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2021 and 2022 Cloud Gaming Market Share released. (Xcloud, PSNow, GFN, Stadia, Luna)

https://9to5google.com/2023/02/08/google-stadia-market-share-cloud-gaming/
While the CMA does not provide the raw numbers for each service in the public version of its report, the regulator does show a percentage range (0-5%, 5-10%, etc) of market share that each had, based on the number of monthly average users (MAUs). In an appendix, it’s explained that these charts were created based on information provided directly by each company and reflect global usage, not just players in the UK.

Cloud gaming market share, 2021​

Service%
xCloud20-30
PlayStation – Cloud30-40
NVIDIA GFN20-30
Google Stadia5-10

Cloud gaming market share, 2022​

Service%
xCloud60-70
NVIDIA GFN10-20
PlayStation Cloud Gaming10-20
Google Stadia0-5
Amazon Luna0-5



Well well, this would explain the whole Luna lay off thing, and thw two months of cutting large chunks of its library, along with the Stadia shut down. Effectively Stadia and Luna were pretty much all but dead the whole time. I'm surprised Amazon is holding on.

From the looks of this chart, PS Cloud and GeForce Now both DECREASED in 2022 from 2021, and Xcloud somehow got a massive gain in the range of 60-705 of users in 2022 compared to 2021. The ONLY one with a gain.

Strange given Geforce Now's expansion and adding new processors to their line-up as well as games. Then you have the high PS5 sales driving PS Plus adoption too.
 
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feynoob

Banned
How much is the market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?
PSnow before used to make like $180m a year.
Gforce has free time with cheap sub. That inflates its userbase numbers.
Xcloud is free, which is covered by gamepass ultimate.
The rest are crap.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
I'm so happy too. The same gaming journalists that warned that console gaming was going to die in the PS4 generation, also said cloud gaming was THE future.
I love it! I never want to give away ownership of my games. I'm going retro if every game becomes always online in the future
 
Id say the success of streaming is directly tied to the success of subscription based gaming.
If subscriptions are the future, then I guarantee the xbox streaming stick for like $80 when its released is gonna cause a huge shift in gaming.
Handhelds will probably be streaming focused as well, theres just no sense in having a 15 watt processor just to get 720p low settings at 30fps.
 

ACESHIGH

Banned
Ps now was in like 15 countries out of 200. Poor mom and pop store Sony could never deploy servers in other regions.

Ps now should have been a home run success... Can't believe how much they half assed it.
 

yurinka

Member

Cloud gaming market share, 2021​

Service%
xCloud20-30
PlayStation – Cloud30-40
NVIDIA GFN20-30
Google Stadia5-10

Cloud gaming market share, 2022​

Service%
xCloud60-70
NVIDIA GFN10-20
PlayStation Cloud Gaming10-20
Google Stadia0-5
Amazon Luna0-5



Well well, this would explain the whole Luna lay off thing
PS+ and GP subs numbers are almost flat in 2022 compared to 2021, and PS+ had a big shift on subbers upgrading to more expensive tiers. Knowing that and that there has been such big change in percent from a year to the other one must mean that the total number of cloud gaming users is very small.

Regarding Luna, still isn't a completely released product. It isn't available outside USA.

Ps now was in like 15 countries out of 200. Poor mom and pop store Sony could never deploy servers in other regions.

Ps now should have been a home run success... Can't believe how much they half assed it.
When Plus and Now were merged, the PS game streaming was expanded to 30 countries/markets. All the other countries who don't have it have the download only PS+ Deluxe alternative to the PS+ Premium tier.

Xbox Cloud Gaming instead is available in 28 countries.

In recent quarters PS+ broke records for any console maker game sub revenue in a quarter, even if they had a flat/slight decrease in subs. Meaning, many existing subs migrated to more expensive tiers.

Hmm. so Sony decline is from shutting down PSNow? So it is essentially PS+ Premium members doing cloud streaming now?
Sony didn't shut down PS Now, they merged it into PS Plus as part of the PS+ Premium tier (which includes more things in addition to cloud gaming). The PS+ subs number remained more or less flat, decreased a bit.

