America has the most video game sales in the world, according to a new report from market research firm Newzoo.
The company published a list of the top 100 countries by game revenue, with U.S. in the top spot with $20.5 billion in revenue. China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom fill out the top five. With $17.7 billion estimated revenue, China isn't far behind the U.S. The 100 companies comprise 99.8% of the $81.5 billion global game market, according to Newzoo.
The revenue is an estimate for 2014 based on, according to Newzoo's site, "primary consumer research in over eighteen countries, quarterly revenues of public companies, transactional data and third-party research. Forecasting also involves market trending analysis and projections for macro KPIs, such as population growth, online/mobile connectivity and economic growth for all countries in the world towards 2017."
The list is for revenue from video games themselves, meaning sales of software. This does not include the sales of hardware or accessories. Console sales are often a significant portion of the game industry's revenue, with the latest generation of consoles selling for significant prices -- PlayStation 4 and Xbox One selling for $399, Wii U for $349 -- as well as older generations and handheld devices selling from $99 to $249.
Also included on the list is the Internet population and the overall population of each country. Though China is catching up with the U.S. in terms of game revenue, the U.S. easily surpasses China's game revenue per capita, with the U.S. having about a quarter of the population of China.
Beyond the list of 100 countries, the company has released several infographics, including one that shows the revenue by region, such as North America, Latin America and European Union. Other infographics break down the revenue by country within each region.
"On a daily basis we get requests from the market for a comprehensive overview of country revenues," Peter Warman, CEO at Newzoo, said on the site. "This does not surprise me as the market has become a truly global playground and the lions share of market growth can be found outside of mature markets. Over the past 12 months, our global data model has increased drastically in granularity and robustness."
The list and the infographics are a preview of Newzoo's new release, "2014 Global Games Market Report."
