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In the video game industry during 2019, both Sony and Microsoft announced their intent to reveal their next-generation consoles in 2020, while Nintendo introduced a smaller Nintendo Switch Lite, and Google announced its streaming game platform Stadia. The controversy over loot boxes as a potential gambling route continued into 2019, with some governments like Belgium and the Netherlands banning games with them under their gambling laws, while the United Kingdom acknowledging their current laws prevent enforcing these as if they were games of chance. The first video cards to support real-time ray tracing were put onto the consumer market, including the first set of games that would take advantage of the new technology. The Epic Games Store continued its growth in challenging the largest digital PC game distribution service Steam, leading to concern and debate about Epic Games' methods to seek games for its service. Dota Auto Chess, a community-created mod for Dota 2, introduced a new subgenre of strategy games called auto battlers, which saw several games in the genre released throughout the year.[1] Blizzard Entertainment faced criticism due to their involvement in the Blitzchung controversy, which began after they had banned a Hearthstone player for making comments during a tournament regarding the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.
Major awards
Critically acclaimed games
Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities.
SuperData Research estimated that the video game industry grew 4% in 2019, reaching $120.1 billion in global revenues. SuperData stated the market was dominated by mobile games which made up $64.4 billion, with personal computer games at $29.6 billion and console games at $15.4 billion.[6]
App Annie, which tracks all mobile app sales, estimated that mobile games accounted for 72% of the $120 billion spent on the various app stores in 2019, or $86 billion, with the potential to exceed $100 billion by 2020. Mobile game expenditures made up 56% of all video game-related revenues in 2019.[7]
Highest-grossing games
The following were 2019's top ten highest-grossing video games in terms of worldwide digital revenue (including digital purchases, microtransactions, free-to-play and pay-to-play) across all platforms (including mobile, PC and console platforms). The top ten highest-grossing digital games of the year were all free-to-play games, each grossing more than $1 billion worldwide in 2019.[6] Six of the top ten highest-grossing games, including the top five titles, are published and/or owned by Chinese conglomerate Tencent.
| Rank | Game | Revenue | Publisher(s) | Genre(s) | Business model | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortnite | $3,709,000,000 | Epic Games (Tencent) | Battle royale, survival | Free-to-play | [8] |
| 2 | PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) | $1,788,000,000 | Bluehole / Tencent | Battle royale | Free-to-play / buy-to-play | [a] |
| 3 | Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) | $1,600,000,000 | Nexon / Tencent | Beat 'em up | Free-to-play | [6] |
| 4 | Honor of Kings / Arena of Valor | $1,600,000,000 | Tencent | MOBA | ||
| 5 | League of Legends | $1,500,000,000 | Riot Games / Tencent | |||
| 6 | Candy Crush Saga | $1,500,000,000 | King (Activision Blizzard) | Puzzle | ||
| 7 | Pokémon Go | $1,400,000,000 | Niantic / Nintendo / The Pokémon Company | Augmented reality | ||
| 8 | Crossfire | $1,400,000,000 | Smilegate / Tencent | FPS | ||
| 9 | Fate/Grand Order (FGO) | $1,200,000,000 | Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) | RPG | ||
| 10 | Last Shelter: Survival | $1,100,000,000 | Long Tech | Simulation |
Best-selling games by country
The following were 2019's top ten best-selling video games by country, in terms of software units sold (excluding microtransactions and free-to-play titles) on PC and console platforms, for the United States, Japan, and United Kingdom.
| Month | Day(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| January | 10 | Bungie terminated its publishing deal with Activision, maintaining rights to the Destiny series. |
| 30 | Nintendo ceases service operations of the Wii Shop Channel app for the Nintendo Wii.[13] | |
| February | 4 | Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts surprise-released Apex Legends, a battle royale game that within a week gained 25 million players and challenged the dominance of Fortnite Battle Royale.[14] |
| 11–13 | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2019 D.I.C.E. Summit and 22nd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada,[15] Bonnie Ross inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.[16] | |
| 12 | Activision Blizzard announced that despite a record quarter, it would be laying off about 8% or 775 positions, primarily from non-development sectors.[17] | |
| 13 | THQ Nordic acquired Warhorse Studios.[18] | |
| March | 18–22 | The 2019 Game Developers Conference was held in San Francisco. |
| 19 | Google revealed Stadia, a game streaming service. | |
| 26 | Electronic Arts announced it would be cutting about 350 jobs or about 4% of its workforce.[19] | |
| 28–31 | PAX East was held in Boston. | |
| 31 | Dies irae and Silverio developer Light suspended activity as its parent company Greenwood dissolved.[20][21] | |
| April | 13–14 | The inaugural Twitchcon Europe was held in Berlin. |
| 15 | Reggie Fils-Aimé retired as president and CEO of Nintendo of America and was replaced by Doug Bowser.[22] | |
| May | 1 | Epic Games acquired Rocket League developer Psyonix.[23] |
| 7 | Microsoft released the "All-Digital" version of the Xbox One S console, which lacks an optical drive for a lower price point.[24] | |
| 10 | Sega acquired Two Point Studios, the creator of Two Point Hospital.[25] | |
| June | 9 | Xbox Game Studios announced their acquisition of Double Fine, the developers of the Psychonauts series.[26] |
