2020 Year in Review Digital Games and Interactive Media

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
2020 YEAR IN REVIEW
DIGITAL GAMES AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
2
SuperData provides relevant market data and insight on digital games and playable media.
Founded by veteran games industry researchers, SuperData covers the market for free-to-play gaming, digital
console, mobile, PC downloadable, gaming video content and esports.

Monthly analyses and industry reports using digital point-of-sale data.
Using digital point-of-sale
data received from publishers, developers and payment service providers, we base our analyses on the monthly
spending of 195 million paying digital gamers worldwide.

Understand what people play, connect to and spend on.
Our research combines transacQon-level data
with qualitaQve consumer insight. Our leadership team has experience spanning across major research firms,
including NPD, Nielsen, DFC Intelligence, Comscore, Experian, Jupiter and Forrester.

A next-gen approach for next-gen entertainment.
Our customer base includes legacy publishers (e.g.,
AcQvision Blizzard, UbisoZ), digital-only publishers (e.g., Nexon, Tencent, Wargaming), media companies (e.g.,
Google, Coca-Cola) and industry service providers (e.g., PayPal, Visa, GameStop).
SuperData, a Nielsen company

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3
To arrange a demo of the SuperData Arcade, contact
sd.contact@nielsen.com.
SuperData Arcade is the gold-standard business
intelligence pla^orm providing high-level trends and
granular insights across the global digital games
market.
• Get a comprehensive overview of the digital games market, across
pla^orms, Qtles (800+ games, 100+ publishers) and markets.
• Spot opportuni9es early, and find out when key compeQtors struggle to
maintain conversion rates and average spending.
• Create custom queries and segmenta9on across all data and export
analysis to .csv or PDF format.
• Automa9cally receive custom data pulls by email as soon as updates are
available.

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• Intui5ve, interac5ve dashboard offering the ability to customize, drill-
down and export data
• Intelligence into global VR/MR/AR markets with regional granularity
• Comprehensive VR headset shipments and quarterly breakdowns for
key devices like Oculus Quest and PlayStaQon VR
• Audience numbers such as total users of iOS AR apps and the VR install
base by region
• Consumer soHware revenue for segments ranging from mobile AR
games to VR locaQon-based entertainment
• Historical es5mates and forward-looking projec5ons through 2024

XR Dimensions
To arrange a demo of XR Dimensions or for custom requests,
contact sd.contact@nielsen.com.
SuperData’s XR Dimensions provides a comprehensive
understanding of global virtual and augmented reality trends
to inform XR-related business and product strategies.

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
6
Games and interac9ve media earned $139.9B
1
in 2020
$73.8B
Mobile
$33.1B
PC
$19.7B
Console
$9.3B
GVC
$6.7B
XR
Interac<ve media Digital games
The games and interac5ve media industry grew 12% year-over-year.
The COVID-19 pandemic shaped the games market in 2020, as
audiences were forced to stay home and interact remotely. Earnings for
game types popular in North America and Europe grew significantly due
to the pandemic’s impact on those regions.
Over half of US residents (55%) played video games as a result of the
first phase of COVID-19 lockdowns. Consumers turned to games as
other forms of entertainment like watching professional sports and going
to movie theaters became unavailable.
The premium games market grew 28% in 2020 as the segment had
mul5ple blockbuster releases throughout the year. Highly-anQcipated
single-player games such as DOOM Eternal, The Last of Us Part II and
Cyberpunk 2077 helped drive earnings. The performance of sports
franchises like FIFA and NBA 2K was also up year-over-year even aZer
the return of televised sports. Free-to-play games once again generated the vast majority (78%) of
games revenue, with Asian markets accoun5ng for 59% of free-to-play
earnings. Hardcore mobile games conQnued to appeal to players in Asia.
Honor of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite, both Tencent Qtles, each generated
over $2B during the year.
Gaming video content (GVC) became a $9.3B industry in 2020,
reaching 1.2B viewers. Alongside the standard fare of compeQQve Qtles,
social games, brand crossovers like Fortnite X Marvel and public figures
like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earned top views. GVC
also helped Among Us become one of the most popular games ever.
Virtual reality (VR) game earnings jumped 25% year-over-year to
$589M in 2020. The release of Half-Life: Alyx, a rare VR-only Qtle from a
major gaming franchise, reinvigorated interest in the technology among
hardcore gamers. AddiQonally, the untethered and budget-friendly
Oculus Quest 2 headset agracted everyday consumers to VR.
1 Total interacQve media revenue is less than the sum of all segments due to overlapping earnings in games and XR segments (e.g., Pokémon GO revenue is included in both the mobile games and XR segments).

