Games and Learning

Technavio sees across-the-board growth in general gamification markets.

While many within the game-based learning sphere continue to look askance at gamification efforts — that is incorporating badges and levels into regular classroom efforts — the field continues to draw major investments and a new report highlights the market sector is expected to continue major growth in the coming years.

The new report, Global Education Gamification Market 2016-2020, concludes that globally the gamification of education will explode from its current $93 million mark in 2015 to $1.2 billion by 2020. That’s a CAGR of 68% over the coming five years.

The report, from British-based Technavio, concludes much of this growth will be built on the core game engines that will allow the development of multiple games focused on both the formal and informal education market.

“The growing improvements in game development engines will drive the growth prospects for the global education gamification market during the forecast period,” the intro the to report reads. “The purpose of the game engine is to develop games, which are developed using advanced technologies that target mobile, online, and desktop platforms.”

Central to this growth is the individualized learning and game-based efforts of many digital game developers.

Jhansi Mary, a lead analyst at Technavio for education technology research, concluded, ““The realization that immersive learning and basic technical skills play a vital role in a student’s learning years has encouraged educational institutions to invest in education games that help to increase student engagement and meet their learning needs.”

This growth in the larger gamification market — which generally combines game-based learning with badges and other game-themed educational efforts — comes just months after the investment firm Tyton found continued growth in the investment side of game-based learning.

By early September, 2016 was on pace to see 20% growth in game-based learning investments over 2015 and this growth on the market side of the equation indicate continued growth in the sector headed into 2017.