Global video game sector exceeds $150B size: Expert

The video game sector' size exceeded $150 billion in 2018 globally, a board member of an IT association, Bilisim Grubu, has said.

"There are over 2.5 billion gamers in the world, their gaming expenses rose by 9.6% to reach $152.1 billion year-on-year in 2018," Cengizhan Buyukyurt told Anadolu Agency.

He underlined that the video game sector was one of the fast-growing industries, and it had a huge potential.

Most of the income is received by free online games such as League of Legends and Overwatch, while Turkish companies also created online games which were known in the global area, he noted.

The Turkish gaming market's value was $750 million in 2017, while it was $878 million last year and is expected to reach $970 million in 2019, he stressed.

Tansu Kendirli, the head of Game Developers, Designers, Producers and Publishers Association (Oyunder), highlighted: "The gaming industry is the only sector which reached an annual 10% growth rate in the last two decades."

Touching on e-sports area, Kendirli said investors' interest is raising day by day in this field, which is a new area was born in the gaming industry.

He noted Turkey, of which gaming industry attracts investors, has 35 million gamers and $1 billion gaming exports annually.

Erol Ozmandiraci, a board member of Turkey's E-sport Teams Union, said Turkey's prominent sports clubs Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas established e-sport teams.

Within 10 years, every sports club will establish an e-sport team in Turkey and also in the world, he expressed.