The Global Market for Social Gaming is Forecast to Reach US$21.9 Billion by 2024

Development of Casual Games With Collaborative & Competitive Spirit and Proliferation of Social Networking Services Drive Growth of Social Gaming, According to a New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

GIA launches comprehensive analysis of industry segments, trends, growth drivers, market share, size and demand forecasts on the global Social Gaming market. The global market for Social Gaming is forecast to reach US$21.9 billion by 2024, driven by the ubiquity of social networking platforms; transformation of games from an obsessed individual/solitary activity to a pleasant socially-focused activity; and development of casual games with collaborative and competitive spirit.

Games are increasingly becoming a social affair with a large percentage of gamers playing with either family or friends. Among the social gamers in the United States, 17% play games with parents, 31% play with other family members, 40% play with friends, and 12% play with their spouses. Few of the reasons cited for playing with others include fun, socializing, connecting with friends and peers, and building relationships.  Over 65% of parents play game with their children only to monitor game content. Given that games provide a platform for intergenerational play and learning, there is a growing trend of grandparents playing video games with their grandchildren.  Building of communities around games bodes well for the growth of social gaming.

Few of the unique features of social games include ability to invite accepted friends to participate in a game i.e. invite and request friends to water and tend to the fields in the most popular Farmville game; ability to share game progress; solicit help on solving game puzzles and mysteries; and ability to socially interact with communities of friends rather than the game itself. By eliminating the desire for isolated game advancement, social games help build and develop positive social character traits vital for building successful relationships both personal and professional. Social games are increasingly being perceived as viral mechanisms that help promote qualities of cooperation and healthy competitiveness. For instance, collaborative games help sharpen team optimization skills, such as, group dynamics, collaborative working out, and the ability to assess the capability of other players.

Major social benefits and value of social gaming include increase in creativity, cognitive ability, enables people to make new social connections, helps develop  communication, collaboration skills, empathy, compassion and willingness to help, enables development of social emotional learning skills (SEL), and provides opportunity to engage in positive relationships. In the coming years, developments in gameplay will help make social gaming more compelling leading to greater adoption. Incremental improvements in the quality of social games will encourage more number of people to engage in social games. New games are being developed to create innovative social experiences using information regarding real-world hobbies and interests of gamers. Also, benefiting growth is the introduction of novel payment initiatives such as universal payment system launched by Facebook that allow users to buy credits and spend across different games.

Major factors driving growth in the market include the casual games revolution underway in the video games industry; rise of multiplayer social games; growing interest in social gaming among advertisers as a channel for digital advertising and a lucrative opportunity for lead generation; robust smartphone and mobile internet penetration and the resulting rise in mobile social gaming; rise of wearable social platforms in the social mobile gaming space; growing interest in social gambling games; growing and active community surrounding popular social games; and adroit integration of viral loops and community features by game developers into casual games which has the effect of driving up the value and success of social games. 

As stated by the new market research report on Social Gaming Asia-Pacific represents the fastest growing regional market worldwide, with a CAGR of 12.9% over the analysis period led by the development of the Internet and telecom infrastructure; growing role of social connectedness in emerging Asian economies; digitalizing lifestyles of the middle class population and a parallel increase in appetite for digital forms of entertainment; growing cloud readiness of Asian economies; rising smartphone penetration and mobile internet subscriptions largely due to falling device costs and service tariffs.

Major players in the market include Aeria Games GmbH, Activision Blizzard, Inc., Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., King Digital Entertainment plc, Behaviour Interactive, Inc., DeNA Co., Ltd., Electronic Arts, Inc., PopCap Games, Inc., Etermax, GREE, Inc., Miniclip SA, Peak Games, Playtech plc, Pretty Simple, Social Point, Supercell, SYBO Game, Wooga GmbH, and Zynga, Inc. among others.

The research report titled “Social Gaming: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, issues, drivers, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic industry activities of global companies.  The report provides market estimates and projections for all major geographic markets such as the USA, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, India, South Korea and Rest of Asia-Pacific), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin America) and Rest of World.

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