German Games Market Falls by 6% in the First Half of 2024

In the first half of the year, sales of games, game hardware and online gaming services in Germany fell by six per cent to 4.3 billion Euros. The games hardware sector even suffered a double-digit decline. However, the outlook is positive.

After strong growth in recent years, the German games market slipped into negative territory in the first half of 2024. From January to June 2024, around 4.3 billion Euros were generated in Germany with games, games hardware and online gaming services - a decline of six per cent compared to the same period last year. The biggest drop in sales was in game hardware, which fell by 18 per cent. Catch-up effects in hardware purchases like consoles are clearly diminishing.

Sales of computer and video games also fell by four per cent. One reason for this decline is that "many blockbuster games" were released in the first half of 2023, and there were fewer top releases in the first six months of 2024. On the other hand, online gaming services made a significant leap: sales of network, cloud and subscription services rose by 25 per cent to 516 million Euros within a year.

"For the first time in many years, sales revenue from games both in Germany and worldwide has declined," says Felix Falk, Managing Director of game – The German Games Industry Association. "This is due in part to the outstanding first half of 2023, which saw one of the highest release rates of video game blockbusters ever. In the first half of 2024, on the other hand, there were significantly fewer top releases. Consumers had also already caught up in their purchases of current game consoles, with the result that revenue driven by these sales has been normalising again. However, the games market won’t remain in decline for long. We can already see this as we look towards the upcoming gamescom, with its record number of exhibitors and the numerous games that have been announced."

These figures were released today by game - the German Games Industry Association - at a press conference to mark the start of gamescom next week. The data was provided by market research company Consumer Panel Services GfK and data.ai (a sensor tower company).

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