The video game industry is always changing and growing in tandem with improving tech and facilities like the Internet. According to statistics gathered by WePC from various sources (and published earlier this year), Asia is currently leading the world in terms of overall revenue in the video games industry.

The Asia Pacific region reached a revenue of US$51.2 billion in 2017, making them the largest gaming market in the world. That’s more than half of the total US$78.61 billion of total video game revenue in 2017. This isn’t totally surprising, considering that approximately 36 percent of gamers worldwide are from the Asia Pacific region.

In comparison, Europe placed second, while the US was third in the largest revenue generated. In regards to both free-to-play and pay-to-play MMO games especially, Asia took up 63 percent of the global share. For example, Riot Games’ free-to-play MOBA League Of Legends alone generated US$2.1 billion globally in 2017.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, more gamers are resorting to free-to-play games to spend their time at home, which means potentially increasing revenue for the games industry. The same applies for PC games as well, considering that PC games are mostly digitized now thanks to storefronts like Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG.

The Nintendo Switch in particular recently saw a surge in popularity sparked by the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the current global shortage of the hybrid console. While the sales of the PS4 might be negatively affected by the upcoming launch of the next-gen PS5, the release of highly-anticipated PS4 games like Ghost Of Tsushima and The Last Of Us Part 2 might still boost sales.

It remains to be seen when (or if) the negative effects of the COVID-19 will affect game revenue, or how the launch of next-gen consoles will ultimately be affected. However, right now the games industry is still likely doing fine in terms of revenue compared to other industries like movies or music, despite the number of gaming events being cancelled left and right.