But many existing PS+ subbers migrated to more expensive tiers, so in the most recent quarters Sony has been breaking gaming history records for console maker game sub revenue in a quarter.

PS+ Premium includes the stuff from PS+ essential (the old PS+ with montly games and PS+ Collection, discounts, online MP for paid games, cloud saves), PS+ Extra (around 400 PS4 and PS5 games) and adds on top around 300 games from the PS+ Deluxe tier (PS4 version of cross-gen PSP/Vita/PS3/PS4 games, remasters or remakes for PS4, emulated PS1/PSP/PS2 games), the time limited full game trials and cloud gaming of the PS+ Extra and Deluxe tier on PS+PC plus streaming only (around 100 or more) PS3 games.

The Deluxe tier is an alternative for the Premium tier for countries where cloud gaming isn't available (cloud gaming is available in 30 countries).

Both use Microsoft azure, im pretty sure. Should be functionally the same.
Azure is a tool to remotely manage servers and optionally hire PC servers, or in some rare cases to hire datacenter space to put there your own servers.

PS cloud gaming doesn't use MS servers, they use Sony propietary servers instead that use hardware of multiple PS3 or PS4 consoles embedded in server racks, adapted to be played via cloud gaming instead of in a tv. MS can't make these servers, only Sony makes PS3s and PS4s.

Also, Sony has their own cloud gaming infrastructure and technology, and also own the most patents for cloud gaming. Some created by them and other ones bought to Gaikai and Onlive.

So no, MS may pay Sony to use these patents and use a similar tech or results for Xbox cloud gaming but no, they don't use the same tech or same servers.

Id say the success of streaming is directly tied to the success of subscription based gaming.
If subscriptions are the future, then I guarantee the xbox streaming stick for like $80 when its released is gonna cause a huge shift in gaming.
As I remember game subs represent only around 8% of the worldwide game revenue and it's expected to grow to 10-15% in the next few years (2025 as I remember but I may be wrong). And only a small portion of that 8% is from cloud gaming.

So who knows, cloud gaming may be only maybe a 1 or 2% of the total game revenue, I wouldn't call it a success. I think it's something that has potential to be big in 15-20 years from now but that right now it's on its infancy and won't be mainstream in at least 10 years due to many reasons that can't be controlled by platform holders (5G coverage, internet infrastructure in many countries, many countries still using data caps, people not updating/configuring properly their routers, etc).

Phil Spencer said they cancelled the xbox streaming stick because he wanted to ship it for under $100 including a gamepad and due to recent price increase in components, shipments, inflation etc. and so on they weren't able to achieve this price.
 
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Fox Mulder

Member
Both use Microsoft azure, im pretty sure. Should be functionally the same.

Even if that’s true, there’s tons of reasons why they’d have different performance even in my house on the same internet. Sony had a huge head start and probably has specific patents and hardware. Maybe I’m just closer to something. That’s just the state of game streaming and why it struggles.
 

Nico_D

Member
I played through the Sly Cooper Collection on PSNow and had zero complaints. Xcloud is shit for me and only stutters, but they’re still in beta I guess.

Have you tried playing through Microsoft Edge? Xbox app is absolute shit with xcloud, slow buggy pixel mess, Edge is 100x better.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
How much is the market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?
Those are not the right questions. When a new market is forming the only thing that matters is what is the likely future market worth, does the market show growth in line with that future estimate, and who is on the path to be a major player. It's about gaining a foothold, improving the user experience and growing the userbase, not about how much they are making now.

As of now it is looking like the only players that can make any traction are those who already serve the gaming market with HW and or SW. Sony and MS have both the HW and SW reach and can easily reach gamers through their ecosystem. Nvidia is trying the same to some extent, or at least tried to get people to sub when buying RTX 30 series cards, but it is weird because most gamers that buy NVidia products want to game directly on them so they are really trying to access people outside of their typical userbase and are falling behind. Amazon and Google seem to have proved that it is not possible to even attract people to sub for their services. I am really curious about how Nintendo views this. Streaming doesn't mix well with their current hw strategy but they certainly have the content to draw people in once streaming games becomes more mainstream.
 

