Gaming market to earn $132 billion by 2021

The global video games market will exceed $130 billion in revenues by 2021, analyst firm Juniper Research forecasts.

The billion dollar video games industry is poised to pull in $132 billion by 2021, according to a new report by Juniper Research. Unsurprisingly, the firm forecasts that the mobile gaming segment will earn the lion's share of these revenues thanks to the lucrative free-to-play gaming market, which typically monetizes gamers in the form of in-game purchases and lootboxes. According to IHS Markit analyst Piers Harding-Rolls, the console and PC gaming segment has made a smaller impact on total yearly earnings compared to mobile.

For the immediate future, analyst firms like SuperData predict the games industry will break $100 billion in revenues in 2017. The global interactive media market, which includes video games software, esports, streaming monetization, and virtual reality, is expected to peak at $104.6 billion in 2017, the firm says.

Research firm Newzoo forecasts the market's 2017 earnings to be a little higher at $108.9 billion, and expects the industry to make $128.5 billion by 2020. Newzoo expects mobile, which includes tablet and smartphone games, to make 39% of 2017's revenues or $38.6 billion. By 2020 mobile is expected to make up 50% of the industry's revenues or $64.9 billion.

Fun fact: CD Projekt RED expects to release its massively anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 by 2021, as well as a new AAA RPG. If this happens I predict Cyberpunk 2077 will be a massive mover for the PC and console segment.