Game 2024: An Overview of Global Video Game Preferences

Shen Chon Wun Angela, JMSC News

Video games are no longer just entertainment; they are cultural and economic forces shaping today’s society. From website to PS5, from Super Mario Bros. to Black Myth: Wukong, video games go far beyond leisure. It not only serves as amusement but also plays an important role in education, mental health, and the global economy. Recent research suggested that the worldwide revenue of the game market is expected to reach $522.46 billion by 2025, and is in an accelerating trend. Following up this trend and understanding the connection between games and humans seem to be important for everyone.

The data is obtained from Kaggle, provided by Hosam MHMD Ali, naming Video Game Sales 2024.

Question to Answer

  1. What are the most popular genres of games in 2024 (by total sales)?
  2. What are the top 20 games in the the above winning genre?
  3. Are certain genres dominant in specific regions?
  4. To what extent is the rate and total sales of the games correlated?

Summary of Findings

  1. Shooter is the most popular genre of games in 2024, holding 460.97 millions copies in global sales.
  • This chart highlight the distribution of game sales in different genres in 2024, with shooter game taking the lead while board game coming the last.
  • Shooter genre own a high demand among the players due to their fast-paced setting, offering excitements with stimulating adrenaline. Besides, it cater wider player appeal, from casual gamer to Esport competition candidates, which significantly boost the sales.
  • Board game genre has limited appeal to players due to adaption challenges. Most of the board games are party games, which rely on face-to-face interaction to deliver the ultimate gaming experience. However, people nowadays has fewer opportunity for offline playtime which limited the appeal.

  1. Call of Duty Franchised dominants the shooter games market, followed by Battlefield
  • Half of the top 20 shooter games are Call of Duty series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Call of Duty: Black Ops occupied the top 3 within the ranking.
  • Three games from the Battlefield series are in the top 20 ranks but their sales lag markedly behind.
  • Interestingly, series that frequently publish new works (e.g., Call of Duty) have relatively higher sales overall; while those with lower frequencies of new releases (e.g., Medal of Honor) are having slightly fewer sales.
  • In the shooting genre, games with a variety of multi-player option frequently turn into player’s favorite. It may be implied that gaming today become a social platform where people tends to connect and collaborate.

  1. Are certain genres dominant in specific regions (e.g., RPGs in Japan, shooters in North America)?
  • Europe and Africa: Shooter games dominate this region with 24.92% of region sales, and Action games hold the second place with 20.61%. Also, the players of this region also have preferences in Racing games, withholding 10.08% of the region sales which is significantlly higher than other regions.This may due to the deeply rooted tradition of motorsport culture, such as Formula 1.
  • Japan: Role-Playing games (e.g.,Final Fantasy) own the largest market share here, which is 25.05%. Noticeably, Fighting games compared to other region, has a relative larger share (9.02%), likely reflecting Japan’s historical preference for SNK, Street Fighter games.
  • North America: Shooters game still holding the greatest share in this region, followed by Action(20.73%) and Sports(10.53%).
  • Other regions: The share distribution is highly similar to North America’s market.
  • Generally, all the regions tend to prefer Shooter, Action, and Sport game, suggesting the homogeneous game tastes due to globalization. However, Japan’s market stand out with a relatively diverse distribution, leading by RPGs and Fighting game.
  1. To what extent is the rate and total sales of the games correlated?
  • The trend lines of this scatter plot show a positive correlation, justifying where the higher the critic score, the better sales of the games.
  • However, this is a weak correlation as data points are spread widely across the charts, especially for the data points with critic scores between 6 and 8.
  • Well-praised Games vs Well-selling Games:Games with moderate or even low critic scores still achieved significant sales, which might be attributed to series or strong marketing. There are games with high critic scores but low sales, which represent that higher ratings do not always guarantee higher sales; similarly, there are games with low critic scores but high sales, it might be due to brand loyalty or fanbase which affects their performances.

What these Means for Future?

With the ever-changing gaming industry assisted with the technological advancement, video games are reshaping the field of the education, economy as well as social interaction. In addition to the immersive technology like Visual Reality (VR) and innovative notion like Metaverse, it is, beyond dispute, video game will be further integrated into our daily life. As we move forward, games will still continue to be one of the important lens to explore the intersection point between humanity and digital techonology.