Key factors, such as rapid adoption of gamification concept in the corporate sector, surge in need to enhance customer experience, and integration of social media with gamification, will drive the growth of the gamification market, with a CAGR of 24.2%, during the forecast period (2020–2030). The market was valued at $7,841.5 million in 2019, which is expected to reach $76,298.9 million by 2030. The prime area of opportunity for the market is the integration of AI with gamification.
Integration of AI technologies, such as machine learning (ML), in gamification enables companies to study success rate of gamification solutions through a dashboard. Similarly, the companies are analyzing customer behavior from gaming platforms through the use of advanced business intelligence (BI) tools. In September 2018, Tritium Software S.L. (ForceManager) acquired Sellf S.r.l., a Europe-based firm developing gamification solutions, to integrate its AI capabilities into field sales gaming solutions offered by Sellf S.r.l. Through this integration, Tritium Software has created an intelligent personal assistant.
Due to surging opportunities, the gamification market is expected to increase significantly in future. One of the key factors behind this growth is the rising need among companies to offer better customer experience. The enterprises are enhancing their customer engagement by leveraging gamification technologies in interactive communication, product exploration, game-based marketing, and loyalty programs. Additionally, personalized recommendation for quizzes and games are also being used to build brand loyalty and increase customer engagement.
Also, the gamification market growth is driven by increasing focus of the companies on monitoring level progress to improve performance of employees and engagement with customers. With in-house competitions, activity feeds, and progress bars, the gamification lets the enterprises boost and monitor their employees’ performance. Likewise, customer-brand engagement can be improved through virtual currencies, avatars and storytelling, and virtual gifts.
Based on the end-user segment, the gamification market is categorized into banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI); retail; healthcare; media and entertainment; education; information technology (IT) and telecom; and government. Of these, the retail category dominated the market during the historical period (2014–2019), due to the rising adoption of gamification solutions by retailers, to increase their brand loyalty and sales, by improving their customer engagement. During the forecast period, the media and entertainment category is expected to display the fastest growth, by employing the technologies to raise subscriptions rate, understand customers’ preference, create brand awareness, and promote new products.
Regarding the regional performance, the North American gamification market generated the maximum revenue in 2019, and is expected to retain its dominance during the forecast period. It is due to huge investments in the IT sector, presence of several gamification startups, increasing demand for AI-enabled gamification solutions, earlier penetration of the technologies for product development and marketing than other regions, and surging focus of businesses on improving employee performance and customer engagement. Whereas, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market is expected to demonstrate the fastest growth during the forecast period, due to the increasing penetration of smartphones and fast-paced digitization.
To expand their presence and product portfolios, players operating in the gamification market are opting for mergers and acquisitions. For example, LevelEleven LLC, a performance management software developer, merged with Geopointe LLC, a geographic mapping service provider, in February 2020, to provide solutions for improved customer relationship management (CRM) and better sales performance through the newly formed Ascent Cloud LLC. Some other players operating in the market include Faya Corporation, nGUVU Technologies Inc., Salesforce Inc., XLPro Training Solutions Pvt. Ltd., and Bigtincan Holdings Limited.
Therefore, the increasing focus on improving customer engagement is expected to propel the demand for gamification technologies during the forecast period.
