In 2023, the video game market in Italy continued to show a phase of positive growth, exceeding 2.3 billion euros with an increase of 5% compared to the previous year, as revealed by the report “Video games in Italy in 2023 ” published by IIDEA. This increase places Italy among the top five European markets in the sector, recording the impressive number of 13 million players distributed across all possible gaming devices. A number representing the 31% of the Italian population between 6 and 64 years old. Italian video gamers are currently mainly men, 8 million (61%), with an average age of 30 years, while female video gamers are 4.9 million (38%), with an average age of 31 years (the average age of the Italian sample is 30 years old); 0.1 million people identify as neither women nor men, a figure reported for the first time this year.
Even in 2023 Mobile devices appear to be the most used by gamers, with 9.2 million using it primarily to play Brain/Puzzle (20%), Trivia (18%) and Role Playing/Strategy (16%) genres. Consoles follow, with 5.6 million gamers who mainly play Sports (29%), Racing (26%) and Shooter (22%) genre titles. Finally, PCs, with 4.6 million gamers, who mainly play Strategy titles (19%), Shooter (16%) and Sports (14%). 73% of gamers play at least an hour a week, for a total average gaming time of approximately 6.53 hours a week in 2023, one hour less than in 2022. This figure is also in line with the main markets Europeans and determined by the definitive resumption of post-pandemic activities.
2023 marked a record year for the hardware segment, which saw an unprecedented increase of 63% compared to the previous year, thanks to the availability of new consoles. This drove hardware sales to an estimated value of 487 million euros, with an increase of 70% on an annual basis. Sales of accessories also saw robust growth, increasing by 46% and reaching a value of 178 million euros.
Despite an overall decline of 8%, software remains the most significant segment of the gaming ecosystem in Italy, with an estimated value of 1.6 billion euros, corresponding to 71% of the total market. The purchase of new video games increased by 6% compared to 2022, bringing a total of 777 million euros. Of these, 46% came from physical sales while 54% came from digital channels.