The digital gaming landscape has witnessed a significant shift in the third quarter, with unique games emerging as the trend du jour. For the second consecutive quarter, the sector has seen a notable 11% increase in the diversity of games available across various operator sites.
A wave of creativity has swept through the industry, with 25 fresh studios debuting in the market. This influx has been complemented by an increase in production from existing studios. Clearly, the drive to innovate is in part spurred by the competitive climate that forces established names to match the pace set by newcomers. Interestingly, operators appear inclined to maintain their older game titles instead of phasing them out, creating an ever-expanding catalog for consumers.
When translated into hard data, the growth is staggering. On average, the market now sees the launch of over 1,000 new games each month. This equates to an addition of roughly 3,000 games per quarter to our tracking database from a total of 365 different studios.
The surge isn’t limited to quantity alone. The data indicates an uptick in the output rates per studio, with ‘producing studios’ generating an average of 2.7 games monthly, a rise from the previous quarter’s figure of 2.3.
Looking at the broader picture for the first nine months of the present year, we find that 515 studios have ushered games into the market. A broader scan of operator sites reveals games from a total of 705 distinct studios, a figure that incorporates studios that have ceased active game production, yet whose legacy titles still circulate in the gaming sphere.
Narrowing down to actively producing entities, an average studio releases close to three games every other month, working out to about 1.5 games monthly. This aligns with the 2.8 monthly games churned out by the smaller pool of 370 ‘producing studios.’
When we examine industry heavyweights like Pragmatic Play, Evolution Gaming, and Playtech, the scale of output comes sharply into focus. Pragmatic Play has achieved the astounding average of at least one game per day.
If live casino offerings were to be excluded, Evolution Gaming would no longer feature on the list, making way for Games Global, Pragmatic Play, and the Gauselmann Group to occupy the top three production slots.
Additional insights gleaned from recent data show MGA and EGT breaking into the list of top producers, surpassing venerable names such as Novomatic and Light and Wonder.
Despite slots constituting the majority of content across the 3,000 operator sites monitored, their proportional dominance is on a downward trajectory. Slots now represent 85.5% of all game content on casino pages, a 1% decrease from last quarter and nearly 3% from the previous year.
Game categories on the rise include live games, with crash games doubling their content share since the start of the year. Notably, six more crash games entered the market in Q3, with Fly X from Games Global securing third place behind hits like Aviator and Spaceman.
In a surprising turn of events, the long-reigning Starbust from NetEnt has been dethroned. It has been eclipsed not just by one but by five titles from Pragmatic Play. Our analysis includes all subpages across operator sites for the three-month period and incorporates live game content.
Pragmatic Play’s dominance is evident, representing more than half of the top 20 games, with Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza, and Big Bass Bonanza leading as the top spinners of the last quarter. This supremacy is mirrored in the Top 20 new games chart, wherein Pragmatic Play’s offerings reign supreme, alongside entries from Play’n Go, Gameburger Studios, and Hacksaw Gaming.
These developers, including Hacksaw Gaming and Play’n Go, stand as leading contenders for the coveted iGB’s Game of the Year award, which is set to be announced at the upcoming iGB Affiliate Awards in February.
The volatility of new games has seen shifts too, with a notable 6.6% rise in games classified as low/medium volatility compared to the previous quarter. However, there’s a subtle distinction between the volatility of produced versus distributed games; this variance is prominently observed on a country-by-country basis.
Megaways content has witnessed a notable decline, dropping by 4.2%. Although we see an increase in licensed third-party branded games, they have not matched the prolific output rates of the broader game market, resulting in a diminished content share from 2.1% to 1.8% quarter-over-quarter. MGA joins Light & Wonder and Gauselmann as the top three suppliers of branded content by performance.
As for trending themes, Q3 saw Action & Adventure and Money genres gain popularity. Other themes such as Far East and Cute on Latin are on the upswing, while Tales & Legends, Egyptian, and Jewels themes experience reduced interest. Predictably, games with winter themes saw a decline during the summer months.
eGaming Monitor, the advisory firm behind these insights, utilizes proprietary data that encompasses 25,000 games from 1,000 suppliers across 1000 operator sites. The firm guides gaming industry stakeholders through sales targeting, account management, and game design strategies. The company was founded by industry veterans Kevin Dale and Joel Keeble, who bring a wealth of expertise from their respective leadership roles at notable gaming firms and data agencies.
