According to the "Global Digital Gaming Market 2017" report, the global gaming market sales are forecasted to grow by a significant onedigit percentage point in 2017. However, digital games, referring to online, mobile, digital console and computer games, are expected to maintain double-digit growth in the same time frame, championed by mobile gaming. Due to this continuing trend, digital could account for over three quarters of global gaming revenues by 2021.

Within the field of mobile in 2017, smartphone gaming significantly trumps gaming via tablet. Gamers from China, the USA, Brazil, the UAE and more all favor smartphone over other gaming devices. In 2016, the popularity of augmented reality games furthered mobile gaming and app sales. In addition, virtual reality (VR) games are also gaining traction after the introduction of VR headsets within the mass market. For instance, one third of frequent gamers from the USA relayed the intent to purchase these gaming accessories this year.

The market for console and computer games has shown a shift to digital game purchasing as well as microtransactions. Last year, almost a quarter of computer and console gaming purchases in Germany were digital. Only a single digit share of total game sales stemmed from boxed games in China, the largest gaming market in the world.

Physical game purchases are not dead yet. This year, over half of console gamers in Brazil stated in a survey that they buy video games from retail stores as opposed to digitally.