According to a report, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: The 2016 Mobile Games Market” issued today by SuperData Research and Unity Technologies, the mobile games market generated $40.6 billion in worldwide revenue in 2016. What’s interesting is the sum is equivalent to all global box office sales during the same time period.
The report further states that the figure grew 18% over the year before, and mobile games now account for half of the entire global digital games market.
SuperData Research provides marketing intelligence for the playable media and digital gaming industry, and Unity Technologies, provides platform for creating games and experiences in 2D, 3D, VR and AR.
“The sustained growth of the global mobile games market is helping to legitimize games in the traditional media landscape. The size of the market is also attracting the leading players in the gaming market, as can be seen with Activision’s Blizzard deal to buy King and Tencent acquiring Supercell,” said Stephanie Llamas, VP of Research and Strategy, SuperData Research.
According to the analysis which examines the combined mobile, mobile VR and VR markets, Asia represents the largest mobile games market in the world, producing $24.8 billion in revenue in 2016, while North America and Europe generated $6.9 billion and $5.7 billion respectively.
It also states that the ever growing US mobile market represents a tremendous opportunity for marketers, as now Americans play mobile game more often than they watch Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube.
Americans spent 5% more year over year on mobile games in 2016, and that number will continue to rise, the report stated.
“Players are installing more apps than ever and are more engaged with mobile games than TV and online videos. They play six days a week and watch content only five. It’s been phenomenal to watch engagement on the different mobile and VR platforms grow, and that trend will continue to increase in the foreseeable future,” said John Cheng, General Manager, Unity Analytics.