Sales of legal video games in Russia decreased fourfold in January–June

Sales of video games officially imported into Russia on physical media in the first half of 2023 amounted to 133.9 thousand units. Compared to the first six months of 2022, the figure decreased four times, according to data from the Russian Association of Distributors and Importers of Video Games, which is cited by RBC. The drop in game sales in monetary terms was 57% (from 2.01 billion to 861 million rubles).

At the same time, the cost of one game on physical media in the first half of the year increased by 75%: from 3.7 thousand to 6.4 thousand rubles. a piece. An increase in the cost of games has been recorded before. However, in the first half of 2022, games increased in price by only 10% year-on-year (from 3.3 thousand to 3.7 thousand rubles per piece), and for the same period in 2021 – by 7% (from 3.1 thousand to 3.3 thousand rubles per piece).

In January–June 2021, 810 thousand legal games worth 2.7 billion rubles were sold on the Russian market, 889 thousand worth 2.78 billion rubles in 2020, 966 thousand worth 2.95 billion rubles in 2019 . The maximum number of games sold in Russia was recorded in the first half of 2014 – 1.54 million units for 3.28 billion rubles.

The President of the Russian Association of Distributors and Importers of Video Games, Yasha Haddaji, noted that the decline in sales affected only official retail, which imports goods legally through customs. The head of the TelecomDaily agency, Denis Kuskov, explained the drop in demand for games on physical media by the increase in their cost. “Not everyone is ready to overpay for a legal product, especially when a similar product is actually cheaper on the gray market. In addition, currency exchange rate fluctuations also have an impact – after all, the vast majority of video games are supplied from Europe and the USA,” Mr. Kuskov told RBC.

At the end of September, the government and video game distributors, on behalf of President Vladimir Putin, prepared proposals for promoting Russian games in foreign markets. As the Ministry of Digital Development clarified to Kommersant, we are talking, in particular, about holding “events on the territory of friendly states,” “supporting development companies,” as well as “developing multilateral ties in the video game industry.”

Read more in the Kommersant article. “Russia is playing BRICS”.

Milena Kostereva