The console market in the Russian Federation is growing due to portable devices and nostalgia
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Sales of game consoles in Russia in 2023 in units more than doubled, retailers and marketplaces told Kommersant. The total volume is estimated at 23 billion rubles. Market participants especially note the growing demand for portable devices, including Steam Deck, and retro consoles. Their role, according to experts, will increase, including due to impulsive purchases. The popularity of traditional consoles will be hampered by difficulties in paying for games.
The Russian market for game consoles in 2023 amounted to 23 billion rubles, sales in units reached 1.3 million, M.Video-Eldorado told Kommersant. The figures are more than double market estimates for 2022. The assessment includes all types of consoles, including relatively cheap retro consoles (modern imitations of old consoles), the company clarified. M.Video-Eldorado did not disclose its market share. But they clarified that sales of consoles in the retailer’s stores increased in units by 2.1 times, including retro consoles by 30%.
Business analyst of the IT holding Fplus Artur Makhlayuk “preliminarily agrees” with the assessments of M.Video-Eldorado. He confirms the popularity of retro consoles and set-top boxes from little-known brands: “Portable game consoles, including the new version of Steam Deck, also showed good results on the Russian market last year.” At the same time, according to him, sales of the Nintendo Switch hybrid console decreased by the third quarter. Although by the end of the year, “the figure probably increased due to the onset of the pre-New Year sales season.”
Yandex Market is also talking about the growing demand for retro consoles and portable consoles. In general, according to the marketplace, the number of console purchases in 2023 increased by 2.7 times. Avito noted that sales of new products in the game consoles category increased by 34%, and used ones by 13%: “The total number of console purchase transactions for the year amounted to approximately 1.25 million.”
The global market for game consoles (including games and online services) at the end of 2023 grew by 7.2%, to $60.9 billion, after falling by 7.3% in 2022, the Financial Times reported in December, citing data research group Ampere Analysis. One of the factors cited by analysts is the restoration of the supply of the PlayStation 5, previously considered to be in short supply, and the “strong lineup of video games released over the year.”
In 2022, the owners of the main console platforms (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) limited the possibilities of their use in Russia through the sale of digital copies of games and access to online services. The latter can be paid for with the help of intermediaries, but last fall they increased the prices for their services four to five times due to the rise in price of subscriptions in Turkey (see “Kommersant” dated September 8, 2023).
The most powerful portable consoles (Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally) are technically mobile PCs, allowing you to install games bypassing the manufacturer’s network infrastructure. Retro consoles usually come with games pre-installed, some of which allow you to use copies of old games downloaded from the Internet.
Portable gaming devices are less reflected in the market structure than classic consoles, says Kanobu founder Gadzhi Makhtiev: “But their share will grow year by year, because gamers are constantly striving to improve their gaming experience through new platforms.” In his opinion, the dynamics of the market in the Russian Federation were primarily affected by the “normalization of user experience.” “The ability to set up game accounts, buy games and top up wallets has improved, albeit in a previously unusual way,” the expert explained.
This unfamiliarity, however, is holding back the growth of popularity of consoles in Russia, says Vasily Ovchinnikov, head of the Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry: “Although many stores help customers set up consoles, the need for unnecessary actions repels up to 30% of the potential audience.” He considers the growing interest in retro consoles, which is also observed in other countries, to be justified. Such consoles, the expert explains, attract attention due to nostalgia, and at the same time they are cheap enough to buy impulsively and as a gift.
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