Gamers Spend Less, But Stay Engaged

Video game companies have to accept, the euphoria of the pandemic is over. Players spend less time playing than they did last year. But the sector seems better prepared than others to face the current economic adversity.

At the start of the health crisis, “people flocked to Twitch, both streamers and viewers,” says Brandon Williams, known as “BWpaco” on the platform where gamers live stream their games.

“But I talked to some people who stopped broadcasting because they were exhausted or because it wasn’t for them. Or because they didn’t have more time due to returning to face-to-face work”, he says.

In 2020, the Amazon platform surpassed an average of 2 million viewers connected at the same time for the first time, according to the website twitchtracker.com.

While views have dropped after peaking at around 3 million in April 2021, the average number of viewers connected at the time (2.6 million) remains higher than before the pandemic.

Used to double-digit growth, gaming companies have slowed but remain in better financial health than many tech groups that are laying off workers.

Matt Piscatella, an analyst at the NPD firm, estimates that total consumer spending on video games will be about $55.5 billion in the United States in 2022: 8.7% less than in 2022. last year.

Sales of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft and Sony are down from last year.

But the correction after the pandemic boom was inevitable, according to analysts, especially in a tense economic context.

“Difficulties in the supply of components are preventing the production of new consoles and releases of major titles like Starfield, Suicide Squad and Breath of the Wild 2 have been delayed until 2023”, comments Steven Bailey, analyst at Omdia.

The delay in the availability of new titles is part of the problem, but Piscatella expects it to be temporary and that the market will gradually stabilize in 2023, with a return “to the long-term trend, that is, constant growth”.

Inflation forces buyers to make decisions, the analyst notes, but not to abandon gaming altogether.

“About 76% of US consumers play games of all types and we see continued growth in subscriptions to services like Xbox Game Pass and Playstation+,” he said.

The pandemic has favored the adoption of new customs, such as “cosy gaming”: “comfortable games” that emphasize cooperation over competition.

It also allowed patient streamers to build a community of loyal gamers, although many viewers now plug in their favorite Twitch channel like a radio, to listen to it in the background.

Streamer BWpaco, with hundreds of followers, says he hasn’t lost fans, but admits that “there are fewer people talking in the chat window”.