Games subscriptions Early market leaders and consumer profiles emerge

The 20,000 Foot View: As games subscriptions grow, understanding gamers through the lens of their subscriptions becomes crucial. Monitoring the growth of games subscription services and the behavioural makeup of segments that emerge with them is becoming increasingly important for developers and publishers alike – be it to make decisions around platform prioritisation and planning, or localising and laser-targeting marketing campaigns.

Key Insights

• Monthly games            penetration is still in early            at just            penetration in the            four English-speaking markets
• Console gamers            the highest penetration rate at            the English-speaking markets, compared to            PC gamers and            for mobile           
• As games            grow in penetration, new ways            segment consumers emerge – through            of a platform-centric and a            of a brand/ecosystem-centric view 
• Xbox Game            and PS Now have grown            in penetration to start monitoring            and attitudinal patterns of users            both ecosystems
• Latin music            over-indexes among both Game Pass            PS Now users. K-Pop leads            PS Now, while EDM fandom            for Game Pass users
• The horror            over-indexes amongst  Game Pass users,            Anime fandom over-indexes most among            Now users
• PS Now            over-index on live video formats            as news and sports
• Analysing similarities            differences between users of different            services unlocks opportunities for marketing            as well as product and            teams of publishers and developers           

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Apple, Arcade, EA Play, Luna, PlayStation Now, Stadia, Ubisoft+, Xbox Game Pass, YouTube