COVID-19 lockdowns in search of a means to entertain themselves and maintain social connections. For many, playing online games was their first choice.

Three years ago, there were approximately 835 million online gamers, according to a Statista survey. This number jumped to over 1 billion in months following the pandemic’s onset and continued to rise. There were already 1.1 billion online gamers in 2021, but in 2022, one of the most challenging years for the gaming industry as a whole, that number dropped to 1.07 billion.

One-seventh of the world population or 1.13 billion Statista predicts that this year, the number of users will rise to 1.13 billion, or one-seventh of the world’s population. By 2025, more than 67 million people are anticipated to join the online gaming community, bringing the total number of users to close to 1.2 billion. Annual user growth is expected to slow down.

Statista projects that the online game’s worldwide revenues will rise by 10% year-over-year to $26 billion as a result of the anticipated 100 million user growth in 2023. This number will reach almost $30 billion by 2025.

Even though China and the United States alone account for 46% of all revenues from online gaming, the United States does not even rank among the top three countries when it comes to the population’s access to online gaming.

The online gaming industry in the United States is expected to have approximately 74 million users in 2023, with a user penetration rate of 22%, which is lower than China, South Korea, or Japan.

The Chinese online gaming market will reach nearly 373 million users this year, with a user penetration rate of 25.5%, after a challenging 2022.

Despite having half as many online gamers as Japan, South Korea will follow China in 2023 with a penetration rate of 24.3% and 12.5 million users.

With 27.9 million online gamers and a 22.3% penetration rate as of this year, Japan rounds out the top three groups.

Credit: Financial Mirror