Australia's games industry grew to $4.12 billion in 2022 new data revealed.
The data comes from the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA), a research, data and advocacy association representing the voice of Australian and New Zealand companies in the computer and video games industry which also revealed that the Nintendo Switch was the highest-selling video game hardware platform in Australia in 2022.
Those billions were spent across hardware, software and peripherals according to the consumer sales data released IGEA. Digital purchases were up six per cent on 2021, reaching $1.5 billion in sales. However, by far the biggest growth area in 2022 was for video game subscriptions which grew by a whopping 55 per cent.
"The Australian video game market thrived in 2022, driven by a diverse range of new software releases and improved hardware availability compared to the year prior," Aidan Sakiris, Asia Pacific Regional Manager at Sparkers said.
"The retail software market experienced a healthy growth of 10 per cent in value spend, but the significant takeaway was the increase in overall spending in 2022 compared to 2021, attributed to a substantial portion of software sales being driven by new releases rather than the more typical back-catalogue titles." said.
"Hardware availability improved, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series seeing 17 per cent and 15 per cent unit growth respectively, while Nintendo Switch remained the best-selling Australian hardware platform in unit sales."
Australians spent $1.15 billion dollars in traditional retail outlets, including a 7 per cent increase in spending on physical hardware and software purchases.
A report by the IGEA noted that following the stabilisation of retail supply chains, Australians had more access to the newest console hardware than in previous years. Combined with new games on offer, this led to a boom in console sales through retail stores.
This momentum could continue with games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, a first-party Nintendo Switch exclusives selling over 10 million units worldwide, becoming the fastest-selling game in the series just 10 days after its launch on Friday May 12, 2023.
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"We have been blown away by the support of fans for this record-breaking launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom," said Managing Director of Nintendo Australia, Takuro Horie in a press release at the time.
On the mobile front, gaming habits remained stable, with $1.56 billion spent on games played via smartphone, an increase of 3 per cent from the previous year.
Tom Wijman, Lead Analyst Games Newzoo highlighted Australian players spending habits outperformed the global average, which saw a yearly spending decline.
Australian players' appetite for multi-game subscriptions is also clear: growth in this category outpaced the global average by nearly 5 per cent on 2021 numbers.
