Sam Adkins, Chief Researcher | Metaari The 2019-2024 Global Game-based Learning Market Adkins will provide key findings from the new Metaari report distributed by the Serious Play Conference called The 2019-2024 Global Game-based Learning Market. That report includes an analysis of the market in 122 countries across seven regions. He will provide five-year revenue forecasts and identify primary revenue opportunities, market catalysts, and the buying behaviors for six buying segments in each region. He will also discuss the recent worldwide boom in investment activity. Metaari has revised our revenue forecasts for the global Game-based Learning market significantly upward from previous forecasts. This is due to the impact of major global market catalysts that are creating very favorable market conditions for suppliers. Of the seven advanced learning technology products tracked by Metaari, Game-based Learning has the highest growth rate. Presented by the Serious Play Conference seriousplayconf.com at Orlando, University of Central Florida, UCF, July 24-26, 2019

1. The 2019-2024 Global Game-based
Learning Market: Serious Games
Industry in Boom Phase
“Revenues will more than quadruple to
reach well over $24 billion by 2024”
July 26, 2019
Presented by Sam S. Adkins, CEO, Metaari
sam@metaari.com

2. Key Findings from
Metaari’s 2019-2024
Global Game-based
Learning Market Report
To be Published August 1, 2019
by the Serious Play Conference

3. About Metaari (formerly Ambient Insight)
Metaari is an ethics-based quantitative market research firm that identifies revenue
opportunities for advanced learning technology suppliers.
www.metaari.com
▪ We track learning technology in 122 countries. We have a breathtaking view of the
international learning technology market.
▪ Metaari focusses solely on advanced learning technology including psychometrics,
game mechanics, robotics, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, virtual
reality, and augmented reality.

4. Sources of Information on the Global
Serious Games Market
▪ Trade Associations are Excellent Sources of
Information
▪ Financial Statements of Publicly-traded Companies
▪ Serious Game Portals
▪ Government Export Agencies
▪ Private Investment Activity
▪ M&AActivity

5. Agenda
▪ Key Findings
▪ Primary Catalysts Driving the Booming Market
▪ Quantifying the Revenues: The Pedagogical
Framework
▪ Who are the Buyers and What are The Buying?
▪ Q&A

6. Key Findings
The worldwide five-year compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) for Game-based Learning is a robust
33.2% and revenues will more than quadruple to
reach well over $24 billion by 2024.
Metaari has revised our revenue forecasts for the
global Game-based Learning market significantly
upward from previous forecasts.

7. Key Findings: The 2019-2024 Global Game-based
Learning Market Report
▪ The new report has 511 pages, 108 forecast tables, and 20
charts. Over 2,100 serious game suppliers operating in 122
countries across the globe are identified in this report.
▪ There are three sections: a detailed analysis of the catalysts,
a demand-side analysis, and a supply-side analysis. The
demand-side analysis provides revenue forecasts for seven
regions, fifty-two countries, and eight buying segments.
▪ The US is the top buying country and a detailed analysis by
eight buyer types and eleven serious game types is provided
for the US.

8. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Africa Asia Pacific Eastern
Europe
Latin
America
The Middle
East
North
America
Western
Europe
2019-2024 Game-based Learning Growth Rates by
Seven Regions
All Regions Have Growth Rates Above 25%

9. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Packaged Retail Content Custom Development
Services
Authoring Tools and
Delivery Platforms
2019-2024 Global Game-based Learning Growth
Rates by Three Products and Services
The supply-side analysis provides five-year forecasts for eleven
types of game types, custom services, and tools/platforms.

10. ▪ We categorize serious games as a subset of the
learning technology industry not as a subset of
the video game industry.
▪ Game-based Learning is a knowledge transfer
method that utilizes "game play" comprised of
competition (against oneself or others) and a
reward/penalty system that functions as an
assessment method to quantify mastery.
Metaari’s Pedagogical Definition of Game-based
Learning

11. Longitudinal Analysis: Global Five-Year Compound Annual
Growth Rates (CAGRs) for Game-based Learning Products
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Five-year CAGRs for Last 14 Forecast Periods
Forecast Periods

