Video Games in the United Arab Emirates

PRE-COVID-19 PERFORMANCE

Video games sees a positive performance in 2019, with strong growth of esports

Video games continued to perform positively in the United Arab Emirates in 2019 in terms of both hardware and software. With recent console upgrade launches over the past year, sales of static consoles grew in 2019, driving growth for video games hardware.

Hand-held consoles record further decline

Video games hardware witnessed current value growth during the review period, with most of this growth derived from static consoles. Demand continued to grow in the region due to an increase in promotions and shifting technology, with new supporting apps on static consoles offering consumers a wide range of options other than gaming, such as streaming, recording and internet browsing.

Sony Corp with its popular PlayStation brand continues to lead video games

Sony Corp continued to lead video games in 2019, with the launch of PlayStation 4 Pro towards the end of 2016 helping to boost its sales and share. The company’s worldwide prominence in gaming trickled down to the region, making it the leader in static consoles in the United Arab Emirates.

2020 AND BEYOND

COVID-19 impact

In 2020, sales of video games are now expected to grow by 5% in constant 2019 value terms in light of the impact of COVID-19, which is the same as the 5% rise in sales forecast in our 2019 edition of toys and games.

Affected products within video games

Sales of video games are set to benefit from the shift to digital entertainment which address the need for “hometainment” amid COVID-19. With both working and learning from home as a result of the pandemic, more people are now gaming to help manage boredom and fill the void of not being able to socialise.

Recovery and opportunities

Constant 2019 value sales of video games are expected to record further healthy double-digit growth over the forecast period. Whilst COVID-19 has increased the popularity of gaming, the digital transformation of playtime was already well on the way prior to COVID-19’s spread.

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