Australian Game Industry Generates $4 Billion In 2018

A new report from Australia’s Interactive Games & Entertainment Association shows that that Australian game industry is growing. The organisation announced today that consumer spending on video games reached $4.029 billion in 2018; that’s up by 25 percent over 2017’s spending.

By comparison, the United States video game industry generated $43.4 billion in 2018.

Digital sales stood at $2.851 billion with physical retail sales amounting to $1.179 billion. Digital sales specifically jumped by a very healthy 39 percent, which is reflective of the industry’s overall trending toward digital games. Physical retail sales jumped by only 0.2 percent. This is all further evidence that digital sales are taking up more and more of the pie.

Here are some further insights from the IGEA’s report:

• In-game digital purchases jumped by 190 percent year-over-year.
• Digital full game sales rose 71 percent year-over-year.
• Mobile gaming remains huge, with 11 percent year-over-year growth in revenue.
• Console accessory sales jumped 18.7 percent and helped improve overall retail sales.
• Of the $2.851 billion in digital sales, in-game microtransactions, season passes, and expansions–this category jumped by 190 percent year-over-year.
  • Fortnite’s massive success contributed to this uptick in revenue.
• Full-game digital sales revenue rose by 71 percent year-over-year.
• Subscription revenue rose by 31 percent compared to last year.

“The excitement for video games is continuing to grow, with phenomenal consumer sales in 2018,” IGEA CEO Ron Curry said in a statement. “Australia continues to experience video games sales growth, in line with trends similarly experienced by other countries, including the USA and the UK.”

Curry went on to say that he hopes the Federal Government will recognise that the Australian gaming industry is an “integral part of the overall screen industry, thereby allowing the sector to access screen support programs available such as refundable tax offsets.

Curry added: “It is imperative that these innovative and creative Australian-based tech companies can compete on a level playing field globally with many other jurisdictions offering support. Australian games developers should be able to take advantage, culturally and economically, of the global growth of this wildly popular entertainment medium.”

The video game industry’s next major worldwide event is E3 2019 in June. We are expecting a lot of big news from the show, so keep checking back with GameSpot soon for lots more.