Hip Hop

Member
Like.....what do you mean cloud gaming is "the future"? Because you don't believe it'll be the main way people will play their games do you?
It's crazy to see gamers, you know, people that should have knowledge about how technology works. You know, things get better with time?

Are you really telling me we are never gonna get to a point where I can game on my smartphone via the cloud, and have it be 100 percent the same latency and graphics, and nothing to differentiate a physical and digital version?
Are you seriously telling me we will never get there? I'm 100 percent sure you will be wrong, it's just common sense really.
 

MadPanda

Banned
Microsoft knows this is the future, and I don't think companies are giving it a serious look like they are. It's gonna pay off big in the future, and everyone else will be playing catch-up when this technology becomes a requirement.
We've been listening to the same story for 10 years now. I use GFN from time to time and it's great but if it's the future it's a distant future.
 
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mckmas8808

Banned
It's crazy to see gamers, you know, people that should have knowledge about how technology works. You know, things get better with time?

Are you really telling me we are never gonna get to a point where I can game on my smartphone via the cloud, and have it be 100 percent the same latency and graphics, and nothing to differentiate a physical and digital version?
Are you seriously telling me we will never get there? I'm 100 percent sure you will be wrong, it's just common sense really.

I mean maybe we will in 20 years. But why discuss something that's 20 years away? How does cloud gaming work in a VR\AR gaming world? How does it work when you're riding in a car to your grandparents house?
 
Regarding Luna, still isn't a completely released product. It isn't available outside USA.

That didn't stop Stadia before it expanded.

Luna just isn't catching on, even prime Gaming which is international is not catching on, which I think they will remove the remains of Luna too when they can it.
 

GHG

Gold Member
Are you really telling me we are never gonna get to a point where I can game on my smartphone via the cloud, and have it be 100 percent the same latency and graphics, and nothing to differentiate a physical and digital version?
Are you seriously telling me we will never get there? I'm 100 percent sure you will be wrong, it's just common sense really.

Games designed around smartphones and the games typically discussed here are two different things.

For people who want to game on smartphones there's a whole segment of the industry that caters specifically to their needs.
 

JLB

Banned
Huge numbers for Xcloud, much better than I guessed. Still I'd take these with a grain of salt, if they were 100% real MS would be bragging about for sure.
 
It's crazy to see gamers, you know, people that should have knowledge about how technology works. You know, things get better with time?

Are you really telling me we are never gonna get to a point where I can game on my smartphone via the cloud, and have it be 100 percent the same latency and graphics, and nothing to differentiate a physical and digital version?
Are you seriously telling me we will never get there? I'm 100 percent sure you will be wrong, it's just common sense really.
There is an electrical sub station that takes power from the really tall power poles then it goes underground to all the houses in the neighborhood. I can see a future where that station has some battery backup in place with room leftover for a cloud server or two for the entire neighborhood.
I mean it could happen right?

I read some article recently that Bill Gates is championing big power poles going across country and that we are going to need them.
 
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yurinka

Member
That didn't stop Stadia before it expanded.

Luna just isn't catching on, even prime Gaming which is international is not catching on, which I think they will remove the remains of Luna too when they can it.
Luna still is in a soft launch beta, still has not been released worldwide.

And even considering it's only available in a single country, Luna did similar numbers to Stadia and like half of what Sony or Nvidia did worldwide.

This means that Luna is being very successful, way more than Stadia was.

It's crazy to see gamers, you know, people that should have knowledge about how technology works. You know, things get better with time?

Are you really telling me we are never gonna get to a point where I can game on my smartphone via the cloud, and have it be 100 percent the same latency and graphics, and nothing to differentiate a physical and digital version?
Are you seriously telling me we will never get there? I'm 100 percent sure you will be wrong, it's just common sense really.
At least using wired LAN connection from console to router, a decent router properly configured (I have a recent wifi6 router) and a decent internet connection (I have I think 500Gb/s fiber), with a current cloud gaming service like PS+ today it offers a cloud gaming experience in my home where most players wouldn't be able to notice the latency and image degradation during 99% of the cases.

