[Sales Age] Worldwide market in 2008 (revenues)

[Captain Smoker]

Country		Population	Av. market spend    Revenue 2008		Market Share

USA		306,088,000	$ 71.98		    $ 22,031,000,000		40.42 %
United K.	60,975,000	$ 111.95	    $ 6,825,961,080		12.57 %
Japan		127,433,494	$ 50.57		    $ 6,443,666,600		11.87 %
France		62,448,977	$ 66.46		    $ 4,150,274,560		7.64 %
Germany		82,060,000	$ 47.35		    $ 3,885,243,440		7.16 %
Canada		33,596,000	$ 62.21		    $ 2,090,000,000		3.85 %
Spain		46,157,822	$ 43.74		    $ 2,018,747,680		3.72 %
Italy		59,905,225	$ 29.72		    $ 1,780,501,620		3.28 %
Australia	21,700,000	$ 62.39		    $ 1,353,772,000		2.49 %
Netherlands	16,492,230	$ 56.67		    $ 934,657,620		1.72 %
Belgium		10,666,866	$ 56.57		    $ 603,368,720		1.11 %
Sweden		9,234,209	$ 52.36		    $ 483,540,820		0.89 %
Switzerland	7,700,200	$ 53.87		    $ 414,807,629		0.76 %
Austria		8,316,487	$ 47.12		    $ 391,907,720		0.72 %
Hong Kong	7,008,900	$ 37,24		    $ 261,000,000		0.48 %
Portugal	10,676,910	$ 22.97		    $ 245,294,760		0.45 %
Ireland		5,981,448	$ 34.28		    $ 205,025,472		0.38 %
Denmark		5,511,451	$ 30.95		    $ 170,550,000		0.31 %
Finland		5,330,150	$ 22.88		    $ 121,942,510		0.23 %
Norway		4,805,437	$ 19.77		    $ 94,996,280		0.18 %

Total		892,088,806	$ 61.10		    $ 54,506,258,511		100.00 %

*Revenue = Handhelds + Consoles + PC (if available)
**Hong Kong = GfK estimates from 09/17/2008
***Ireland = Only total software value


Curreny rates:
1 Euro = 1,40974 US Dollar
1 Yen = 0,01106 US Dollar
1 A. Dollar = 0,6907 US Dollar
1 Swiss Fr. = 0,94731 US Dollar
1 Danish Krone = 0,1895 US Dollar
1 Pfund Sterling = 1.44792 US Dollar
1 Norwegian Krone = 0,14221 US Dollar
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*all as of 12/31/2008


Sources:
United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Ireland


If you find more figures, post them. ;)

[Nirolak]

Very nice. Thanks a bunch Smoker.

Would anyone happen to have the change from last year for each market by the way? Or at least the top three? That would be really interesting to see as well.

[thaOwner]

Damn, Now I see why every developer is trying to penetrate the USofA market. Its absolute ginormous. Wow. Thanks for posting this.

[Captain Smoker]

Very nice. Thanks a bunch Smoker. Would anyone happen to have the change from last year for each market by the way? Or at least the top three? That would be really interesting to see as well.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=276946 ;)

[beermonkey@tehbias]

Japan seems so small. US and EU are enormous. I'm guessing that if you leave out handhelds Japan would be even smaller (comparitively).

[Hellraizer]

Just wow at the UK.

[Leonsito]

Italy & Spain = Yarrrr!!

[botticus]

EU is really a mixed bag in terms of growth, some up some down. US and Canada way up.

[Busaiku]

Japan really has fallen.
Sure it's still among the very top, but the average spending is really bad compared to many countries.

UK is just amazing though.

[Nirolak]

Japan seems so small. US and EU are enormous. I'm guessing that if you leave out handhelds Japan would be even smaller (comparitively).

Japan apparently shrank quite a bit this year too:
2007: $ 6,828,463,769
2008: $ 6,443,666,600
Change: -5.64%

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=276946 ;)

Thanks again Smoker.

[botticus]

Country		2007			2008			Change
USA		$18,850,700,000		$22,031,000,000 	16.87%
Japan		$6,828,463,769		$6,443,666,600 		-5.64%
United Kingdom	$6,450,888,000		$6,825,961,080 		5.81%
France		$3,924,290,200		$4,150,274,560 		5.76%
Germany		$3,886,343,800		$3,885,243,440 		-0.03%
Spain		$2,298,919,400		$2,018,747,680 		-12.19%
Italy		$1,641,181,800		$1,780,501,620 		8.49%
Canada		$1,500,000,000		$2,090,000,000 		39.33%
Australia	$1,328,300,000		$1,353,772,000 		1.92%
Netherlands	$801,617,700		$934,657,620 		16.60%
Sweden		$545,479,500		$483,540,820 		-11.35%
Belgium		$509,114,200		$603,368,720 		18.51%
Switzerland	$420,462,420		$414,807,629 		-1.34%
Portugal	$256,138,200		$245,294,760 		-4.23%
Finland		$127,752,880		$121,942,510 		-4.55%
	
Total		$49,369,651,869		$53,382,779,039 	8.13%

Europe		$20,862,188,100		$21,464,340,439		2.89%

Europe is obviously bigger than the numbers provided, but that covers the countries listed.

