New Reports Show Significant Games Spending In Emerging Markets

A collection of new reports from market research firm Newzoo shows significant spending on games in the developing markets of Russia, Brazil and Mexico, which combine to represent a $4.7 billion gaming market. Brazil leads the trio of emerging countries, generating an estimated $2 billion of gaming revenue from 35 million individual players in 2011. The majority of that Brazilian spending comes from online or mobile games, with free-to-play games representing a large chunk of that total. The $300 million spent on game downloads in the country also outpaces spending on boxed PC or Mac games. Russia's estimated $1.5 billion game market in 2011, by contrast, includes $360 million in boxed PC game spending, compared to only $210 million in game downloads. Online and social games only comprise 10 percent of all game spending in the country, despite making up 48 percent of total play time among an estimated 38 million players. Newzoo's analysis of Mexico's game market finds the estimated 16 million gamers there have tastes and spending patterns very similar to those of their U.S. neighbors, with 69 percent of $1.2 billion in spending going to pay-to-play console, PC and Mac titles. A full 60 percent of play time in Mexico is spent on mobile and social gaming, though such titles make up less than a third of all game spending. Despite the high revenue numbers, three-quarters of game players in both Brazil and Russia admit to downloading illegal copies of games. Even so, 56 percent of all players in Russia report paying for games, comparable to numbers reported in the U.S. More in-depth information on Newzoo's survey results for each of these markets is included in separate infrographics for Russia, Brazil, and Mexico.