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
DIGITAL GAMES
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2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
8
Digital games earned $126.6B in 2020, up 12% year-over-year
Mobile Free-to-play PC Premium PC Pay-to-play PC Premium console Free-to-play console
Game earnings were up just 6% year-over-year in January and February, but rose to 14% for the rest of the year. As COVID-19 lockdowns took
effect worldwide in March, game spending took off and never let up.
Free-to-play games earned 78% of digital revenue in 2020, but premium Mtle revenue grew faster, rising 28% vs. 9%. North America and Europe
together accounted for 84% of all premium games revenue. Since COVID-19 impacted these regions severely, spending on premium content
jumped as COVID-19 shut down other leisure acQviQes like watching professional sports, visiQng movie theaters and traveling.
Digital games revenue, 2020
$1.8B
$17.8B
$3.7B
$6.7B
$22.7B
$73.8B

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
Over half of US residents (55%) played video games as a result of COVID-19
9
Combat boredom/fill Qme
To escape from the real world
To subsQtute for unavailable entertainment
To stay in touch with friends/family
To socialize with strangers
Individuals actually spent more Mme on mobile games even as they
remained sedentary. Over 2 in 5 consumers (43%) spent more Qme
playing mobile games in the spring compared to just 8% who spent
less Qme. Similarly, over 1 in 4 consumers (28%) spent more Qme
playing console games and nearly 1 in 5 (18%) played more PC
games.
Young adults turned toward games as a direct result of COVID-19.
Among consumers ages 18 to 24, 66% played more console games,
60% played more mobile games and 55% watched more gaming
video content on sites like Twitch or YouTube.
Shipping delays and closures of local games businesses pushed
gamers to purchase digital goods instead of discs and cartridges.
Spending on game downloads went up among over 1 in 4 adults
(27%) who spent money on video games compared to 29% of adults
who spent less on physical game purchases.
Roughly 1 in 4 (27%) US residents used games to stay in touch with
friends and loved ones or socialize with new people. Online games
such as Call of Duty: Warzone and Animal Crossing: New Horizons
became early hits in 2020 thanks in part to their ability to help
gamers socialize virtually.
Reason for gaming due to COVID-19 2
2 Data was taken from an April 2020 consumer survey made up of US residents age 18 and up. This survey recorded consumers’ immediate behavioral reacQons to the COVID-19 pandemic. Values displayed in the
chart are in regards to those who played or watched video games.
26%
29%
36%
45%
56%

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
10
The free-to-play market increased by 9% to $98.4B in 2020
Total free-to-play revenue
2019 2020 2021
Mobile PC Console
$1.6B$1.8B
$2.8B
$90.1B$98.4B
$101.3B
The mobile market saw 10% growth in 2020 and accounted for
58% of the total games market. Despite lockdowns and
reduced commuQng, mobile earnings did not fall as a majority of
mobile players (62% in the US) already use mobile devices as
their primary gaming pla^orm. Mobile gamers in North America
and Europe conQnued to play mainstay Qtles like Pokémon GO or
Candy Crush Saga. In Asia, mobile conQnued to be the pla^orm
of choice for many hardcore gamers and Qtles like Free Fire
performed beger than ever in 2020. 

