Over 50 percent of all revenue within the gaming industry will come from mobile games, Newzoo forecasts.
Mobile gaming will make up over half of all revenue in the gaming industry during 2018, according to a report from analytics firm Newzoo.
In Newzoo’s quarterly update for its Global Games Market Report, the company projected 2.3 billion gamers will spend $137.9 billion on games in 2018, with mobile gaming earning $70.3 billion in revenue. That’s 51 percent of the global gaming market. Smartphones are predicted to make up 80 percent of the mobile market in particular, with 20 percent coming from tablet gamers, Newzoo also forecast.
While mobile gaming is projected to lead the global gaming market, console gaming will reportedly bring in $34.6 billion in revenue during the year, with PC gaming up to $32.9 billion. In other words, console gaming will take up 25 percent of the gaming industry, while PC gaming will make up 24 percent based on Newzoo’s predictions.
While Newzoo claimed that PC gaming will remain popular thanks to both competitive gaming and esports, the company also argued revenue won’t necessarily increase within the market, as “some of the most popular titles are already operating at close to their full monetization potential” and “are unlikely to be displaced by new games soon,” Newzoo concluded.
Meanwhile, the report forecast that the Asia-Pacific region will own 52 percent of all gaming revenue in 2018, with North America second at 23 percent. Japan particularly stands out for significantly high revenue from its mobile gaming market.
“Due to the continued success of mobile gaming companies in Japan, we increased our estimate for Japan’s mobile games market for the second time in a year,” Newzoo reported in the study. “This means its mobile games market is now nearly the same size as North America’s with roughly one-third of the number of gamers.”
Newzoo’s Global Games Market report projects figures on gamers and revenue by comparing year-on-year growth, development within specific regions or market segments, compound annual growth rates, and third-party information compared to Newzoo’s own data, among other factors. A new update is published each quarter and is rigorously fact-checked before publication.
For more information on Newzoo’s findings, check out the latest report over here.