12. Primary Market Catalysts and Product Trends
The global Game-based Learning Industry is in a
period of wide adoption

13. Catalysts Driving
the Booming
2019-2024 Global
Game-based
Learning Market
AI Integration
in Game-
based
Learning
Products
Mixed Reality
Learning
Games in
High Demand
Across the
Planet
Historic
Levels of
Investment
Flowing to
Game-based
Learning
Companies
Large Scale
Global
Distribution
Agreements
Intense M&A
Activity With
Large
Companies
“Buying Their
Way In”
The Global
Consumer
Demand for
Mobile
Serious
Games
The Rapid
Uptake of
Game-based
Learning in
the Corporate
Segments
Growing
Availability of
Easy-to-Use
Development
Tools and
Marketplaces

14. ▪ The global Game-based Learning industry is in the midst
of exponential innovation.
▪ These innovations coincide with the extraordinary
advances in AR, VR, Mixed Reality, robotics, location-
based intelligence, and artificial intelligence (AI).
The developers are also integrating data and
protocols from psychometrics, neuroscience,
cognitive learning, and educational psychology.
Primary Catalysts: Innovation Driving the
Boom Market

15. Source: Sony’s Media Molecule
Media Molecule’s Dreams
Dreams is a game, a game engine, modeler, paint program,
music editor, and a distribution platform

16. Smart Serious Games That Learn: Artificial
Intelligence is a Game Changer
▪ Pearson, Apple, Blackboard, Scholastic, Sesame Street, Edmodo
(now owned by China's NetDragon) and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
are selling new educational products built on IBM’s Watson.
▪ Watson is not the only AI platform
being used for learning:
▪ Cerego's adaptive learning platform
runs on Amazon's AI.
▪ Montessorium’s games for young kids
integrate Google's TensorFlow AI.
▪ China’s Liulishuo language learning
game uses proprietary AI.
Source: Liulishuo

17. Augmented
Intelligence
Cognitive
Computing
Artificial
Intelligence
Natural
Language
Processing
Machine
Learning
Deep
Learning
Human
in the
Loop
Machine
Centric
Metaari's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Array

18. Augmented
Intelligence
Cognitive
Computing
Artificial
Intelligence
Natural
Language
Processing
Machine
Learning
Deep
Learning
Human
in the
Loop
Machine
Centric
Metaari's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Array

19. Source: SoftBank
Robotics
Conversational AI is the Core of AI-based
Learning Games

20. Robots Used for Robot-Mediated Behavior Intervention
(RMBI) for People with Special Needs
Source: RoboKind
Source: Leka

21. Metaari defines Mixed Reality (MR) as the experience of
simulation, augmented reality (AR), and/or virtual reality (VR),
and the biophysical environment along an immersion spectrum.
Primary Catalysts: Mixed Reality Learning
Games in High Demand Across the Planet
Source: Immersive VR Education
▪ In AR, the user is still fully
aware of the physical
environment and the experience
is semi-immersive.
▪ True virtual reality is usually
experienced in immersive 3D
with the aid of a headset and
other peripherals.

22. Mixed Reality Learning games that are ideal for Virtual Reality
include:
Cognitive Learning
and Mental Training
Language Learning
Performance
Assessment
Role-based Behavior
Modification
Mixed Reality Learning games that are ideal for Augmented Reality
include:
Knowledge-based
Content
Skill-based Content
Early Childhood
Learning
Location-based
Learning
Primary Catalysts: Mixed Reality Learning
Games in High Demand Across the Planet

23. ▪ Historic levels of private investment are
flowing to global Game-based Learning
companies.
▪ The investments have increased every year for
the last nine years and dramatically increased
in the last three years.
Over $3.9 billion in funding flowed to
educational game companies from 2016 to 2018
Primary Catalysts: Historic Levels of
Private Investment

24. $0
$250
$500
$750
$1,000
$1,250
$1,500
$1,750
$2,000
$2,250
$2,500
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Deal Totals in
US$ Millions
$948.2 Million went to 150 Game-based Learning Companies in 2017
$2.25 Billion Went to 133 Game-based Learning Companies in 2018
2010-2018 Global Private Investment in Game-based
Learning Companies (in US$ Millions)

25. ▪ The number of large-scale distribution agreements spiked in 2017 and
2018. Educational games now reach billions of new users.
▪ In early 2018, China’s Tencent (with over two billion users) announced
that they were formally expanding into serious games by licensing
third-party games (LEGO, Age of Learning, Triseum, Fishing Cactus,
etc.) from international developers. Essentially, the world's largest
video game company just entered the Game-based Learning market.
Primary Catalysts: Global Distribution Deals
Dramatically Expanding the Reach
Source: Tencent

