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2021 Gaming Report: Unity insights from 2020 and predicted trends for 2021

February 24, 2021 in Games | 5 min. read
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We’ve got a strong birds-eye-view of the great things creators made happen in the gaming industry in 2020. By compiling and analysing this data, we hope to help you try and make sense of an unprecedented year for the gaming industry and the world at large. 

The 2021 Gaming Report is a comprehensive review of the key data from 2020 that you care about. Everything from mobile monetization, to engagement, to multiplayer trends. There’s even a few predictions for 2021.

The data

We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have 94 of the top 100 development studios in the world choosing to use Unity Create or Operate solutions – or, in many cases, both. 

Every month, there are 5B downloads of apps built in Unity. There are now 2.8B monthly active end-users who are engaging with content created or operated by Unity solutions in 2020.

Unity ads create 23B+ impressions worldwide monthly, with 2.5B+ devices reached and 164M+ average daily users. These ads help drive 253M+ new users/installs every month for developers across the globe.

We love providing creators the platforms to bring their ideas to life and we are truly staggered at the scale of achievement those who use our tools achieved in 2020. 

Utilising this information and various other insights from around Unity, some of our data scientists have put together this report to give context to the behavior of gamers throughout a challenging year.

Throughout the report you will find predictions and learnings that help guide your game development and planning in 2021. 

Day 1 in-app purchase revenue growth trend

Key takeaways

  • Unity remains the game engine of choice with 61% of developers surveyed using it, and the second most popular choice as a mobile ad network.

  • COVID-19 had a notable impact on the way people play video games. The volume of HD gaming (video games on PC, macOS, and other desktop platforms with graphics typically rendered in high definition) rose by over 38% in 2020. Additionally, play has shifted to weekdays, and this trend held well beyond the onset of the pandemic – the difference between weekday and weekend gaming increased by 52%, in weekday gaming’s favor.

  • Mobile gaming also saw strong positive impact in 2020. When comparing this year’s growth to last year’s, first day microtransaction purchases were up more than 50% year over year, and ad revenues saw over 8% growth. This is on top of already strong baseline growth rates for both in-app purchases (IAP) and ad revenue.

  • Creating new content to delight and engage players should still be a top priority for game developers. On average, large new content updates for live games resulted in peak concurrent user spikes of over 11%.

Get the report

Download the full report for free to get the full view on an endlessly interesting year in gaming. It’s full of unique insight, original data, actionable conclusions and predictions for 2021. 

February 24, 2021 in Games | 5 min. read

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