Asia
Mobile games revenue in Asia was estimated at nearly 42 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, making it by far the largest region in terms of mobile gaming. China, Japan and South Korea are said to be the most prominent markets in the area. Due to this, it may come as no surprise that many renowned gaming companies are headquartered in Asia. Perhaps the most recognizable is Tencent, the Chinese giant that dabbles in all things technology, gaming included. Between 2014 and 2017, the company’s value-added services segment revenue grew from 63.3 to 153.98 billion yuan (approximately 9 to 23 billion U.S. dollars). In late 2018 Tencent managed to secure first place in a ranking of leading iPhone gaming publishers based on revenue and third place based on number of downloads.
Japan’s most established names include Bandai Namco, Square Enix and Konami, all of which also happened to be among the top ten highest grossing iPhone game publishers worldwide. Korean NetMarble Games, known for titles such as Marvel Future Fight and Star Wars: Force Arena, made 2.42 trillion Korean won in net sales in 2017. In September 2018, NetMarble was among the leading gaming app publishers worldwide in the Google Play Store, having generated 29.81 million U.S. dollars that month.
North America and Europe
Among the leading mobile game publishers in the United States are Niantic, Zynga and Electronic Arts. EA reported mobile revenue reaching 142 million U.S. dollars in the third fiscal quarter of 2018. The publisher is responsible for mobile titles such as NBA LIVE Mobile, Bejeweled Stars, Need for Speed: No Limits and Sim City BuildIt. San Francisco’s own Zynga, the developer of FarmVille, Words With Friends and the ever popular Zynga Poker, generated 907 million U.S. dollars in revenue in 2018.
Europe’s finest include brands such as Supercell, known for Clash of Clans; Rovio and their mobile hit Angry Birds; and King, whose Candy Crush series has broken numerous records around the world.
