Just 15% of European gamers are interested in Google Stadia and xCloud According to the latest survey results from GameTrack for UK, France, Spain and Germany

Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B Wednesday 26th June 2019 Share this article Share

Companies in this article Interactive Software Federation of Europe

70% of gamers surveyed in UK, France, Germany and Spain say they're not interested in a video game streaming services.

The data comes from the latest research conducted by Ipsos MORI's GameTrack survey, on behalf of GamesIndustry.biz.

15% of the surveyed gamers (defined as anyone playing games via any device) are interested in a Netflix-style streaming service for games in the four territories included in the study. The remainder either 'don't now' (12%) or already utilise a service akin to Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud (such as the current market leader, PlayStation Now).

Just 3% of gamers claimed to be 'very interested' in such a streaming service.

The country that is most intrigued in gaming streaming platforms is the UK with 23% of players claiming to be interested (although just 5% are 'very interested'), followed by France and Spain (14%).

German players are the least interested, with just 10% of gamers keeping an eye on the services and 75% who are not interested.

Interestingly, European gamers are not too concerned by the challenges of internet connection. GameTrack asked gamers across the four markets to agree or disagree with a series of statements, and 43% believe their 'internet connection is fast enough to stream games' (23% disagreed, with the remainder unsure). The UK is the market most bullish about its internet capabilities, with 54% agreeing that their internet connection is strong enough to stream games (the least confident market is France, where 37% agreed with the statement).

However, 32% of gamers across the territories said they 'would worry about my internet connection dropping, which would prevent me from streaming games', whereas 28% were not concerned by this. Interestingly, the UK (the market most confident that it can stream games) is also the territory most concerned about internet dropping out (45%).

Potentially one of the reasons why streaming might struggle in Europe is because of the continued popularity of packaged games. 31% of surveyed gamers agreed with the statement 'I prefer to buy packaged games than stream' (versus 24% who don't). Cost is also a concern, with just 22% agreeing that a subscription-based service (which is what many of the streaming services are proposing) would offer good value for money.

But there were some promising results that could boost consumer interest. 27% of surveyed gamers agreed with the statement 'I would be more interested in a streaming service if I could download content to my hard drive', (26% disagreed with that statement). And 41% agreed with the statement: "not having to wait for updates before playing is an advantage of streaming games" acknowledging the potential benefits of a streaming services (13% disagreed).

Of course, it is important to note that one of the main objectives of streaming services is to widen the access of console and PC games to new audiences who currently do not own a dedicated gaming device (particularly in emerging markets). However, GameTrack's survey results do indicate how popular non-game streaming/subscription offerings are in France, Germany, UK and Spain, both amongst gamers and non-gamers.

50% of those surveyed in the four markets claim to live in a household with at least one subscription service, with 21% subscribing to two or more and 7% subscribing to three or more services. Netflix is the most popular based on claimed household subscriptions (30%), followed shortly by Amazon Prime (27%) and then Spotify (12%).

Despite scepticism around gaming subscription services, gamers are prolific non-game streamers/subscribers across the four European markets. 59% of gamers claim to live in a household that subscribes to any streaming platform (again, Netflix comes out top), 27% subscribe to two or more, and 10% subscribe to three or more.

According to claimed household subscriptions, the UK is the biggest market for streaming non-game content, followed by Spain, Germany and then France