Following our articles on the games and mobile trends to watch for 2020, it’s time for us to explore developments in the esports market! Keep reading to learn the biggest esports trends to watch out for next year, as chosen by Newzoo’s market analysis team.

1. The Rise of Mobile Esports

As you can learn in our recent article, the introduction of Lite apps has led to a spike in gamers in markets like Southeast Asia, India and Brazil.

These Lite apps, especially with the success of games like PUBG Lite and Garena Free Fire, have solidified competitive mobile gaming as a popular pastime in these emerging markets. …

Our market analysts recently met up to discuss, analyze, and contextualize the biggest trends across the games, esports, and mobile markets. Last week, we published an article on the games trends to watch out for next year. Now, we’re turning our gaze toward the mobile trends to look forward to in 2020.

2020: Still Not the Year of 5G

5G will certainly begin laying down its foundation for the future next year; yet, 2020 will not be the year of 5G. Undeniably, 5G is one of the most exciting developments in mobile technology. …

The global gaming peripheral market is bigger than ever, reaching $4.1 billion in 2019 (+2.1% year-on-year growth). This growth is slower than growth in previous years, which can be mostly attributed to headset revenues (console and PC), which have decreased compared to 2018. In this article, we will delve into the situation further. We’ll then use our Gaming Peripheral Brand Tracker to shine the spotlight on Fortnite gamers. The tracker covers active PC and console gamers (age 10–50).

On first impression, the slight reduction in headset revenues looks alarming, especially when looking at the sales data. Upon closer inspection, the slight revenue decrease makes sense and is nothing to worry about. …

New consoles from Microsoft and Sony, an increasing number of subscription services, more cloud gaming offerings hitting the market — the list goes on. The year 2020 is set to shape the next decade of gaming, and developments such as these present a new set of challenges and trends for the business.

Our market analysts recently met up to discuss, analyze, and contextualize the biggest trends across the games, esports, and mobile markets. In this article, you’ll discover the games market trends that will define 2020.

1. Emerging Markets Will Drive Growth

In 2020, the global games market will generate revenues of more than $160 billion, increasing +7.3% year on year. 2020 marks one of the slowest-growing years in terms of game revenues, with console having its slowest year since 2015. …

This article is a collaboration between Newzoo and gamescom asia.

Southeast Asia’s games market is growing rapidly. In 2019 alone, it will generate game revenues of more than $4.3 billion — a remarkable year-on-year growth of +13.9%, as shown by Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report. Linked to this impressive growth is SEA’s rapidly increasing online population, a byproduct of the region’s increasing number of smartphone users.

The SEA games market is like no other in the world, in terms of tastes, top publishers, and more. …

Contrary to mainstream sentiment, 46% of all gamers are women. While Newzoo’s Gamer Segmentation shows that 65% of the world’s Time Fillers are female, women also make up a significant share of more-core gamer personas worldwide, including Hardware Enthusiasts (40% women), Conventional Players (38%), and Ultimate Gamers (35%).

We recently released a fresh batch of data from our Game Brand Tracker, presenting a perfect opportunity to explore some of the similarities/differences between men and women who game. This Game Brand Tracker research covers four key markets in the West: the U.S., U.K, Germany, and France. …

Recent reports about smartphone sales — or rather, “units shipped” — point toward a declining smartphone market. The consumer side, however, paints a completely different, far more positive picture. Newzoo’s solution for tracking smartphone usage shows that in just 12 months, 270 million more smartphones were actively used across the globe, bringing the worldwide total to more than 3.6 billion smartphones as of July 2019 — that’s a year-on-year growth of 8%.

There is a clear reason for the disparity between shipping and usage numbers: the longer product lifecycles of individual smartphone models. …

We’re proud to announce the release of our annual Global Mobile Market Report — the only complete overview of the world’s mobile market. The report boasts insights into the mobile games market — globally and in 12 key regions, the world’s 3.2 billion smartphone users (and the devices they actively use), smartphone penetration, and more.

In this year’s edition, we decided to draw even further from our unparalleled games expertise, focusing on mobile gaming more than in previous years. To that end, the report also includes an in-depth look at app store game revenues and a game genre analysis.

As always, you can also expect knowledge-packed features about the market trends driving the mobile (gaming) landscape. What does cloud gaming mean for mobile gaming? Why are mobile manufacturers battling for services in emerging markets? What’s next for foldable phones and augmented reality? We answer all these questions and more. …