With the results of the attempted merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard getting closer and closer to being published, the attention of the video game industry is all focused on negotiations that could change the industry as a whole forever.
Although we know that Sony and Nintendo comfortably dominate the console market, this is not unanimous in all regions of the world, and a recent study by GameDiscoverCo shows that Europeians have Xbox as one of their favorites.
While we instinctively think we understand the shape of the regional expansion of the PC and console market, how detailed can we get this information, and what implicit information can we uncover?
This was the goal that the folks at GameDiscoverCo Pro achieved by analyzing their site’s data.
The site has analyzed millions of public gamer profiles (as seen on PSN profiles) and game reviews/ratings, generating some comprehensive graphs showing where PlayStation, Xbox and PC gamers are located. So let’s check:
Firstly, here are the top PlayStation countries – lifetime results for player accounts, on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Some specifics here:
- The US dominates – but per capita, European countries are not far behind: you might think that the US is way ahead here, but they have 4-5 times the population of the UK, France and Germany. So on a ‘PlayStation accounts per 1,000 people’ level, it’s closer to similar.
- Saudi Arabia is a surprising highlight: Interestingly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE (‘the rich Middle East’ in general, as consoles can move) make up nearly 6% of all PSN gamers. Also: Arabic translations for AAA games can really boost sales, with Resident Evil 4 doing particularly well there.
- ‘Hong Kong’ – which also means China – is on the rise: we know that there is gray market export of PlayStation 5 to mainland China. And while Hong Kong only accounts for 2.5% of lifetime profiles, we’re seeing it pop up in the top 3 “most played” countries for new, bigger titles like The Callisto Protocol.
Here’s a breakdown of the Xbox ecosystem by country – as estimated by lifetime in-store review counts/fees, as Xbox doesn’t display nationality on the profile. Grades:
- The US and UK make up almost half of the sample: whether you live in the US or the UK, it looks like the Xbox vs. the PlayStation are closer to a draw. And those numbers help explain, with 48.5% of all Xbox reviews coming from those two locations.
- Europe and Mexico are notable standouts against PlayStation: with 6.9% on Xbox vs. 4.3% on PlayStation, it seems that Microsoft has a good penetration in Europe. Similar to Mexico (4.8% on Xbox, 2.3% on PS). That doesn’t mean Xbox leads the market – just that they do better there in relative percentages.
- Japan? Not necessarily the best sample for Xbox: no big surprises here, but Japan is ranked 18th in terms of our Xbox country estimate, compared to PlayStation’s 6th overall for Japan in their rankings.
Finally, we arrived at a breakdown of Steam by player accounts, analyzing 25 million public profiles from across the platform’s history. Here’s what we got:
- Steam: it’s just more international, folks: it’s not really a shock that PCs allow for a wider pool of international gamers who haven’t bought dedicated hardware. But the shape of the curve compared to Xbox and PlayStation is much less US-centric (13.7% of all profiles).
- China (and Russia) are also notably up there: We talk a lot about the amount of ‘unofficial’ Chinese players on Steam International – here’s the proof (12.3%). And so do Russians (9.7%), though gamers are mostly barred from buying new games after Russia’s heinous invasion of Ukraine.
- Keep an eye on Southeast Asia for the future: Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand together make up 4.7% of all registered Steam accounts. And those countries – while they may not buy $60 games – are increasingly consumers of PC gaming content.