| Microsoft announced their next-generation Xbox console, Project Scarlett. | ||
| 11–13 | E3 2019 was held in Los Angeles, California. | |
| 18 | Kaz Hirai retired from Sony Corporation after serving the company for 35 years, most recently as CEO and chairman for 6 years.[27] | |
| 19 | Popular streamer and YouTuber Etika disappeared;[28] his body was discovered in the East River five days later in an act of suicide by drowning.[29][30] | |
| July | 12 | Chiyomaru Studio acquired Science Adventure developer Mages.[31] |
| 26–28 | The inaugural Fortnite World Cup was held at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. | |
| August | 16–18 | The Pokémon World Championships was held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., United States;[32] it was also the last Championships event to be held in North America. |
| 19 | Worldwide Studios announced the acquisition of Insomniac Games for $229 million.[33][34] The deal was completed on November 15.[35] | |
| 20–24 | Gamescom 2019 was held in Cologne, Germany.[36] | |
| 20–25 | The International 2019, the ninth iteration of the annual Dota 2 global esports tournament, was held in Shanghai.[37] | |
| 28 | LCG Entertainment acquired the remaining assets of Telltale Games and relaunched it as a new company.[38] | |
| 31– | PAX West was held in Seattle. | |
| September | 3 | |
| 12–15 | Tokyo Game Show was held in Chiba, Japan.[39] | |
| 17 | Valve lost a lawsuit in France, requiring the company to allow users to resell games on Steam required by Directives from the European Union.[40][41] | |
| 19 | Apple Arcade, a game subscription service, launched.[42] | |
| 27–29 | TwitchCon was held at San Diego, California | |
| 29 | The San Francisco Shock won the 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals over the Vancouver Titans | |
| 30 | Shawn Layden announced his departure as CEO of Worldwide Studios.[43] | |
| October | 1 | Japanese developer AlphaDream filed for bankruptcy.[44] |
| 6–11 | Blizzard Entertainment dealt with fallout from issuing bans related to pro-Hong Kong speech at the Hearthstone Grandmasters event. | |
| 11–13 | PAX Australia was held in Melbourne. | |
| 25 | The defunct developer Light was revived to finish their Silverio series in a collaboration with Ares Co. and Nexton.[21] | |
| 29 | Electronic Arts announced they would begin to publish games again on Valve's Steam service. They had originally stopped in 2011.[45] | |
| November | 1–2 | BlizzCon was held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. |
| 7 | Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that Hermen Hulst would become the new head of Worldwide Studios, while Shuhei Yoshida became the "Head of Independent Developer Initiative" at PlayStation.[46] | |
| 13 | Human Head Studios closed down while transitioning its employees to the newly formed Roundhouse Studios under Bethesda Softworks.[47] | |
| 27 | Facebook acquired Beat Games.[48] | |
| 28 | Codemasters acquired Slightly Mad Studios for $30 million.[49] | |
| December | 6 | Starbreeze Studios completed a year-long restructuring process.[50] |
| 12 | The Game Awards 2019 were held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. | |
| Microsoft unveiled the design and name of their next-generation Xbox console previously known as Project Scarlett, the Xbox Series X, set for a late 2020 release. | ||
| 19 | Stadia Games and Entertainment acquired Typhoon Studios.[51] |
- May 14 – Tim Conway, 85, voice actor best known for the character Barnacle Boy in the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise.[52]
- June 24 – Etika, 29, YouTuber and Twitch streamer who played Nintendo games.[53]
- August 31 – Alec Holowka, 35, co-game designer on Night in the Woods and former co-founder of Infinite Fall.[54]
- October 2 – John Kirby, 79, lawyer who represented Nintendo in Universal v. Nintendo and namesake of Kirby.[55]
The list of game-related hardware released in 2019 in North America.
| Month | Day | Console |
|---|---|---|
| March | 25 | Mega Sg |
| May | 7 | Xbox One S All-Digital Edition |
| 21 | Oculus Rift S | |
| Oculus Quest | ||
| June | 28 | Valve Index |
| September | 19 | Sega Genesis Mini |
| 20 | Nintendo Switch Lite | |
| October | 10 | Atari Flashback X |
| 25 | Capcom Home Arcade | |
| November | 7 | HoloLens 2 |
| 11 | NEOGEO Arcade Stick Pro | |
| 19 | Stadia | |
| December | 5 | THEC64 |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Series with new entries
Series with new installments in 2019 include Ace Combat, Age of Wonders, Bloodstained, Borderlands, Bubsy, Call of Duty, Contra, Crackdown, Crash Bandicoot, Dead or Alive, Devil May Cry, Digimon, Dr. Mario, Earth Defense Force, Far Cry, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Gears of War, God Eater, Kingdom Hearts, Kirby, Luigi's Mansion, Mario & Sonic, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, MediEvil, Metro, MLB The Show, Mortal Kombat, Need for Speed, No More Heroes, Onimusha, Persona, Pokémon, Rage, Resident Evil, Rivals of Aether, Science Adventure, Shantae, Shenmue, Sonic the Hedgehog, Star Wars, Super Mario, Terminator, Tetris, The Legend of Zelda, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy's The Division, Total War, Trials, Tropico, Umihara Kawase, Vampire: The Masquerade, Wolfenstein, WWE 2K, Yooka-Laylee, Yoshi, and Yu-Gi-Oh!.
January–March
April–June
July–September
October–December
- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds digital revenue:
- PUBG Mobile / Game for Peace (free-to-play) – $1.5 billion[9]
- PC and consoles (buy-to-play) – $288 million[6]
- The anime film made its VOD debut on Netflix worldwide as a "Netflix Original" in February 2020, except for Japan and Korea.[500]
- The CG animated film made its VOD debut on Netflix as a "Netflix Original" in February 2020.[502]
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