Jun 22, 2023
The video games market is highly competitive. The major players deploy a combination of strategies to stay ahead and expand their footprints, including launching new products, taking part in joint ventures, collaborating with competitors, and acquiring other businesses. It’s a competitive industry and one that’s set to expand: BCC Research anticipates the global video gaming industry to rise to $473.7 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 14.2% from 2022-2027.
Given the ongoing expansion of the market, we’re taking a look at some of the leading players dominating the video games industry.
The company’s revenue for FY2021 was $8,803 million – around 9% higher than FY2020’s $8,086 million. In FY2021, revenues from digital online channels increased 15% to $7,663 million. The company saw an increase in sales across all reportable segments in 2021. Despite the company’s success, the Blizzard segment witnessed the highest decline in sales, at a decrease of around $464 million compared to the previous year. The decline was largely due to lower net bookings from Call of Duty Vanguard, Black Ops Cold War, Tom Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Crash Bandicoot’s in-game content sales.
Net revenues from international sales accounted for approximately 51% in FY2021, with most of the company’s revenue from foreign countries generated in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
2. Apple
Apple needs little introduction. The company had net revenues of $365.8 billion in FY2021, an increase of 33% from FY2020’s revenue of $274.5 billion. The increased sales were largely attributed to higher net sales of the iPhone. Total net sales increased $91.3 billion during 2021 compared to 2020, driven by growth in all Products and Services categories. Year-over-year net sales during 2021 also grew in each of the Company’s reportable segments. Products gross margin percentage increased during 2021 compared to 2020 due primarily to a different Products mix, improved leverage and the strength in foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar.
The Bandai Namco Group had net revenue of $6.60 billion (¥740.9 billion) for FY2021, and the company has already generated around 20% increased revenue in quarterly shares of 2022 compared to 2021. In FY2021, the company achieved an operating profit of ¥84.6 billion after having a few setbacks in 2020 due to the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the notable changes in the currency rates.
4. Capcom Co
Capcom Co had a net revenue of $849.0 million (¥95.3 billion) in FY2021, higher than the previous year. The company’s revenue growth was primarily driven by increased revenue from the company’s digital content business. Through digital content, the company witnessed an increase in sales of Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5 video games. The Monster Hunter: World game also had significant sales, mainly from digital downloads.
Electronic Arts net bookings were $7,515 million for fiscal year 2022, primarily driven by sales related to the FIFA franchise, Apex Legends, Madden NFL 22, and The Sims 4. Net bookings increased $1,325 million or 21% as compared to fiscal year 2021, primarily due to increased year-over-year sales for Apex Legends and the FIFA franchise, and new games added to their portfolio through acquisitions activity, including F1 2021 and several mobile titles, partially offset by the Star Wars franchise and The Sims 4.
6. Epic Games
Epic Games generated $840 million in consumer spending during 2021 and third-party game sales amassed $300 million and accounted for 36% of the digital storefront’s revenue. The digital storefront saw an increase of 34 million PC users throughout 2021, and it now has a total of 194 million users. In terms of activity, the Epic Games Store peaked at 31.3 million active users daily, while its concurrent users reached 13.2 million. Fortnite is the company’s flagship game. Fortnite is a free-to-play video game that has different sets of gameplays like Battle Royale and Save the World, which is set in a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. It was created by Tim Sweeney and released through Epic Games Inc. in July 2017.
7. Konami
Konami Holdings Corp. had net revenue of $2,668.2 million (¥299,522 million) in FY2021, a 9.9% increase from FY2020’s $2,572.6 million (¥272,656 million). The company’s operating profit increased by 103.6% year-on-year and profit before income taxes increased by around 111.2%. All the segments in business witnessed an exponential growth over the previous year’s revenue.
8. Microsoft
For FY2021, Microsoft’s revenue increased to $168.09 billion (18%), driven by growth across each segment. The intelligent cloud segment revenue increased, driven by server products and cloud services. Productivity and business processes revenue also increased, driven by Office and LinkedIn. The more personal computing segment revenue increased, driven by sales of Surface, Gaming, and Windows.
Gaming revenue increased by 33%, to $3.8 billion, driven by growth in Xbox content and services and Xbox hardware. Xbox content and services revenue increased $2.3 billion or 23%, driven by growth in third-party titles, Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, and first-party titles. Xbox hardware revenue increased 92%, driven by higher price of consoles sold due to the Xbox Series X|S launches.
9. Nintendo
Nintendo had net revenue of $14,011 million (¥1,695,344 million) in FY2022, a 3.6% decrease from FY2021’s $15,990 million (¥1,758,910 million). While dedicated video game platforms and their compatible software, which are Nintendo’s main products, represent most of the total sales, hardware and software have very different profit margins, and fluctuations of their proportions of the total sales may have an impact on gross profit and the gross profit percentage to sales. On the other hand, exchange rate fluctuations may have an impact on Nintendo’s financial performance. As of March 31, 2022, the total number employees working in this company are 6,717.
10. Sony
Sony Corp. net revenue for FY2022 was $88.3 billion, a 4.38% increase from FY2021’s revenue of $84.9 billion. The increase in the company’s revenue was largely due to increased sales of electronics products and solutions in the game and network services segment. The incline of sales in these segments was partially offset by decreased sales in the imaging and sensing solutions segment.
Discover more about the video games landscape
Video games are an increasingly integral part of popular culture. BCC Research’s recent report dives into this highly competitive industry, providing five year forecasting, regional analysis, and a deep dive into the market drives and inhibitors. Make your mark in this lucrative industry with our leading research.
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