Mobile is the youngest branch of the massive global gaming industry. Its beginnings were humble – at the time of feature phones there was pretty much no mobile gaming industry to speak of – but its ascension was fast.
In the last decade, mobile games have grown to become the most profitable segment, catering to every demographic and covering every single game type from casual games and penny slots at 5 deposit casinos to massively multiplayer titles, shooters, racing games, and everything in between.
And this year, mobile games are expected to overtake console and PC, becoming the most profitable segment of the global gaming industry.
The numbers
Gaming intelligence specialist Newzoo has the numbers crunched for anyone to see: mobile games will generate 51% of the global gaming industry’s revenue this year. In its updated Global Games Market Report, the company predicts that the industry’s total revenue will reach $137.9 billion in 2018 – and that 51% of this revenue will be generated by mobile games.
Mobile games have spent the last five years registering a massive growth – they generated just 18% of the industry’s entire revenue in 2012, growing to 46% in 2017 and 51% this year. And the company expects the growth of mobile to accelerate further in the coming years, reaching a staggering 59% by 2021, becoming a $100 billion industry by that time.
This year, Newzoo expects the market share of smartphone games to reach 41% on the global market, with a revenue of more than $54 billion, growing 29% compared to 2017. When it comes to tablet games, the growth will be more moderate – just about 13% year-on-year, enough for revenues of around $14 billion.
How about PC and console games?
While the market share of PC and console games has decreased over the last years – and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future – the revenues of these two branches will not decrease.
Remember, we’re talking about an ever-growing pie, so even if the slice you get is proportionally smaller, its value will continue to soar. This year, the PC gaming segment is expected to generate revenues of almost $33 billion, growing by almost 2% compared to 2017.
ESports and competitive gaming are expected to continue to engage gamers. At the same time, smartphones will drive many players away from the browser and casual games, further reducing their market share (browser games have a market share of about 3% this year).
At the same time, console games will see their revenues grow by more than 4%, to almost $35 billion, undoubtedly helped by the success of the Nintendo Switch.
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