Mobile games contribute greatly to the high growth rate of mobile media use. This industry was worth an estimated 9.8 billion U.S. dollars in North America 2018, with further growth expected in 2019. By far the largest mobile gaming region worldwide is Asia, where revenues topped 41.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018. These kinds of revenues mean that mobile gaming is big business for mobile operating systems. Both Apple and Google have cashed in, with their app stores generating 33.2 billion U.S. dollars and 30.1 billion U.S. dollars respectively in mobile gaming revenue worldwide in 2018. With the number of mobile gamers in North America surpassing 210 million in 2018, it appears that this industry shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
By 2021, it is estimated that mobile gaming will generate the largest proportion of total gaming revenue worldwide. This astronomical rise in popularity is in no small part thanks to some of the biggest mobile games of recent years which have gone on to be worldwide sensations. Having first hit our mobile screens back in 2012, Candy Crush Saga has gone on to be one of the most successful mobile games of all time, with the original game and its various sequels generating over one billion U.S. dollars in player spending worldwide in 2018. The candy-based strategy game still remains one of the top grossing iPhone mobile gaming apps in the United States some seven years after its initial release. Another gaming viral hit in recent years is Pokémon GO which, since 2016, has allowed users to hunt and collect their very own Pokémon in an augmented reality mobile game. The app regularly hits over 10 million unique monthly visitors in the United States and generates millions of dollars in daily revenue in the Apple App Store alone.
