Surge in Corporate Purchases Driving 2020 U.S. Game-Based Learning Market;
New Report Forecasts Annual CAGR of Almost 30%; U.S. Sales of $7.5 Billion by 2025 

ORLANDO — July 1, 2020 — The U.S. has become the top buying country for serious games worldwide, driven by a rise in corporate sales, according to a new report done by analyst firm Metaari. The rapid growth rate of game-based learning (GBL) in the U.S. – forecast to have a CAGR of 29.2% over the next five years — will triple U.S. sales to more than $7.5 billion by 2025.

Metaari’s U.S. report, for sale at seriousplayconf.com/downloads/2020-2025-us-game-based-learning-market-metaari-report/, offers insight to developers, publishers and investors.  The report contains detailed information on every segment of the learning game market, identifying market leaders, investing companies, product categories with the most potential and information on the various distribution strategies as well as a five-year forecast for that segment.

The report dives into every segment of the learning game market, identifying market leaders, investing companies, product categories with the most potential, distribution strategies working best in that market and giving a five-year forecast for that part of the market.

Serious games are increasingly becoming mainstream for use in training and education in government, military, corporate, nonprofit, health care and both higher ed and K12 education.  Research has shown that, when hands on, experiential learning or “play” is added, participants have a higher level of engagement and retain more information from the educational program or training.  And, although learning games are considered a “mature” market, the industry is not experiencing any product lifecycle downturn.

“I’ve not seen anything like this,” says Sam Adkins, principal analyst, Metaari. “The industry keeps re-inventing itself, with new types of learning games, utilizing new technology.  And buyers get excited all over again.” 

The fastest growing segment in the game-based training market is corporate learning games, expected to accrue sales of more than $4 billion, or 54 percent of U.S. revenues in the next five years.  The hottest categories for companies are games used for pre-employment assessments, employee evaluation and cybersecurity training.  Business simulations also remain particularly marketable.

Consumer demand – primarily for brain stimulation, language learning and educational games for children purchased by parents — has persistently grown but the individual purchase amount is lower.

Large scale global distribution agreements between the U.S. serious game developers have extended the adoption of learning games for schools to millions of new users in recent years. Minecraft: Education Edition, for instance, which teaches programing in an entertaining fashion and is one of the most popular educational products, has grown to more than 200 million users across 115 countries through exclusive distribution contracts that have moved that product into schools.

U.S. developers continue to create the top selling products.

“The U.S. learning game developers are the major innovators in the global serious game industry,” Adkins said. “The innovations are exponential and fundamentally new — using technologies like virtual and augmented reality.”

U.S. game-based learning companies are also experiencing historic levels of investment.  More than 700 suppliers based in the country are identified in the Metaari report and the types of products receiving investment as well as buyers are identified.

“The last two years have seen intense merger and acquisition activity as large companies, many of them based in China, acquire game-based learning firms, most of them in the U.S.,” Adkins said. “This validates the U.S. market and suggests continual growth.”

Purchase Metaari’s full U.S. report, which is 249 pages, with 28 tables and 19 charts, here: https://seriousplayconf.com/downloads/2020-2025-us-game-based-learning-market-metaari-report/

Media Contact:
Sue Bohle
sue@seriousplayconf.com
310 721 9083