Let’s talk size for a moment – no, not that, but the size of the multifaceted gaming industry. It’s a juggernaut. A literal Megatron of epic proportions. Did you know that the revenue generated by the videogame consoles market in 2024 is expected to be $24.11 billion? Five years from now, that revenue is expected to hit $26.69 billion. That’s a whopping 10.78% growth in five years. According to IGN (2024 update), the bestselling video game consoles of all time are the following:
- PlayStation 2 by Sony – 159 million
- Nintendo DS by Nintendo – 154.02 million
- Nintendo Switch by Nintendo – 141.32 million
- Game Boy and Game Boy Color by Nintendo – 118.69 million
- PlayStation 4 by Sony – 117.2 million
There are tens of millions more consoles sold to date, but these aforementioned five rule the roost. Now, when it comes to the bestselling video games of all time, there are many conflicting answers, but the top five routinely make it into most lists. For the purposes of completeness, we’ve decided to list the top 10 games in ascending order – again, rankings and titles may vary depending on the source:
- Tetris – 520 million sales
- Minecraft – 300 million sales
- GTA 5 – 200 million sales
- Wii Sports – 82.9 million sales
- PUBG – 75 million sales
- Mario Kart 8+ deluxe – 69.04 million sales
- Red Dead Redemption II – 64 million sales
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 60 million sales
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – 50 million sales
- Super Mario Bros – 50 million sales
Welcome to the Social Casino Universe
But there’s an entirely different gaming universe out there, and it fits snugly into the casino games arena. According to World Metrics, slot machines account for 70% of casino revenues in the United States alone. And for those folks who don’t enjoy gambling Butler slot machine games, there is an incredible new innovation – the iconic social casino.
One of the fastest-growing operators in the market is Play Fame – a star-studded enclave filled with unbridled casino-style entertainment. Top slots, hold and win, classics, spins & wins, and cascading games adorn the platform. And, of course, it’s one at present that is free to play. The social casino model is tearing up with players around the world. Of course, a minimum legal age is required, but this is absolutely no purchase is necessary – it works off a GC system. That’s gold coins for novices.
Back to our topic at hand – Blackjack is the most popular table game with 31% of casino table game revenues across the US. Roulette ranks as the most iconic and the oldest of the casino games, with origins as far back as the 18th century. Poker reigned supreme as the skill-based game, with professional players preferring this as the ultimate high-stakes contest. Baccarat is the high road game of choice with some tables having bets of $100,000 + per hand played.
$14B Worldwide Revenues for Social Casinos by 2027
Here is another interesting statistic about social casinos – these games are expected to fetch revenues of $14 billion worldwide by 2027.
The most popular social casino games – the sub-verticals – include the following: multiplayer card games, poker games, roulette games, slots games, bingo games, casino table games, scratch-and-win lottery tickets, and blackjack. As expected, there are dozens of top-notch social casinos leading the way, each of which presents players with mobile-optimized gaming or dedicated apps.
Surprisingly, data indicates that the typical player demographic reflects 40-year-old + players swarming to social casinos. It’s a pretty even mix between men and women, with an average female gaming time of 17.8 minutes on social casino games a day and 17.2 minutes on average for men. Interestingly, these social casinos are for-profit operations.
They simply don’t charge players to play, and reward players with daily gold coin gifts, tournaments, and jackpots. They make their money through players making in-app purchases. In other words, you can choose to buy gold coin packages, sometimes with sweep coins, to puff up your bankroll rather than waiting for daily rewards.
Of course, there is also in-app advertising but that only accounts for approximately 30% of revenues generated by social casino operators. And while the purchases are unnecessary for playing, they allow players to extend their gaming sessions, play as many games as budgets permit, much like a pachinko parlor, or an arcade hall requiring tickets or tokens for players to enjoy themselves.