In order to better understand the economic models of loot boxes and microtransactions it is necessary to understand the figures that surround them, such as the turnover of large companies, the share of microtransactions in the various turnovers and the income of the different markets.

The French video game market

According to studies by SELL the French video game market represents 4.3 billion euros. The value of this market is increasing from year to year. The year 2017 shows an increase of 18% compared to 2016. This market is divided into three gaming ecosystems:

Mobile phones and tablets represent 19% of this market

This increase in the number of game accessories is due to the increase in the number of players in France.

About 53% of French people are regular players, among players there are about 53% men and 47% women. Whether men or women, the average age of players is 35 years old.

These figures show that, compared to what people think, the average age is no longer 24 but 35. With new technologies, consoles and games accessible to all, video games has succeeded in becoming more and more democratic in France, and the figures are increasing from year to year.

The figures of the major publishers

During the Game Developers Conference, the ” game developer ” of Steam, Sergey Galyonkin returned to the sales of the Steam game platform.

The figures show that Steam’s revenue reached $4.3 billion, almost the equivalent of the French market’s revenue (4.3 billion euros equivalent to $5,012,037,001.31). These figures represent game sales only, microtransactions are not included.

Among the revenues generated by the Steam platform, half come from only 100 games, or 0.5% of the games on the said platform. These titles include the best-selling games