To kickstart our Brazil Games Week, we’re aiming to offer as exact an image as potential of the Brazilian ecosystem.
GamesIndustry.biz’s James Batchelor travelled to Brazil earlier this 12 months, and you’ll learn his overview of the market, its challenges and alternatives, on this web page – immediately from the professionals who’re a part of it.
In the meantime, over right here, we’ll look by the numbers that make the Brazilian games industry, its market, and its viewers.
The figures and stats introduced beneath are from the second national survey of the games industry by the Brazilian Affiliation of Digital Sport Builders (Abragames) and the Brazilian Company for Promotion of Exports and Investments (ApexBrasil), which takes into consideration 2022 knowledge beforehand collected, and new figures gathered in 2023 by GA Consulting.
343 corporations contributed to the Sport Brasil Survey, representing about 33% of the overall variety of studios in Brazil.
In comparison with earlier surveys, this new analysis confirmed important progress throughout the board for the Brazilian industry.
The Brazilian games industry
The games industry in Brazil is principally made up of micro and small studios, for a complete of 1,042 builders. 2,600 Brazil-made games launched between 2020 and 2022 (with 1,009 launched in 2022 alone, representing a 12% rise 12 months on 12 months).
The evolution in comparison with 2014 and the very first survey of the Brazilian games industry is kind of hanging, as on the time there have been solely 133 studios. In 2018, that quantity had grown to 375, exhibiting a 177% improve from then to 2023.
As of final 12 months, there have been 13,225 professionals working in the Brazilian games industry, a 6.3% improve in comparison with 2022’s 12,441.
The industry in Brazil is dominated by males, who represented 74.2% of the workforce on the studios surveyed. The variety of girls decreased from 2022 to 2023, from 29.8% to 24.3%. The variety of non-binary employees remained regular at 1.5%.
“One clarification for the discount in the variety of girls between the 2 years is the sampling impact, because the responding corporations in the 2 surveys are completely different,” the survey famous.
93% of the Brazilian studios surveyed are engaged on their very own IP.
“At present, the initiatives from our studios are on par with these of the identical dimension from another a part of the world,” commented Rodrigo Terra, president of Abragames. “There may be nonetheless a transparent distinction in funding, however not because of a capability problem.
“From 2021 to 2022, for instance, it was noticed that the participation of nationwide studios in transmedia initiatives (15%) and licensing their very own IPs (13%) surpassed the involvement in licensing third-party merchandise (10%) – which represented 18% in 2021.”
the place studios are established throughout Brazil, a formidable quantity are positioned in Sao Paulo (302), adopted by Rio de Janeiro (107), and Rio Grande de Sol (69).
70% of Brazilian studios function remotely, adopted by 16% choosing a hybrid system, and solely 14% in an workplace setting.
Lastly, trying on the tech that Brazilian studios use, 80% of respondents stated they use Unity to develop their games, adopted by Unreal engine at 25% (indicating that some studios could also be utilizing each).
The Brazilian games market
The Sport Brasil Survey estimated that income from the sport growth industry in Brazil reached USD $251.6 million in 2023.
In line with the survey, cell accounts for 51.7% of the Brazilian market, adopted by console at 20.5% and PC at 19.4% – consoles solely lately overtook PC between 2022 and 2023, a time throughout which cell additionally grew 3.4%.
Nonetheless, taking a look at Brazill-made games, it contrasts with what gamers really purchase in the nation. Solely 24% of titles developed in Brazil are for cell, barely behind PC games at 24.9%. They’re adopted by net browser games at 23%, and consoles at 11%.
Digital gross sales in Brazil elevated from 54% of all recreation gross sales in 2021, to 62% in 2023.
Trying on the kinds of games made in Brazil, leisure titles represented a overwhelming majority at 83%, adopted by academic games at 8%, and ‘advergames’ at 3%.
A lot of Brazil’s studios, significantly the bigger ones, provide work-for-hire companies for different builders abroad. The remainder of Latin America and america are probably the most distinguished industrial companions of Brazil for games. However Western Europe is on the rise with 54% of Brazilian recreation studios now doing enterprise with that area, versus 49% in 2023.
About half of the studios doing enterprise internationally obtained over 70% of their income from overseas.
The Brazilian viewers
Brazil is the most important games market in Latin America, and the fifth largest globally in phrases of on-line inhabitants with an estimated 103 million gamers.
The Sport Brasil Survey confirmed that round 82.1% of Brazilians say that enjoying video games is certainly one of their fundamental types of leisure.
Girls symbolize round 46.2% of gamers in Brazil, versus 53.8% for males.
Age teams are all pretty equally represented in the case of the viewers, with a majority of gamers being between 19-years-old and 44-years-old. The dominant age group is between 25 and 29, representing 16.2% of the gamers, adopted intently by 30 to 34-years-old at 16.1%.
The survey famous a slight improve in the over-50 age group, up 2% to symbolize 8.5% of the Brazilian viewers.
An enormous portion of gamers in Brazil establish as white (42.2%), very intently adopted by blended race (41.4%, a 4.1% progress 12 months on 12 months), and Black at 12.7%.
Trying forward, Rodrigo Terra is optimistic about Brazil’s momentum, saying: “We’re going by a brand new second, as there’s a post-pandemic reorganisation of corporations and market expectations are nonetheless relative.
“Nonetheless, there are prospects for enchancment in the Brazilian economic system, supported by a extra secure political atmosphere, contrasting with the instability of the worldwide market. We imagine in a future with potential alternatives and lots of challenges, the place Brazil can stand out with an ecosystem that has been rising and diversifying increasingly.”