German consumers spent €4.28 billion in the first six months of 2024, a 6% decrease compared to the same period last year.
The news comes from a report by the German association Game, based on data from GfK and Data.ai, owned by Sensor Tower. It marks the first decline in the market after several years of growth.
The sharpest drop in revenue came from hardware sales, which fell 18% year-on-year to €1.2 billion. This is due to slowing sales of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, as well as the Switch entering the eighth year of its life cycle.
Gaming revenue, including full game and in-app purchases, fell just 4% to €2.6 billion, which is a decent result when you compare the number of major releases in the first half of 2023 with the lineup so far in 2024.
Online gaming services, which include subscriptions to services such as PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass, were the only category to increase year-on-year, up 25% to €516 million.
In the Game report, the association's managing director Felix Falk said the German market “will not remain in decline for long,” pointing to the number of high-profile games set to be released towards the end of the year.
