Top 5 games market predictions for 2024
2023 was a dramatic year for the global games market. Now that it’s over, we can dust ourselves off and focus on 2024. And we have a lot of predictions about the gaming trends that will shape the market this year and in the future.
That’s why we’re kicking off 2024 with a free games market Trends Report. In the report, launching on 23 January, you’ll read about:
The report will also include insights from games industry executives and leaders on the challenges and opportunities in gaming. You can pre-register now to get your copy of the free 2024 Trends Report.
While you wait for the full edition to drop, we're sharing a preview of the top 5 gaming trends for 2024:
Gaming trend 1: The global games market will rebound in 2024
The games market declined for the first time in over a decade in 2022. However, it recovered a bit in 2023, and this year promises a significant rebound.
One of the driving forces behind this growth will be the Xbox Series and PlayStation 5’s expanding user bases. Live-service games and back catalog sales will also give the market a boost. Mobile gaming may also experience an upswing despite the trickier privacy landscape.
Gaming trend 2: Nintendo will release a new console
After nearly seven years, the gaming world is hungry for a successor to the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo will almost certainly release a new console in 2024 (perhaps the Switch 2), along with a shiny new 3D Mario game.
Having embraced the digital storefront model, we predict that Nintendo will let users transfer accounts across platforms. This means that gamers who snag the next Nintendo console won’t have to build game libraries from scratch.
Gaming trend 3: It will be trickier than ever to release a new live-service game in gaming’s competitive landscape
Live service games will still be successful in 2024, but fewer studios will want to develop this type of title moving forward. Developers and publishers will pivot back to developing premium games.
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The PC and console markets are oversaturated with live services, with just a few titles monopolizing playtime. Competition will be fierce this year, especially for new live service projects.
Many live service games will also attempt to leverage nostalgia to boost player engagement, following the successes of Fortnite OG and World of Warcraft Classic.
Gaming trend 4: Xbox will make a strategic move to the mobile market
Xbox will launch its own app store this year. Microsoft’s massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard (and King) positions the computing giant to go head-to-head with Apple and Google. Last year’s regulatory changes and, crucially, court rulings in the US made it easier for other app stores to enter the fray, so the timing is just about right for an Xbox mobile store to get into the game.
At the same time, mobile developers are exploring the possibility of launching mobile games on PC to enhance their titles’ engagement and retention.
Gaming trend 5: Multi-game subscriptions will exit their growth phase
The growth phase for multi-game subscriptions is ending. Gaming is active, and most players can’t consume games at the pace needed to make multi-game subscriptions as tantalizing as similar TV and music subscriptions (those are passive forms of entertainment).
If a large menu of games doesn’t get players to subscribe, the alternative is to give them access to new games when they launch. Xbox’s Game Pass has implemented this strategy successfully but still struggles to release new content fast enough to keep the subscription model tantalizing.
There’s now a new type of competitor out there. As growing platforms, Fortnite and ROBLOX offer diverse gaming experiences for free, making them a viable competitor to all-you-can-play subscription services.
But wait! What about AI?
While it’s true that AI hogged the gaming news cycle for most of 2023, it’s still too early to bid farewell to humans in game development and operations.
Generative AI tools will help speed up the production process a bit in 2024 and potentially cut costs in unpredictable ways, but we’re probably not going to see AI completely revolutionize the industry at scale this year.
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Don't forget, you can get ahead of the full games industry trends for 2024 in our free report out on 23 January. Pre-register here.