Once they open more servers to be closer to more people, and once people upgrade to having proper tech the quality is going to be good enough to most people. But we're still many years away from seeing that.
 
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Hip Hop

Member
I mean maybe we will in 20 years. But why discuss something that's 20 years away? How does cloud gaming work in a VR\AR gaming world? How does it work when you're riding in a car to your grandparents house?
Amazon had a 20 year plan. They held off for so long and lost tons of money, until it was profitable and now everyone uses the internet and now everyone shops there. They build the system and understood the importance of pushing for the future.

I don't see how them building up a system that is not here yet, but near, is a problem.
 

mckmas8808

Banned
Amazon had a 20 year plan. They held off for so long and lost tons of money, until it was profitable and now everyone uses the internet and now everyone shops there. They build the system and understood the importance of pushing for the future.

I don't see how them building up a system that is not here yet, but near, is a problem.

It's not a problem at all. It's only a problem when people say console gaming will die because cloud gaming is the future.
 

dotnotbot

Member
Huge numbers for Xcloud, much better than I guessed. Still I'd take these with a grain of salt, if they were 100% real MS would be bragging about for sure.

They don't want to look like market leaders because of the acquistion, hence the silence. It's a major argument used by FTC and CMA against the merger that MS could gain too much advantage in the cloud gaming space.
 
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Hip Hop

Member
It's not a problem at all. It's only a problem when people say console gaming will die because cloud gaming is the future.
Consoles, from Xbox Nintendo and Playstation I'm sure will die as a whole in the future. How soon? I don't know.


I think Microsoft also realizes this and this is why you see them pushing their Cloud Gaming app everywhere including already having the app on your television. No need for an extra gaming box. They want it to be available to you everywhere, no more $500 barrier for anyone and you instantly have a gaming base of millions with different compatible devices everywhere. Now they can just focus on and sell you just the software.
 

A.Romero

Member
PS+ and GP subs numbers are almost flat in 2022 compared to 2021, and PS+ had a big shift on subbers upgrading to more expensive tiers. Knowing that and that there has been such big change in percent from a year to the other one must mean that the total number of cloud gaming users is very small.

Regarding Luna, still isn't a completely released product. It isn't available outside USA.


When Plus and Now were merged, the PS game streaming was expanded to 30 countries/markets. All the other countries who don't have it have the download only PS+ Deluxe alternative to the PS+ Premium tier.

Xbox Cloud Gaming instead is available in 28 countries.

In recent quarters PS+ broke records for any console maker game sub revenue in a quarter, even if they had a flat/slight decrease in subs. Meaning, many existing subs migrated to more expensive tiers.


Sony didn't shut down PS Now, they merged it into PS Plus as part of the PS+ Premium tier (which includes more things in addition to cloud gaming). The PS+ subs number remained more or less flat, decreased a bit.

But many existing PS+ subbers migrated to more expensive tiers, so in the most recent quarters Sony has been breaking gaming history records for console maker game sub revenue in a quarter.

PS+ Premium includes the stuff from PS+ essential (the old PS+ with montly games and PS+ Collection, discounts, online MP for paid games, cloud saves), PS+ Extra (around 400 PS4 and PS5 games) and adds on top around 300 games from the PS+ Deluxe tier (PS4 version of cross-gen PSP/Vita/PS3/PS4 games, remasters or remakes for PS4, emulated PS1/PSP/PS2 games), the time limited full game trials and cloud gaming of the PS+ Extra and Deluxe tier on PS+PC plus streaming only (around 100 or more) PS3 games.

The Deluxe tier is an alternative for the Premium tier for countries where cloud gaming isn't available (cloud gaming is available in 30 countries).


Azure is a tool to remotely manage servers and optionally hire PC servers, or in some rare cases to hire datacenter space to put there your own servers.

PS cloud gaming doesn't use MS servers, they use Sony propietary servers instead that use hardware of multiple PS3 or PS4 consoles embedded in server racks, adapted to be played via cloud gaming instead of in a tv. MS can't make these servers, only Sony makes PS3s and PS4s.

