Video games have become a multi-million dollar industry, thanks to their great gains in both quality and technology. So it’s no great surprise that mobile games revenues are now almost double those of PC games. Here we take a quick look at the latest revenue numbers, plus the top grossing mobile games to close out 2019:
2019 mobile games revenues
New reports are constantly released about the latest console, PC and mobile games revenues. Though reports vary, most put total video game revenues at close to 105 billion dollars for the past year.
As of the second half of 2019, the top grossing video games area is mobile video games, which rake in about $62 billion per year worldwide. Most of the mobile game players now prefer freemium games over paid downloads.
The same is true for the PC gaming sector, which generates about $35 billion a year — the second biggest after mobile games. In contrast to PC and mobile games, console games only bring home about $15 billion a year.
Asia has the largest market in the mobile video game industry, while Western markets maintain their leadership in console games. In North America and Europe, annual revenues from console video games hover around $4 billion. That’s quite a difference compared to the Asian market, which only generates 200 million dollars annually in console games sales.
In the successful mobile and PC video game sectors, free games generate about 70 billion a year. That’s in large part because they have been downloaded by more than 3 billion people — a third of the world’s population.
2019 top grossing mobile games
For all of August 2019, the worldwide leader in the top grossing mobile video games was Sony’s Fate / Grand Order, pictured here. For August, Fate / Grand Order ordered up nearly $162.7 million — mostly in Japan.
Coming in a close second with more than $160 million in gross revenue was Tencent’s PUBG Mobile. That game saw most of its sales in Tencent’s home country of China, where it’s called Game For Peace.
Taking the #3, #4 and #5 spots in the August 2019 top grossing mobile games monthly top ten list were Tencent’s Honor of Kings, Niantic’s Pokémon GO, and Mixi’s Monster Strike.
In console gaming, the best-selling game for September 2019 is Mortal Kombat 11, while Playstation 4 is still the best-selling console with 97 million sold so far. That’s followed by Xbox One with approximate sales of 42.6 million so far, and the Nintendo Switch not far behind with 34.6 million units sold.
Esports & other gaming markets take off
Another video gaming sector that’s important is esports, which is exploding in popularity worldwide. In 2018, esports generated revenues of 865 million dollars and had a global audience of about 260 million people. Unlike with console games or mobile video game revenues, esports revenues mainly come from advertising and sponsorships.
Still another big growth sector for both wired and mobile game revenues is third-party gaming services, which are usually not taken into account in revenue reports. For example if you’re one of the millions who love MMORPG World of Warcraft Classic, you can buy WoW Classic gold in exchange for real money through various websites.
Though third-party businesses are separate from video gaming companies themselves, they should be counted as part of the overall picture for the video game industry and top grossing mobile games revenues.
In the end, video game companies have powered up their popularity and success at a rate that few entertainment companies have been able to match. This shows the great passion of gamers, and also indicates that many video game companies have made smart economic decisions.
Have a favorite mobile game?
Do you have a passion for a particular mobile game? Take a minute or two to nominate your favorite games in this year’s Mobile Star Awards. If you like, you can also vote for current nominees.
