The constant growth of mobile gaming isn’t really news to most people, but it’s always interesting to put numbers to impressions, and the latest Global Games Market Report by Newzoo does just that. Gaming revenue is expected to continue growing this year, with mobile gaming being the most lucrative segment of the gaming industry with a 19% growth year on year to claim about 42% of the market in 2017. The growth of smartphone and tablet gaming is expected to continue, with mobile gaming representing just over half the total games market by 2020.
Mobile gaming is expected to generate over $46 billion this year, with smartphone gaming easily leading tablets, the former brining in around $35 billion to the latter’s $10 billion. This gap shouldn’t surprise anyone since tablet sales have plummeted in recent years, although the study points out that the 280 million tablets used actively still contribute to the success of mobile games.
Gaming as a whole is growing more rapidly in Asian countries than in the west, and that’s true of mobile gaming as well. For instance, China’s growth mostly comes from mobile gaming, with Tencent and NetEase leading the charge. Most of North America’s growth will also come from smartphone gaming but to a lesser degree than in China’s case. So, as I said early on, nothing too surprising in this study, but it’s definitely interesting to see that mobile gaming continues to grow and that Asian countries are becoming increasingly important, a fact that will definitely affect game developer decisions. Read the whole study here.