26. In April 2019, JD.com (“the Amazon of China”) announced that Microsoft
had sold them exclusive distribution rights for the Chinese version of
Minecraft: Education Edition. The revenue opportunity is massive. China
has over 200 million primary and secondary students.
Primary Catalysts: Global Distribution Deals
Dramatically Expanding the Reach
Source: Microsoft

27. Game-based
Learning
Distribution
Channels
China’s Game
and Internet
Giants
Learning Game
Developers
Game
Aggregators
Language
Learning
Providers
Device Makers
Global Toy
Companies
Education
Publishers
National
Education
Agencies
Mobile
Network
Operators
(MNOs)
Novel
Distribution
Channels

28. Global technology companies are entering the Game-based Learning
market via M&A and effectively validating the industry. They are
“buying their way in”. The report identifies dozens of recent M&A’s.
In 2017, Microsoft licensed Minecraft: Education Edition to over two
million users across 115 countries. By 2019, they had over five
million users.
Primary Catalysts: Major M&AActivity Drives
Massive Adoption
Source: Microsoft

29. ▪ China’s NetDragon (the second-largest gaming company in China)
acquired US-based JumpStart (Math Blaster) in July 2017 and the best-
selling Sokikom math game in January 2018.
▪ TAL Education is China’s largest for-profit education provider. They
acquired Dr. Panda in October 2018 and CodeMonkey in December
2018 extending their reach to10 million new users outside China.
Primary Catalysts: Big Companies “Buying Their
Way In” to the Serious Game Industry
Source: TAL Education’s CodeMonkey
Source: NetDragon

30. ▪ South Korea's Daekyo (one of the largest education companies in
Asia) acquired US-based Knowre in August 2018. Knowre develops
math games.
▪ Shoal Games acquired Israel's KIDOZ in December 2018. KIDOZ'
early childhood learning games reach over 50 million kids across
the planet.
Primary Catalysts: Major M&AActivity Drives
Massive Adoption
Source: KIDOZ
Source: Daekyo

31. Learning games for young kids are the top revenue
opportunities for serious game developers
throughout the forecast period. The growth rate is
21.4% and revenues will nearly triple by 2024.
Primary Catalysts: Early Childhood Learning
Games Generate the Highest Revenues
Source: Dr. Panda (Acquired by China’s
TAL Education in October 2018)

32. Early
Childhood
Learning
Games in the
Highest
Demand
Games for
Children
With
Special
Needs Language
Learning
Games
Coding
Games for
Kids
Robots
That Play
Learning
Games
With Kids
Specialized
Brain
Training
Games for
Children
STEM and
STEAM
Games for
Children
Social and
Emotional
Learning
Games for
Kids
Amazing
AR and VR
Learning
Games for
Kids
The Best-selling Learning Games for Kids

33. Xiamen ZhiTong Technology’s Keeko Robot Being Used in
Over 600 Preschools in China
Source: Xiamen ZhiTong Technology

34. ▪ There has been a history of resistance to education and training
games in the corporate segment. The inhibitors are fading fast with
the rapid adoption of pre-employment assessment games.
▪ The global corporate segment now has the highest growth rate for
serious games at 47.5%.
▪ Suppliers sell packaged pre-employment games for soft skills,
provide custom game development services for vertical skills
(coding, etc.), and license the platforms for internal use.
Primary Catalysts: Pre-employment Games Gain
Rapid Adoption in Corporate Segment
Source: Arctic Shores

35. ▪ A significant catalyst is the availability of
easy-to-use authoring tools and well-stocked
marketplaces selling premade objects.
▪ The suppliers are marketing to non-
specialists and pricing the products at
relatively low price points.
▪ Growing number of online marketplaces
selling premade digital 3D models, VR
environments, and pre-trained AI models.
▪ Premade objects allow developers to rapidly
create learning games. It is also a new
revenue model for developers selling objects.
Primary Catalysts: We are Seeing a Growing
Number of New Tools and Online Marketplaces
Source: Google

36. Twelve Types of
Specialized
Learning Game
Development
Tools
Early
Childhood
Learning Language
Learning
Mixed Reality
Candidate
Assessment
Location-based
Tourism and
ExhibitionsBusiness
Simulation
Artificial
Intelligence
Social
Emotional
STEM
Q&A (Quiz
Games)
Sports Mental
Training

37. Quantifying the Revenue Opportunities:
Metaari’s Pedagogical Framework for
Game-based Learning
The educational game framework provides suppliers with a
precise method of tapping specific revenue streams and a
concise instructional design specification for the
development of effective educational games.