Also, Sony has their own cloud gaming infrastructure and technology, and also own the most patents for cloud gaming. Some created by them and other ones bought to Gaikai and Onlive.

So no, MS may pay Sony to use these patents and use a similar tech or results for Xbox cloud gaming but no, they don't use the same tech or same servers.


As I remember game subs represent only around 8% of the worldwide game revenue and it's expected to grow to 10-15% in the next few years (2025 as I remember but I may be wrong). And only a small portion of that 8% is from cloud gaming.

So who knows, cloud gaming may be only maybe a 1 or 2% of the total game revenue, I wouldn't call it a success. I think it's something that has potential to be big in 15-20 years from now but that right now it's on its infancy and won't be mainstream in at least 10 years due to many reasons that can't be controlled by platform holders (5G coverage, internet infrastructure in many countries, many countries still using data caps, people not updating/configuring properly their routers, etc).

Phil Spencer said they cancelled the xbox streaming stick because he wanted to ship it for under $100 including a gamepad and due to recent price increase in components, shipments, inflation etc. and so on they weren't able to achieve this price.
Dont know about the rest but wanted to clarify that Azure is much more than what you said. Its a whole ecosystem, just like AWS and Google Cloud.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
That's some solid Xcloud growth there.

It's definitely come a long way from 2, 3 years ago in terms of latency/response.
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
seems like xbox is going to abandon physical and digital and go full always online for their games in the future.
 

Gobjuduck

Banned
seems like xbox is going to abandon physical and digital and go full always online for their games in the future.
Every platform will be this way, similar to steam, by next gen. Nintendo might keep a switch cartridge slot, for backwards compatibility.
 

Crayon

Member
The reason it isn't inevitable is because there is a time coming when a mobile chip will run a game in 1080p that would look pretty similar to the console version at 4k then streamed 1080p. Clock's ticking. A ps5 is far more powerful than a ps4 but it that doesn't get you much these days. Demon's souls looks great because it looks perceptably better than ps4 games which already looked amazing. PS4 was the first time a console's graphics were totally holding up at the end of a long run. Diminishing returns are real and there is only so far left to go while graphics take these ever smaller steps towards looking like real life. That whole angle of playing with better graphics than your phone can locally do will be slipping away over the next 10-20 years.

And i don't think you are going to convert many clash of clans players to assassin's creed in the meantime, sorry.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
They should release the market size and value.

Isn't CMAs whole argument is that it would give Microsoft a lead in cloud gaming?
 

Goalus

Member
How much is the market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?
How much is the self-driving car market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?

How much is the VR market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?

How much is the quantum computer market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?

How much is the space exploration market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?

How much is the cancer cure market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?

How much is the nuclear fusion market worth in dollars and is anyone actually making profits?
 

Gobjuduck

Banned
huh? steam is digital, not really consider as cloud ?
ah, misunderstood your post.

Didn't think you meant cloud only. Thought you just meant often online checks (like redfall, diablo 4, and so on). Cloud only anything would be dumb, like stadia. Xbox knows they need actual hardware running the games. Plus, the blades running games that are streamed are just Xbox consoles, why not sell that to consumers forever.
 

yurinka

Member
Dont know about the rest but wanted to clarify that Azure is much more than what you said. Its a whole ecosystem, just like AWS and Google Cloud.
Yes, Azure, AWS or Google Cloud have a lot of optional services, features and apps more to be used in/called from servers you manage (let's say a server for a website, an app or a game), as could be neural cloud based text to speech generation an example (I recently tested it in all 3).

But they are secondary optional extras that aren't used at all in PS+ cloud gaming, which is what we were talking about. Because the servers used by that are basically several PS3s or PS4s 'ducktaped' together in a server rack with minor tweaks to get the gamepad inputs via streaming and to send the image via streaming.

Everything it's way more complex than that (there's the server balancing and scaling stuff, managing the connections, restarting servers that fail etc) but I wanted to keep my wall of text small and write it in a way that everyone could understand it.
 
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aries_71

Junior Member
XCloud is huge. When people starts using it in their LG and Samsung TVs it’s going to be even bigger. I was impressed by Stadía when I was a subscriber.
 
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