The free-to-play segment conMnues to thrive in Asia. Asia
generated 59% of total worldwide free-to-play earnings.
Companies based in Asia published six out of the top 10 Qtles,
with Tencent Qtles Honor of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite each
breaking over $2B in total revenue.
$2.6B
$1.8B
$1.6B
$23.1B
$22.7B
$21.5B
$75.6B
$73.8B
$67.0B

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
11
Mobile conQnues to dominate the segment with 8 out of 10 of the top free-
to-play Qtles
Top 10 free-to-play 9tles, 2020
Rank Title Publisher Genre Revenue
1 Honor of Kings Tencent MOBA $2.45B
2 Peacekeeper Elite Tencent Shooter $2.32B
3 Roblox Roblox CorporaQon SimulaQon $2.29B
4 Free Fire Garena Shooter $2.13B
5 Pokémon GO NianQc, Inc.
AcQon-
adventure
$1.92B
6 League of Legends Riot Games, Tencent MOBA $1.75B
7 Candy Crush Saga King, AcQvision Blizzard Puzzle $1.66B
8 AFK Arena Lilith Games Strategy $1.45B
9 Gardenscapes – New Acres Playrix Games Puzzle $1.43B
10 Dungeon Fighter Online Nexon RPG $1.41B
Riot Games had a banner year as it expanded into several new IPs. SQll going
strong at 11 years old, League of Legends was the highest earning non-mobile free-
to-play Qtle in 2020. Riot expanded the League of Legends universe, launching
collecQble card game Legends of Runeterra in April. Meanwhile, the publisher’s new
shooter Valorant became the ninth highest earning non-mobile free-to-play Qtle,
and its launch month earnings surpassed rival Qtle Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
NianMc quickly adapted to the restricMons of COVID-19, allowing Pokémon GO to
grow 39% year-over-year. Although the game has historically encouraged in-person
gatherings and long-distance traveling, the developers altered gameplay features to
bring in-game events, pokémon and items directly to players’ homes. The remote
Global Pokémon GO Fest helped earnings reach an all-Qme high.
Roblox surpassed Fortnite thanks to strong mobile growth. Roblox mobile earnings
growth sped up as the game creaQon pla^orm became a social network of choice
for young gamers. Although Fortnite sQll earned more than $1B in 2020, it faced
sQff compeQQon on mulQple fronts. Older shooter fans played Call of Duty: Warzone
for a more serious bagle royale experience while children took to the vast sea of
user-generated content in Roblox.

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
2019 2020 2021
Console PC12
The premium market increased by 28% to $24.5B in 2020
Total premium revenue
$19.2B$24.5B
$21.4B
Premium console earnings grew 28% year-over-year, by far the
biggest growth of gaming segments measured. North America
accounts for over half (57%) of the premium console market and
the significant impact of COVID-19 on the United States
resulted in higher console engagement, pushing worldwide
revenue upward. Life simulaQon game Animal Crossing: New
Horizons became one of the biggest hits in 2020, breaking the
console record for premium launch downloads. It overtook Call
of Duty: Black Ops IIII by selling 5.0M digital units during its
March 2020 launch.
$5.1B
$6.7B
$5.2B
$16.2B
$17.8B
$14.0B

