Market Trends of Gaming GPU Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the Gaming GPU Market according to our research experts:
Rising Demand for Gaming Consoles, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) in the industry are Driving the Market
With the increasing adoption of esports and other types of online gaming, video games on consoles are rising and will show more growth opportunities in the coming years. As a result of this trend, connectivity and entertainment providers could target console gamers by offering console-related video services offerings, like fast broadband and live sports, and optimally monetizing the audience through OTT services. Video game developers could provide premium pricing for gaming subscription services, including access to esports events and original content.
- With the rising trend of cloud gaming, the GPU market has seen an upward trend in recent years. Blade, the French startup behind Shadow, is a cloud computing service for gamers that allows a player to access a gaming PC in a data centre for a monthly subscription fee. The company provides full Windows 11 features compared to other cloud gaming services. The company currently offers a single configuration for USD 35 per month with eight threads on an Intel Xeon 2620 processor, an Nvidia Quadro P5000 GPU, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.
- Further, major game developers are also focusing on developing console-based games with high graphic quality, contributing to the gaming segment's growth. Sony and Microsoft prioritize refresh rates up to 120 fps instead of trying to market the consoles as 8K capable, making the gaming experience seamless. Nvidia is trying to move beyond 4K with its monster RTX 3090 graphics card, which delivers 8K gaming for PCs.
- Console developers are also focusing on new product development to raise the bar for the competition in the market. Sony is aiming for 10.28 teraflops of performance, which is almost 15% less than the Xbox Series X. There are also some fundamental differences in cooling and architecture that allow Sony to offer variable GPU and CPU speeds, while Microsoft sticks to the more traditional fixed speeds and is very close to Sony in terms of 4K performance.
- The increasing incorporation of AR and VR in various applications is expected to drive the adoption of GPUs. Due to improvements in graphics technology, it is now possible to achieve true AR or VR and create a compelling user experience. Many companies are developing VR solutions primarily to redefine the way people experience computing and gaming, and the companies are also developing GPU systems for AR and VR applications.
North America is Expected to Hold a Significant Share
The rise in gaming among millennials in the North American region has been dramatic and swift in the past few years. In the United States, over 30% of video gamers pay for gaming subscription services, and more than 35% play online video games at least once a week, according to Limelight Networks.
- Major technology developers are investing in online gaming in the North American gaming market, further bolstering the region's market growth. In January of this year, Microsoft, an American MNC, announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc., a prominent player in game development and interactive entertainment content publishing. This acquisition may accelerate the growth of Microsoft's gaming business across mobile, PC, console, and cloud and is expected to drive demand for the company's Xbox offerings.
- Additionally, in March of this year, Intel launched the Arc series of Graphics Processing Units (GPU) for laptops and desktop PCs. Laptops with the Arc 3 GPU, designed for enhanced gaming and content production, are available for pre-order, while laptops with the Arc 5 and Arc 7 GPUs, designed for advanced and high-performance gaming, will come later in the current year.
- Cloud gaming companies benefit from collaborating with telecoms to develop better end-to-end networks and encourage 5G adoption in the region. The need for telecoms to increase their upstream capacity to meet the demands of esports players is a further driving force, and various vendors are collaborating to meet their gaming needs.
Gaming GPU players in the region also focus on developing GPU products, further driving the region's growth. For instance, in July last year, AMD introduced the AMD Radeon RX 6600XT series graphics products, harnessing the power of the AMD RDNA architecture while providing better performance with its 9.6 teraflops of RDNA 2 technology and 8 GB of GDDR6 RAM.