38. Quantifying the Revenue Opportunities: Metaari’s
Pedagogical Framework for Game-based Learning Products
Metaari forecasts revenues
for eleven types of serious
games based on content
domain and knowledge
transfer method. The
framework was derived by
reverse engineering the top
selling products. It is an
instructional design and
development blueprint.
The 2019-2024 report is the
first Game-based Learning
report in the world to provide
global five-year forecasts for
AI-based educational games.
Pedagogical
Framework for
Eleven Categories of
Game-based
Learning Products
Cognitive
Fitness
Games and
Brain
Trainers
Knowledge-
based
Edugames
Skill-based
Educational
Games
Language
Learning
Educational
Games
Early
Childhood
Learning
GamesAssessment
and
Evaluation
Educational
Games
Role-based
Educational
Games
Location-
based
Educational
Games
Augmented
Reality
Educational
Games
Virtual
Reality
Educational
Games
Artificial
Intelligence
Educational
Games

39. ▪ By 2024, early childhood learning games, language
learning games, and pre-employment assessment and
evaluation games will generate the highest revenues. All of
them will have revenues above $2 billion.
▪ Revenues will more than double for ten of the eleven
learning game types over the forecast period.
▪ The game type with the highest growth rate is VR-based
learning games at 51.9%, followed by assessment and
evaluation games, and language learning games at 46.2%
and 41.8%, respectively.
The Highest Revenues and the Highest Growth Rates
for Serious Games

40. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
55%
2019-2024 Global Growth Rates for Game-based
Learning by Eleven Game Types (in US$ Millions)

41. Who are the Buyers and What are
They Buying?
This report breaks out the global revenues by
eight buyer segments and provides a detailed
breakout by these segments for the US

42. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
55%
Consumer Preschool Primary
Education
Secondary
Education
Tertiary and
Higher
Education
Federal
Government
Agencies
State,
Provincial,
and Local
Government
Agencies
Corporate
(including
Healthcare)
2019-2024 Global Game-based Learning
Market by Eight Buyer Segments

43. Revenues will more than double in all eight global
buying segments over the forecast period and will
surge more than six times in the corporate
buying segment. The market drivers are unique to
each segment.
Who are the Buyers and What are They Buying?

44. ▪ Consumers buy eight types of early childhood learning
games, brain trainers, and language learning games.
Consumers are the Largest Buying Segment
by a Wide Margin
Source: Khan Academy’s
Duck Duck Moose
Source: Toca Boca
Source: Age of Learning
Consumers will account for more than half of all global
revenues by 2024

45. ▪ PreK-12 is comprised of three sub-segments:
preschools, primary schools, and secondary
schools.
▪ The buying behavior and the user demographics are
quite different in each cohort.
▪ Preschools buy developmental games.
▪ Primary schools buy language learning games, literacy
games, and basic math games.
▪ Secondary schools buy language learning and STEM
games.
The Three PreK-12 Sub-Segments

46. Calculus as Gameplay: Nanome’s Calcflow
Source: Nanome
Nanome has distribution deals with the major headset suppliers
and it comes preloaded on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

47. Calculus as Gameplay: Triseum’s Variants
Source: Triseum
In June 2018, Texas-based Triseum announced a licensing
deal with Tencent. "Tencent is licensing Variant: Limits with
the goal to foster engaging and experiential learning
environments across China.

48. ▪ Higher Education: The growth rate for serious
games in the higher education segment is a healthy
15.4%. Role-based business simulation games are
now common in higher education institutions
across the planet.
The Tertiary Buyers
Source: Ambiera’s Business Magnate

49. ▪ Government Agencies: The buying behavior in the
two government segments is similar in that games
are used for civilian employees, military personnel,
public safety employees, and first responders.
The Government Buyers
Source: Virtual Heroes

50. ▪ The corporate segment has the highest growth rate for
learning games at a breathtaking 47.5%. Global revenues
will surge nearly seven times to over $5.0 billion by
2024.
▪ There are two catalysts driving the growth in the corporate
segment: the rapid uptake of job candidate evaluation games
and the continued adoption of business simulation games.
The Corporate Buyers
Source: Toolwire

51. Q&A
The full 511-page “2019-2024 Global Game-based
Learning Market” report will be available from the
Serious Play Conference on August 1, 2019
You can contact Sam S. Adkins at:
sam@metaari.com