[Johann]

Wow, great job!

It's crazy to see how Japan, once the mecca of gaming, has fallen behind other countries. I'll see if I can find more figures to add. There are some numbers for Poland but they include all software and hardware, such as printers and accounting programs.

[Fistwell]

Damn, Now I see why every developer is trying to penetrate the USofA market. Its absolute ginormous. Wow.

Yeah, about as big as europe.

[Spocker]

Yeah, only about one percent as big as europe, 44.64% for North America, to 43.44% for Europe.

North America has a bigger per capita spending though, $71.01 compared to Europe's $56.98

[lochnesssnowman]

The figures for UK 2007 according the report provided by the source don't match the figure in the thread from last year. The report indicates that the UK has seen an 18% rise in revenue, which makes more sense based on reports from MCV throughout last year. Any reason for the difference - different sources / what's included / currency coversion changes?

[acm2000]

#waves union jack flag#

UK, biggest market in the world!*


*in relation to population

[stuminus3]

UK share is wild, compared to the actual population. o.O

[Masklinn]

Country market spend United K. $ 111.95

UK am crazy total @_@ $112/person/year, that's completely insane...

[John Harker]

This is really valuable, sir. Awesome.

The first few links all source the same place, is all that data in there?
Where is U.S. data sourced from?
Just looking to aggregate all the #s for accountability

[Hammer24]

Anecdotal evidence incoming....
I know a bunch of people importing their games from the UK because those are a) uncut and b) cheaper than here in Germany. For comparisons sake it might be better to add the numbers for the countries up for all of Europe.

[Roders5]

UK am crazy total @_@ $112/person/year, that's completely insane...

I blame the shitty weather

[The_Inquisitor]

Thanks for the information. I honestly can't believe how much the gaming industry has grown...

[Parl]

The figures for UK 2007 according the report provided by the source don't match the figure in the thread from last year. The report indicates that the UK has seen an 18% rise in revenue, which makes more sense based on reports from MCV throughout last year. Any reason for the difference - different sources / what's included / currency coversion changes?

Exchange rate changes makes the dollar revenue for 2007 different. In the figures in the OP, UK numbers are significantly lower than they would be, but for the relatively recent exchange rate fluctuations, and Japan is helped by these figures, due to the strong Yen.

[acm2000]

I blame the shitty weather

*looks outside*

[BishopLamont]

Europe accounts for roughly 50% of the global market, impressive feat. UK with half the population of Japan spends twice as much. God damn. Whoever tames the beast that is Europe will take home the grand prize.

Anecdotal evidence incoming.... I know a bunch of people importing their games from the UK because those are a) uncut and b) cheaper than here in Germany. For comparisons sake it might be better to add the numbers for the countries up for all of Europe.

Yeah and I doubt people are importing from Japan at the rate they use to. With the exception of Nintendo, many games are released worldwide now, and even then it's only the small games from Nintendo that don't get a worldwide release.

[Xater]

Anecdotal evidence incoming.... I know a bunch of people importing their games from the UK because those are a) uncut and b) cheaper than here in Germany. For comparisons sake it might be better to add the numbers for the countries up for all of Europe.

I will back this up.

[Jocchan]

Anecdotal evidence incoming.... I know a bunch of people importing their games from the UK because those are a) uncut and b) cheaper than here in Germany. For comparisons sake it might be better to add the numbers for the countries up for all of Europe.

Yeah, so do I. Especially thanks to the weak pound.

[Felix Lighter]

Anecdotal evidence incoming.... I know a bunch of people importing their games from the UK because those are a) uncut and b) cheaper than here in Germany. For comparisons sake it might be better to add the numbers for the countries up for all of Europe.

Someone has but I'm curious why all of Europe would be lumped together. Different languages, different cultures, different laws. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, I'm just curious why?

It seems by the numbers that the UK is a completely different beast and I would be surprised if importing alone would explain the difference. If you rolled Europe into a ball and averaged it all out you wouldn't see the crazy UK numbers.

[GCX]

Wow, we in Finland sure don't like to buy games with our moniez.

Well, better than Norway! I quess that's something! :p

[Hammer24]

Someone has but I'm curious why all of Europe would be lumped together. Different languages, different cultures, different laws. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, I'm just curious why?

Short answer: PAL.
Long answer: Peolpe don´t buy domestic only anymore. Thanks to internet shops and liberal duty fees, plus price difference between certain countries its way more convinient to buy in another country than in the shop next door. For more than a year now I buy more than 80% of my stuff in mainly UK, Netherlands and Austria.

[gofreak]

Nice.

Euro total: $22,121,794,439

Which doesn't include a smattering of smaller countries not represented on that list.

That makes it larger than the US, but smaller than NA.. the UK proportion of the Euro market is < 31% based on these figures (an oft asked for figure).

[Karma]

I was wrong.

[GCX]

Someone has but I'm curious why all of Europe would be lumped together.

European Union is a single market area, just like United States for example.

[Blablurn]

wow germany !! take that, canada!