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
Rank Title Publisher Genre Revenue
1
Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare
AcQvision Blizzard Shooter $1,913M
2 FIFA 20 Electronic Arts, Inc. Sports $1,083M
3 Grand TheO Auto V
Take Two InteracQve
SoZware, Inc. AcQon-
adventure
$911M
4 NBA 2K21
Take Two InteracQve
SoZware, Inc.
Sports $889M
5 NBA 2K20
Take Two InteracQve
SoZware, Inc.
Sports $771M
6
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Cold War
AcQvision Blizzard Shooter $678M
7
Animal Crossing: New
Horizons
Nintendo SimulaQon $654M
8 Cyberpunk 2077 CD Projekt RPG $609M
9 Sims 4 Electronic Arts, Inc. SimulaQon $462M
10 DOOM Eternal Bethesda SoZworks Shooter $454M
13
Call of Duty and sports franchises topped the premium game charts in 2020
Top 10 premium 9tles, 2020
Top 10 premium 9tles, 2020
The top 10 premium Ftles accounted for 34% of total premium market earnings. In
comparison, the top 10 free-to-play 9tles accounted for 19% of overall free-to-play
earnings. Premium 9tles, which rely on front-loaded release months, compete for the
limited 9me and wallets of players, resul9ng in a top-heavy market where the heavily-
adver9sed 9tles win out.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare rose to become the highest-earning premium game of 2020.
3
The game shiZed to a hybrid business model in March with the release of the free-to-play
Warzone bagle royale mode and the lower barrier to entry caused player numbers to jump.
Many of these new players not only purchased in-game content but also ended up paying
to upgrade to the full game.
Pent-up demand resulted in sports games performing strongly once live sports returned
to TV. Sports games provided a significant boost to the premium market, making up 4 out
of the top 10 earning Qtles in 2020. In the early stages of the pandemic, 36% of gamers
played video games as a subsQtute for unavailable entertainment including sports and
movies. Once televised sports resumed, sports video games conQnued to perform well.
NBA 2K20 earned significantly more revenue later in its life cycle than NBA 2K19 thanks to
excitement around the NBA Bubble season. NBA 2K21 had a strong start by launching
during the postseason, generaQng 20% more revenue at launch than NBA 2K20.
Single-player games were sMll going strong in 2020. DOOM Eternal ranked among the
highest-earning premium games and launch sales of 3.0M were more than three Qmes
greater than its predecessor. Sony conQnued to rely on high-budget, single-player games
like The Last of Us II and Ghost of Tsushima, which sold 2.8M and 1.9M digital copies in their
respecQve first months.
3 Call of Duty: Warzone earnings are included with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare because the Warzone mode exists as part of the Modern Warfare game client.

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
GAMING VIDEO CONTENT
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2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
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Gaming video content generated over $9B in 2020
Revenue generated by plaRorm, 2020
Gaming video
content market, 2020
$9.3B
Total revenue
The audience for gaming video content (GVC) grew 18% to reach
1.2B people in 2020. Social and party games became hits as
mainstream audiences looked for subs9tutes for social interac9on
and entertainment. Twitch streams helped baFle royale plaGormer
Fall Guys: Ul+mate Knockout become a breakout hit in August, selling
8.2M units on PC. Among Us, a social deduc9on game, also aFracted
the highest monthly player base of any game in history aLer Twitch
streamers popularized the 9tle.
Viewership consolidated under fewer, larger plaQorms. Despite
gaining exclusive streaming rights for some of the most popular
streamers in 2019, Mixer from MicrosoL failed to gain trac9on and
shut down in July 2020. In October, Chinese plaGorms DouYu and
Huya agreed to merge.
Twitch regained several streaming superstars aRer Mixer’s
shutdown. ALer depar9ng for Mixer in 2019, top streamers Ninja
and shroud became free agents when the service shut down. Shortly
aLer their departures, both returned to Twitch. In his first stream
back on Twitch, shroud racked up over 500K concurrent viewers.
Other
60%
YouTube
18%
Twitch
22%

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
BRANDS AND
ENTERTAINMENT IP
16

