Gaming GPU Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The gaming GPU market is expected to grow at 14.1% CAGR during the forecast period of 2021-2026. The rising trend of gamification among millennials has led to the increasing adoption of a virtual world for video gamers. Gaming machines have also evolved from powerful location-based machines found in restaurants, arcades, and bars to in-home machines in the form of gaming consoles and then PCs. As Moore’s Law drove down chip prices and increased performance, people bought more gaming machines for the home, which has a positive price-elasticity effect at the expense of the location-based gaming machines. As gaming machines’ sales have increased in the last few years, the demand for gaming GPU has grown significantly.

Key Highlights

• The demand for high-end computing systems for graphics-intensive gaming applications has increased with the rising adoption of smartphones, tablets, PCs, and consoles for gaming purposes. The GPU market demand is driven by the growing need for specialized processors that can handle complex mathematical calculations related to 2D and 3D graphics required for gaming purposes.
• Other drivers for the market include industry verticals such as automotive, manufacturing, real estate, and healthcare, with the rising usage of processors to support graphics applications and 3D content. For instance, manufacturing & design applications in the automotive sector, CAD, and simulation software use GPUs to create realistic images and animations for critical applications.
• With the rising trend of cloud gaming, GPU’s market has seen an upward trend in recent years. For example, Blade, a French startup behind Shadow, is a cloud computing service offering for gamers. For a monthly subscription fee, a player can access a gaming PC in a data center. Compared to other cloud gaming services, the company provides full Windows 10 features. 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.
• At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, GPU developers and their ecosystem partners were helping research institutes with their improved computing expertise. For instance, in June 2020, AMD and its technology partner Penguin Computing Inc. announced that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, and Rice University are named to receive high-performance computing systems such as CPUs, GPUs from the AMD HPC Fund for the COVID-19 research. Various major cloud platforms providers, including Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM, are partnering with GPU providers to deliver cloud-based gaming to the users.

Key Market Trends

Console Gaming is Expected to Grow at a Significant Rate

• With the increasing adoption of esports and other types of online gaming, the rise of video games through consoles is 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 service offerings, like fast broadband, live sports, and optimally monetizing the audience through OTT services. Video gaming developers could provide premium pricing for gaming subscription services, including access to esports events and original content.
• In December 2019, the Nintendo Switch surpassed the Xbox One in terms of lifetime console sales and, with new consoles for both Sony and Microsoft in the pipeline, Nintendo will have top spot firmly in its sights. The Nintendo Switch sets itself apart from its competitors by the fact that it can be used as both a stationary console and a portable device, meaning that gamers can play from the comfort of their own homes or on the go.
• Further, major game developers are also focusing on developing console-based games with high graphics quality, which contributes to the growth of the console gaming segment. Both Sony and Microsoft are prioritizing the refresh rates up to 120fps instead of trying to market the consoles as 8K capable, making the gaming experience seamless. Nvidia is even trying to move beyond 4K, with its monster RTX 3090 graphics card delivering 8K gaming for PCs.
• Console developers are also focusing on new product development to raise the bar of the competition in the market. For instance, Sony is trying to deliver 10.28 teraflops of performance, which is nearly 15 percent less than the Xbox Series X along with some fundamental differences in cooling and architecture, that enable Sony to deliver variable GPU and CPU speeds, with Microsoft sticking to the more traditional fixed speeds and closely competing in terms of 4K performance.
• The increasing incorporation of AR and VR in various applications is expected to drive the adoption of GPUs. Achieving true AR or VR and creating a compelling user experience is a viable option due to graphics technology improvements. Many companies are developing VR solutions primarily to redefine the way people experience computing and gaming, and the companies are developing GPU systems too for AR and VR applications.

North America is Expected to Hold a Significant Share

• The rise in gaming across 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 (source: Limelight Networks).
• Major technology developers are investing in online gaming in the North American gaming market, further bolstering the region's market growth. For example, in the Q2 of 2020, Amazon ramped up its expansion into the video gaming industry with the "Crucible" game's release.
• Google is also opening its in-house gaming studio in Canada to develop games for the Stadia streaming service. Apple has also launched the Arcade subscription services, and Facebook has been strengthening its footprint in VR games with a significant number of studio acquisitions in 2020.
• Gaming GPU players present in the region are also focusing on developing GPU products, further driving the region's growth. For instance, in July 2021, AMD introduced AMD Radeon RX 6600XT series graphics products, harnessing AMD RDNA architecture's power while providing better performance with its 9.6 teraflops of RDNA 2 technology and 8GB of GDDR6 RAM.

Competitive Landscape

The gaming GPU market is significantly consolidated and consists of a lesser number of global and regional players. These players account for a significant share in the market and focus on expanding their customer base across the globe. These vendors focus on the research and development investment in introducing new solutions, strategic alliances, and other organic & inorganic growth strategies to earn a competitive edge over the forecast period.

• May 2021 - NVIDIA made new additions to the GeForce RTX family - the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. The NVIDIA Ampere architecture powers the GPU, the RTX 3080 Ti, which delivers good performance and fidelity with acclaimed features such as ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS performance-boosting AI, NVIDIA Reflex latency-reduction, NVIDIA Broadcast streaming features, and additional memory that allows it to speed through popular creator applications as well.
• May 2021 - AMD and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Esports Team announced a new partnership to empower the team with championship-level computing technologies and performance for competitive virtual racing. AMD’s combination of AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Graphics Cards, built upon the AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Desktop Processors, powered by cores for PC gamers, and advanced Radeon Software to enable the high framerates and ultra-low-latency gameplay.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support