The 2020 State of the Industry Report is now available. Nearly 4,000 game developers were surveyed to shed light on current and future game industry trends. Highlights include:
- PlayStation 5 is of more interest than the Xbox Series X or Nintendo Switch, but PC reigns
- Most gamedevs don't think Steam justifies its 30% cut and suggest 10-15% instead
- Half of gamedevs think Epic Games Store will be a long-term success
A few other highlights:
Mobile GameDev is Stagnant, but Android is Popular
Android remains mobile devs’ most popular platform, though the number of devs making mobile games is slipping
In last year’s survey we saw Android win out as the most popular platform for devs making mobile games, with 54 percent saying they were planning to release their game on Android and 50 percent saying iOS.
We asked the same question this year and saw a similar ranking, though the percentage of devs making mobile games appears to have dropped year-over-year. This year, 50 percent of respondents said their company is currently making games for Android, while 48 percent said they were making games for iOS. 43 percent said they weren’t making any mobile games, up from 39 percent last year.
Highlighting the Growth of the Industry
Most respondents have spent less than a decade making games
Every year we survey respondents about how long they’ve been involved in game development, and every year we find the majority have been making games for 10 years or less. This year was no exception; when we checked in to see where our survey respondents were at in their careers, the largest share (30 percent) said they’d been involved in game development for 3-6 years. The next most popular response (at 17 percent of respondents) was 7-10 years, with 11-15 years and 1-2 years shortly behind at 13 percent and 12 percent, respectively. All told, over 60 percent of this year’s survey respondents said they’d been making games for 10 years or less.
The report is free and provides data-driven insights into everything from cross-platform multiplayer adoption to AR/VR platform preference, as well as how devs are feeling about Google Stadia, Apple Arcade, unionization, and much more.