17
Big brands and mainstream celebriQes stepped up collaboraQons with
interacQve entertainment
Astronomical (Fortnite Travis ScoO concert) viewership COVID-19 gave rise to digital spaces being used as socially distant gathering hubs.
With concerts cancelled, musicians performed inside online games to bring music to
their fans. Travis ScoF performed a digital concert in Fortnite to great success.
Across five concerts, the event aFracted over 45M views, with an average minute
audience of 4.7M. In November, Lil Nas X performed a concert in Roblox, gathering
over 33M views across the event.
Public figures that include celebriFes and poliFcians are making a splash in games
media. Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar streamed Among
Us alongside popular Twitch streamers, aFrac9ng a 358K average minute audience.
Travis ScoF joined PlaySta9on as a crea9ve strategic partner to promote the
PlaySta9on 5, while rapper Megan Thee Stallion appeared in a promo9onal video for
Mortal Kombat 11 dressed as popular character Mileena. These public figures had
previously established themselves as gamers or “nerds,” gaining credibility among
their target audiences.
Brands conFnued to expand their reach to gamers in ways that went beyond
simple in-game ads or sponsorships of video creators. Fortnite, which has long
featured collabora9ons with various entertainment franchises, took this to the next
level with a crossover event featuring Marvel Comics characters that lasted for
several months. Animal Crossing: New Horizons also aFracted organiza9ons as varied
as the Biden-Harris presiden9al campaign, the Detroit Lions NFL team and fashion
label Marc Jacobs, who all created content using the game.
74.3K
Peak channels
785.3K
Hours watched
2.3M
Average minute audience
(Ini9al event)
4.7M
Average minute audience (Total event)
2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
XR
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2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
Overall VR headset shipments fell 15% in 2020, but sales of standalone devices grew 19% during the year. The standalone Oculus Quest 2 is driving VR adopQon
among mainstream consumers. In contrast, the once-popular premium mobile segment effecQvely died during 2020, as pla^orm holders dropped support for the
Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream. PlayStaQon VR sales also declined due to a lack of new content, as Sony focused on the launch of the PlayStaQon 5.
VR game revenue was up 25% year-over-year largely thanks to the release of Half-Life: Alyx. As a VR-exclusive entry in a major franchise, Half-Life: Alyx rejuvenated
interest in the technology among hardcore gamers. The PC game sold 1.9M digital units in its first six months and generated more revenue on its own than all PC VR
games combined in 2019.
Supply issues held back pandemic-fueled growth in VR spending. The impact of COVID-19 on producQon lines meant headsets like the Oculus Quest and Valve
Index were sold out through much of 2020. However, those who already owned headsets engaged with them more oZen. In the spring, 71% of US VR headset
owners spent more Qme on their devices than in the past due to COVID-19. 19
VR games earned $589M in 2020 as standalone headsets became the device
of choice for most users
2019 2020
Standalone
PC
Console
Premium mobile
Virtual reality headset shipments 4
5.8M 4.9M
0.1M
2019 2020
VR games revenue
4 Figures in this slide do not contain the sales of Google Cardboard or similar mobile VR headsets.
0.1M
0.8M
0.6M
1.3M
0.8M
0.8M
3.4M
2.9M
$589M
$471M

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2021
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2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.
21
AUer significant pandemic-fueled growth in 2020, interacQve entertainment
earnings are set to rise 2% in 2021
2019 2020 2021
Total games and interac9ve media revenue
$124.5B $139.9B
$142.2B
Despite an increase in gaming acMvity due to COVID-19, the rollout of a vaccine is
not expected to cause a gaming market crash. Although digital game revenue is
projected to be roughly flat in 2021, the long-term habits formed during lockdown
are here to stay. Notably, both free-to-play and premium markets in Asia were up
year-over-year by 11% and 20% respecQvely, despite several countries, parQcularly
China, dealing with COVID-19 much quicker and more effecQvely than other
markets.
The strategies of the “big three” console makers will conMnue to diverge. MicrosoZ
is focused on turning Xbox Game Pass into a "Ne^lix for games” service that runs on
everything from phones to smart TVs. The demand for the service is evident;
revenue and subscriber numbers were up 179% and 175% year-over-year in
November 2020. Meanwhile, Sony and Nintendo will conQnue to focus on pla^orm
exclusives, which drive hardware sales. Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Demon's Souls
from Sony were the company’s premier PlayStaQon 5 launch Qtles and exemplified
the company’s focus on high-fidelity single-player games.
Industry consolidaMon will conMnue in 2021 as developers and publishers fight for a
spot in a compeMMve market. In 2020, announced acquisiQons included ZeniMax
Media (Bethesda) by MicrosoZ, Codemasters by Electronic Arts and Daybreak Games
by EG7. CompeQng in the AAA space is an increasingly difficult task for midsize
studios and publishers that are not Qed to pla^orm providers like Xbox or Epic. As
game budgets conQnue to grow and user acquisiQon costs rise, smaller companies
will conQnue to be acquired as the top firms seek to broaden their offerings.
$142.2B
$139.9B
$124.5B

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2020 YEAR IN REVIEW | © 2021 SuperData, a Nielsen company. All rights reserved.