[Aquanox]

I knew UK surpassed Japan for the 2nd place but not by such a big margin. Impressive.

This generation has favored Microsoft in so many ways, one of them being the global crisis, which made more expensive consoles unreachable for the casual, and the fact that it affected mainly Japan - the spiritual home of videogames, a country that historically supported Japanese hardware and software in vast majority.

UK on the other hand, a place where Microsoft has hit very hard this generation, has raised exponentially in a few years.

Sorted by Market Spent:

[lowrider007]

Yeah baby !!

[obaidr]

UK is 45% of all of Europe. WOW. They could end up being half of Europe this year.

NOPE. The EU only chart has shown, that UK is only 32% of EU. The other small countries like CH, AUS, DK, NO etc. make about one more billion in rev. Check the EU sales thread for that data.


btw. Since begining of 09 UK makes much much more revenue because people from all over the € land buy in Uk because of the cheap prices. All of my friends moved almost 100% to amazon UK and play.com. If pound keeps being so cheap, UK will take almost 70% of all euro rev which is crazy

[gofreak]

UK is 45% of all of Europe. WOW. They could end up being half of Europe this year. By my math they are around 45%.

Hmmm?

$6,825,961,080 /$22,818,112,439 (botticus's euro total..mine was slightly different, but i'll go with his) * 100 = 29.9%

edit - think my original number was correct, botticus's is slightly large, not sure if he included australia or not. Anyway, with my euro total it's about 31%. The actual number would be smaller again, as that counts 14 european countries..which is fewer than are even in the euro, let alone in europe total. The other markets are of course very small in some cases, so the real number mightn't be too much smaller..but it would be somewhere < 31%.

[Karma]

NOPE. The EU only chart has shown, that UK is only 32% of EU. The other small countries like CH, AUS, DK, NO etc. make about one more billion in rev. Check the EU sales thread for that data.

I was using the chart is this thread.

[Kinan]

Sadly there is no solid numbers for Russia, just some estimates of the main players.

But just for GAF to get a feeling, it is likely between 400-500M$, with 2/3 belonging to PC. Inclusion of other ex-USSR states would put it closer to the half a billion mark.

[obaidr]

Sadly there is no solid numbers for Russia, just some estimates of the main players. But just for GAF to get a feeling, it is likely between 400-500M$, with 2/3 belonging to PC. Inclusion of other ex-USSR states would put it closer to the half a billion mark.

PC? You gotta be shitting me. Does anyone over there ever bought a retail game? I heard piracy in russia is as common as in brazil or china.

[Haunted]

- PAL is the biggest market in the world
- UK overtakes Japan and becomes second-biggest single country market
- UK being roughly over 30% of the European total makes for some easy extrapolation - nice!


That's what I take away from this.

edit: yeah, Russian numbers would be interesting.

[botticus]

Hmmm? $6,825,961,080 /$22,818,112,439 (botticus's euro total..mine was slightly different, but i'll go with his) * 100 = 29.9% edit - think my original number was correct, botticus's is slightly large, not sure if he included australia or not. Anyway, with my euro total it's about 31%. The actual number would be smaller again, as that counts 14 european countries..which is fewer than are even in the euro, let alone in europe total. The other markets are of course very small in some cases, so the real number mightn't be too much smaller..but it would be somewhere < 31%.

Yeah, I just realized I included Australia. Fixed now. I also did not include the countries not listed in the 2007 chart, for a valid YOY comparison.

[Karma]

Hmmm? $6,825,961,080 /$22,818,112,439 (botticus's euro total..mine was slightly different, but i'll go with his) * 100 = 29.9% edit - think my original number was correct, botticus's is slightly large, not sure if he included australia or not. Anyway, with my euro total it's about 31%. The actual number would be smaller again, as that counts 14 european countries..which is fewer than are even in the euro, let alone in europe total. The other markets are of course very small in some cases, so the real number mightn't be too much smaller..but it would be somewhere < 31%.

yeah, you are correct. I was way wrong.

[Kinan]

PC? You gotta be shitting me. Does anyone over there ever bought a retail game? I heard piracy in russia is as common as in brazil or china.

The numbers are not including piracy. The potentially market there is much, much bigger.

[Tiktaalik]

For its size Canada is a good little video gamer, buying lots of product. If Germany and France and well, the rest of europe spent money in the same proportion then the EU market would be masssive.

[gofreak]

Interestingly enough, the proportion of the UK within Europe is almost exactly the same as reported in 07. Some wondered if the UK's growth rate meant it's share had been growing, but it seems the overall euro growth rate has been keeping up with it.

There's so much untapped potential overall in Europe too..it'd be smart for the platform holders to try and entrench themselves in some of the more emerging markets there with larger populations..they could turn into goldmines beyond the short term.

[Tiktaalik]

There's a giant hole in this data vis a vis downloadable, and online games. Online gaming is quite popular in South Korea for example yet it's not represented here at all.

[brain_stew]

UK am crazy total @_@ $112/person/year, that's completely insane...

If our currency hadn't of crashed recently, that figure would be above $150. Insane.

[M°°nblade]

O wauw Belgium