Datastream

How Big is the Global Mobile Gaming Industry?

Published

4 years ago

December 9, 2020

Mobile gaming industry size

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The Briefing

Mobile gaming revenue for 2020 is estimated at $85 billion, more than half of the sector’s estimated $165 billion
Despite the launch of high-profile consoles, most gaming companies are focusing on platform-agnostic subscription services that can penetrate mobile

The Mobile Gaming Takeover

While the gaming market spotlight is focused on new consoles and games this holiday season, the bigger focus for insiders continues to be the mobile sector.

Over the last 20 years, mobile gaming has gone from the industry’s entertaining afterthought to its largest source of revenue—in 2020, the sector is estimated to have generated around $85 billion.

In light of COVID-19 keeping many consumers at home, gaming companies like Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard have reported higher year-over-year revenues and greater market penetration than ever before.

Companies Race to Capitalize on Mobile Gaming

The massive industry growth hasn’t gone unnoticed by companies outside of the gaming sector. In fact, it has emboldened many to make billion-dollar entries into the gaming market that failed to pan out in the early 2000s.

In the bid to capture the cloud-service sphere and become the “Netflix” of gaming, major services have been launched by Microsoft, Sony, Nokia, Amazon, and Google.

At the same time, publishers have been racing to consolidate gaming franchises on the path towards building massive recurring revenue streams.

Date	Acquirer	Target and Sector	Deal Value (US$)
Apr. 2014	Facebook	Oculus - VR	$3.0 Billion
Aug. 2014	Amazon	Twitch - Streaming	$1.0 Billion
Nov. 2014	Microsoft	Mojang - Games	$2.5 Billion
Feb. 2016	Activision Blizzard	King - Games	$5.9 Billion
Jun. 2016	Tencent	Supercell - Games	$8.6 Billion
Feb. 2020	Embracer Group	Saber Interactive - Games	$0.5 Billion
Sep. 2020	Microsoft	ZeniMax Media - Games	$7.5 Billion
Nov. 2020	Take-Two Interactive	Codemasters - Games	$1.0 Billion

With Sony and Microsoft’s new consoles fresh to market (and constantly sold out), next generation games hitting multiple platforms, and cloud services kicking off in earnest, traditional gaming sectors might finally start catching up to mobile.

But as the global proliferation of smartphones continues to grow, it will be an uphill challenge. With 2.7 billion estimated gamers already and growing, how much higher can the mobile gaming wave rise?

»Want a full breakdown of gaming revenue by sector? Read our full article 50 Years of Gaming History

Where does this data come from?

Source: Pelham Smithers.
Details: Research firm’s annual analysis of reported and estimated sector revenue.
Notes: This data was collected in September of 2020 and includes estimates for end-of-year.