The $200bn video games industry is reckoning with its biggest slowdown in 30 years, as the huge growth driven by smartphone gaming and the latest generation of consoles reaches its limits.
Hardware sales are slowing, with Sony cutting its forecast for PlayStation 5 sales this week. Consumer spending on mobile gaming declined last year, down 2 per cent to $107.3bn according to Data.ai, which forecasts low single-digit growth in 2024.
The sense of crisis across the games sector is in sharp contrast to growth achieved during the Covid-19 pandemic, which allowed many locked-down consumers to spend their excess time and money on games. That peak marked the culmination of a winning streak for the digital entertainment business that began with the original PlayStation in the mid-1990s and was accelerated further by Apple’s iPhone.