According to a report by SuperData Research the video game subscription services scored a record high $273M in just Q3 2018. This proves that entertainment consumption has been all time, especially in the U.S having more than 200 million active enthusiasts. Sony’s PlayStation Now service is by far leading the pack with over 52% market share while other services like EA Access and Xbox Game Pass are far behind mostly due to the fact that they’re quite new to the game. The PS Now service generated over 143M just in 2018 which is more than half of the complete market.
Video games have come a long way ever since the dawn of gaming consoles. As of the past few years, countless mainstream services were launched to allow users to enjoy live video game streaming. The concept allows users with minimal specifications to enjoy the complete experience by means of a monthly subscription. This marketing style was first embraced by TV services offering a clean and pure experience. The success of services like Netflix & Amazon Prime pursued video game publishers to come up with the idea.
An average subscription costs around $10 and with it you can certainly enjoy countless titles anywhere with a stable internet connection hassle-free. Moreover, the PS Now membership allows PS3, PS4 and classic PS2 titles to be streamed on literally any device with an internet connection which further enhances the sales. The report also suggests that subscribers spend almost twice on in-game content compared to non-subscribers. This fuels the publishers to add more and more content to their respective services and boosts the revenue dramatically.
However, not all is great in the concept. The design and implementation still have some major flaws which hold back the actual potential of the service module. One of the major factors are the average internet speeds all over the globe which hold back a lot of users from streaming games. Second, comes the price tag of the services. A study shows that gamers would prefer to have purchased content than to rent it on a monthly basis which is a huge blow to the system.
All in all, as time passes by and the effective internet speed increases worldwide we may very well see a boom in sales. Right now the market is growing at a steady pace but it would still take time to replace actual gaming machines.
