Games console and NFT markets to “spike” to collective £62bn in 2022, new report projects

London based professional services network Deloitte predicts that the games console market will generate £60.6bn in 2022, while NFTs for sports media will generate £1.5bn.

By the start of 2022, Deloitte predicts there will be 900m console players worldwide. Each will bring an average £69 of revenue per gamer to the industry; comfortably more than the projected £17 per PC gamer and £37 per mobile gamer.

Overall, Deloitte forecasts that console owners will have more than 200m multiplayer and games subscriptions in 2022. By 2025, these subscriptions will likely generate more than £8.2bn in revenue globally, up from £4.9bn in 2020.

Paul Lee, global head of technology, media and telecommunications research at Deloitte, said: “2022 marks the 50th birthday of the games console with the device now a veteran of the technology industry, outlasting camcorders and CD players, among others.

“We saw usage of consoles spike during lockdown, with many using their devices as a way to socialise when restrictions prevented people from meeting in person. Usage has remained high as, for many gamers, leaving the game may mean disconnecting from friends.”

Additionally, Deloitte predicts that non-fungible tokens (NFTs), unique digital identifiers that use blockchain to record ownership of an asset, will generate more than £1.5bn in transactions for sports media in 2022, approximately double the value of NFT transactions for sports media in 2021.

Deloitte also predicts that between four and five million sports fans globally will purchase or receive an NFT sports collectible as a gift in 2022.

Theo Ajadi, consultant in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “The 2021–2022 season could be the first in which NFTs start to make a major mark from a revenue perspective and by 2023 it is likely that most major football leagues in Europe will have launched multiple NFT related products.

“NFTs have added rarity to sporting moments and, in the future, every game of every season could generate a new matchday moment solely available to the highest bidder via an NFT.”