A new report from the folks at Strategy Analytics points out that the global MMORPG market exceeded $5 billion in 2009; the market has seen 17% annual growth, "primarily driven by the momentum of Asian online game companies," the firm said. With its "rapid growth trajectory in 2010," Strategy Analytics expects the global MMORPG business to reach $8 billion by 2014. [Note: the firm today issued a correction on its report, changing the $8 billion from 2010 to 2014.]
The report notes that the global MMORPG market is essentially split in two at the moment. "The global MMORPG market has become a tale of two regions. Blizzard Entertainment dominates the slowly growing U.S. and European markets, while Shanda, Netease, Nexon and NCsoft made Asia the major region for MMORPG market growth," Strategy Analytics points out.
“Faced with fierce competition from social games and console video games, MMORPG in the Western market has already shown signs of a slowdown,” remarked Martin Olausson, Director, Strategy Analytics Digital Media, “The traditional subscription model that most Western MMORPGs adopt has lost traction and growth momentum.”
“Contrary to the flattening Western market, the Asian MMORPG market has grown immensely since 2007, due to the successful virtual items-based revenue model. As more Asian online game companies target U.S. and European markets, they will become a formidable force in the global gaming industry,” added Jia Wu, Analyst in the Strategy Analytics Digital Media Strategies (DMS) service.
