special reports
Opportunity Markets - 2023
IDG offers comprehensive coverage of the gaming markets in China/Hong Kong, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Latin America, India, the Middle East/North Africa, and Türkiye. In addition to updated 5-year forecasts for the console, mobile, and PC gaming markets in each of these countries, IDG covers market developments by segment, including 2022's platform IBs, top titles, and top publishers (where available).
Released: May 26, 2023
Opportunity Markets - 2022
IDG's Spotlight on the Opportunity Markets offers comprehensive coverage of the gaming markets in China/Hong Kong, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Latin America, India, Middle East/North Africa, and Turkey. In addition to updated 5-year forecasts for the console, mobile, and PC gaming markets in each of these countries, IDG covers market developments by segment, including 2021's platform IBs, top titles and top publishers (where available).
Released: May 13, 2022
Opportunity Markets - 2021
IDG's Opportunity Markets Thought Piece covers crucial opportunity markets in detail, with analysis for China / Hong Kong, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Russia, Poland, Australia / New Zealand, Latin America, India, Middle East / North Africa, and Turkey. This report breaks down each region in terms of console, mobile, and PC, including IDG's insights along with forecasts through 2025 for each territory.
Released: May 6, 2021
Livestreaming
IDG's Livestreaming Thought Piece examines the current state of the livestreaming market, including an in-depth look at market leader Twitch, case studies of games that succeeded in the livestreaming world, the implications of livestreaming for the larger gaming industry, and other key players in the space.
Deep dive on Twitch, including which genres and streamers have seen success on the platform
Case studies of livestreaming hits such as Among Us and Fall Guys with explanations of why they succeeded
Insights into the habits of livestream viewers, including why viewers watch and spend money on streamers
Analysis of other players in the livestreaming market such as Youtube Gaming and Facebook Gaming
Released: January 29, 2021
The Global Games Market and COVID-19
This report offers a thorough analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the worldwide games markets in H1 2020, projections on how the duration of COVID-19 will play out, and how it will impact the games ecosystem in the long-term. Topics include:
Analysis of COVID's impact by platform (PC, console and mobile), region and business model
Summary of recent forecast updates with rationales by segment
Deep dive on COVID's impact on esports
Insights into how COVID will reshape the games industry
Released: July 20, 2020
Emerging Markets
When examining Emerging Markets, many observers think of China, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. But there are other territories that are also bringing new growth and value to the worldwide games market. In that spirit, IDG's thought piece focuses on some of the most prominent console markets within the Emerging Markets segment, including Australia / New Zealand, Middle East / North Africa, Russia, Poland, India and Turkey. This report offers:
Snapshot of each country/territory's console performance during H1 2019
2018-2023E hardware and software sales estimates and forecasts by platform
2018-2023E revenue estimates and forecasts by console segment: hardware, physical software, full game purchases, add-on content and subscription
Top titles and top publishers for Q2 2019
IDG's 5-year forecast in Excel and Tableau formats
Released: October 8, 2019
Cloud Gaming
Cloud Gaming is one of the most exciting yet least understood parts of the games market, and it will have a critical impact on the future of gaming, technology, and entertainment. This special IDG Thought Piece is the definitive industry primer on Cloud Gaming - the most detailed research and analysis of its kind - as it delves into this burgeoning market with a focus on current cloud gaming leaders (PlayStation Now, GeForce NOW and Shadow by Blade), upcoming cloud game services that are set to impact the market (Google Stadia and Microsoft Project xCloud), along with potential new entrants (Amazon, Netflix, Tencent, Walmart, etc.). This report features detailed insights on technology trends, competitive landscape, feature set comparisons, market entry strategy, and predictions for the future. Any company looking to enter this space - platform holders, game publishers/developers, technology providers, media companies, telco/mobile leaders, retailers, and endemic and non-endemic brands - can leverage this report as a valuable guidebook to navigate this new opportunity. The IDG Cloud Gaming Thought Piece includes a 5-year forecast of the North American and European markets, as well as the following:
Analysis of market readiness by demographic, platform, genre and territory
Overview of technical hurdles for cloud to reach mass market, including analysis of broadband speeds, latency issues, and the coming of 5G
Analysis of business models, including pros and cons of various monetization types, along with projections on how the future landscape will look
Deep-dive into the top 5 cloud market leaders, as well as quick dashboards analyzing other potential entrants, such as Tencent, Walmart and Amazon, among others
Released: July 29, 2019
Case Studies in Post-Launch Monetization
IDG's client base has been calling for an in-depth research report on post-launch monetization strategies for over 3 years, since the right strategies can be the key to driving meaningful growth in a competitive market. That feedback drove us to create this report, which is crucial reading for all games industry leaders. Our exhaustive research covers case studies for every existing and emerging scheme, looking at how major titles like Fortnite, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six Siege, and Overwatch (among many others), have monetized. Strategies analyzed include Loot Boxes, Battle Pass, Virtual Goods, Virtual Currency, and User Generated Content, among 12 in total. Key topics include:
IDG’s insights into the sustained presence of Games-as-a-Service
Analysis of psychological factors that drive consumer spend
Overview of each scheme and recent developments in the space
Actionable case studies discussing both good and bad implementations of each scheme
Risk factors and best practices for implementing the schemes in your game
Released: October 11, 2018
Latin America
IDG estimates that game sales in Latin America reached $3.9 billion in 2017 across both physical and digital sales on mobile, console and PC, and predicts that the market has the potential to reach $6.7 billion by 2022. In this report, IDG Consulting and IDG Latin America provide clients with a compendium of the most important developments in the games market for the Latin American region. This report is an essential guide for any company looking to penetrate this complex and important market.
Study of the market potential in Latin America for games, based on purchasing power, the breakdown of the population’s socioeconomic profiles and the effects of exchange rate fluctuations on pricing, among others
Challenges, opportunities, trends and best practices for the digital games space in Latin America, along with a forecast through 2022 for console, mobile and PC revenues
Local retail and distribution dynamics inclusive of a list of top retailers, HW/SW retail prices, a directory of top distributors and installed base estimates for Mexico, Brazil and ROLA
Released: June 22, 2018
The Esports Guidebook
Case Studies, Best Practices and Navigating a New Industry
The esports market is one of the most exciting and fast-growing categories that gaming has seen in years, but it is still relatively immature. This report outlines how companies can navigate the very complicated and difficult growing pains that esports will have to undergo to evolve from Esports 1.0 to Esports 2.0. This definitive report is an essential resource for all gaming companies.
Released: October 6, 2017
Navigating the Steam Market
Steam has become one of the leading retailers in the digital era and an archetype of global trends within the PC market. In this report, IDG delves into trends at a genre level and dissects how game features and themes can affect player engagement. The report includes a separate file of interactive Tableau dashboards that will allow clients to analyze the Steam dataset on their own. This definitive report is an essential resource for all gaming companies.
Released: July 28, 2017
The Business of Games
While the gaming market has never been bigger or more lucrative, the irony is that the economics of game publishing have never been more challenging for publishers and developers of all shapes and sizes. With a high failure rate of reaching profitability across most games segments and business models, understanding the business of games has never been more important than it is today. With that in mind, IDG's Thought Piece delves into the economics of game publishing for the console, mobile and online PC spaces by outlining P&L considerations and providing key insights for each segment.
Released: July 14, 2016