A new case study by localisation company Blend has been released, exploring the value of localising gaming brands and analysing SimilarWeb’s data report from July 2022.

Among the top gaming websites, many were found to come from English-speaking countries like the UK, Canada and the US, but a number did originate in other parts of the world such as China, Japan, Colombia and elsewhere.

Speaking statistics

According to SimilarWeb, of the top 50 gaming websites, 23 (48 per cent) have over four language options and 32 garner more than a fifth of their traffic from locations outside their country of origin. Based on this, Blend suggests that local games companies can grow globally but "need to consider various cultural and societal implications" of their titles, especially in the age of the internet and mobile games. Furthermore, in order to achieve multimarket success, the company considers localisation "non-negotiable".

According to the SimilarWeb data, among the most internationally visited gaming sites are Twitch and Steam, with 79 percent of Twitch traffic coming from outside the US and 85 percent outside the US for Steam. Electronic Arts has a similar distribution with 82 percent of its web views coming from outside the US, and boasts 24 different language options.

Western Europe specifically has seen a recent surge in hardcore mobile gaming, rising by 27 per cent year-on-year.

The websites for Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation have more than 40 language options each and over 65 per cent of traffic comes from foreign markets. Epic Games, meanwhile, gets 90 per cent of its website traffic from foreign markets.

Blend proposes that gamers should be engaged in their native tongue on websites especially, but also notes the importance of voice-over within games themselves. "Finding the right voice-over artists to suit character personas is important to give players a consistent experience in every language. Consider different voice-over artists for different countries," Blend says.

"Without localisation, companies risk making themselves inaccessible to millions of gamers worldwide."

Further data on the size of the global market and its active player base was also provided.

Earlier this year, TransPerfect head of global testing & QA Semih Altinay, whose expertise includes product localisation, spoke with us about standing out in the international mobile market.