The end of the year is just around the corner, and it has been a huge year for gaming in general, the biggest markets have continued to grow and players across all platforms continue to experience growth too. We’ll take a look at the different platforms of PC, Console, and Mobile to see which have been the big winners in space and to see if they’ll look to stay just as big heading into the next year.
The best game genres by category
Mobile – Puzzle, strategy, and idle come out as the big winners.
Mobile gaming has been on a growing high for the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down as the gaming audience continues to grow across the massive selection of games that are growing each year. It comes as no surprise that puzzle games have been one of the big winners for 2023 with more casual games being a perfect fit for the platform.
Becoming the true home for the casual gamer, mobile platforms have opened opportunities for other genres to thrive too as options that may have typically required a physical presence have moved to the devices in our pockets.
The growth of more social casinos for example that allow players to demo games for free like Slotomania had become frequented and opened the doors for real money European Casinos are growing just as quickly too. This is reflected in the demographic of those playing mobile games too, with the average age of mobile players being over 35, a stark contrast from the younger teen audience that makes up the audience for other platforms.
PC – Shooters, RPGs, and BRs remain on top
PC gaming has continued to grow largely in part due to the widespread and still growing success of esports, whilst once a more niche activity esports titles have rocketed in the past decade capturing hundreds of millions of active players and the top genres reflect that.
It comes as no surprise that shooters top this list, with two of the biggest esports in the world both fitting in this genre with Counter-Strike and Valorant, but there have been plenty of great single-player titles to help this growth too. Battle Royale titles have continued to have another strong year with the likes of Apex and Fortnite still going strong, closely followed by RPG titles.
Console – Sports, BR, and adventure capture the biggest audience
Console platforms have long been known for their long run of support for sports titles and 2023 has been no different, despite the end of a partnership with EA the latest FIFA game has managed to thrive and show just how huge this game is, and other sports titles have continued to grow too.
Much like the PC market, Battle Royale games have continued to show a lot of success on consoles and draw a sizeable audience too. Adventure games have long been the bread and honey for console games and cover quite a large genre so it’s no surprise to see the adventure category towards the top of the list of the most played genres too.
What could 2024 bring?
As the end of the year quickly approaches, gamers will be looking forward to 2024 and the possibilities that may emerge in the gaming market, not only with which genres will become the biggest but also what releases may be the next big thing on the market.
For PC it certainly looks like esports in the FPS and Battle Royale genre will keep their place on the top spot, whilst there are some exciting game releases slated for next year many of them are focused on console releases. There are still opportunities for unique indie games to be released on PC that may not have an official date just yet, so there’s hope there.
Console gaming will find its home in the big adventure and story-driven games with some incredible exclusives set to come out in 2024, continuances on re-releases like the newest installment of the Final Fantasy 7 remake, a new Dragon’s Dogma, and a remake of some classic Tomb Raider Games too.
Mobile looks to continue doing what it has always done with smaller puzzle games, idle games, and a more casual approach to gaming as a whole. It doesn’t look like any big changes are being made to the way games are played, and there is no big push for hardware changes in devices that could see mobile make any great leaps forward, not yet at least.
As gaming looks to continue to grow, we may see a wildly different list of top genres next year, but one thing for certain is that the number of players and the number of games represented in each category will surely grow. The future for gaming looks like there are no signs of slowing down and future changes like AR or VR could create a dramatically different market shortly.
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