13.11.2020

Sensor Tower: from January to September, mobile games generated $58.7 billion

2020 was a successful year, including for the mobile segment of the gaming industry. Sensor Tower analysts calculated the segment’s revenue and stated: in the first nine months of this year, it managed to earn $58.7 billion.

Garena Free Fire
Experts predictably called the COVID-19 pandemic the main driver of growth.

Forced isolation, lack of entertainment and thirst for communication with other people spurred players to spend more on mobile games.

Revenue data (in Google Play and App Store)

  • mobile’s revenues in January-September increased by 25.7% compared to the first three quarters of 2019. In total, the mobile gaming market managed to collect $58.7 billion;
  • the App Store has become the most profitable marketplace. Its users spent $35.2 billion on games during the reporting period. That’s almost $12 billion more than spending on Google Play;
  • Meanwhile, Google Play showed the largest annual growth rates. In the first nine months of 2020, the revenue of games from this store was 26.3% more than it was at the same time a year ago. App Store revenues increased slightly less — by 25.3%;

  • mobile’s revenue grew throughout all three quarters, but this growth slowed down around the middle of the year. If in the second quarter the segment’s earnings managed to grow by 13.6% in annual terms, then in the third quarter it increased by only 4.1%;
  • the peak month for player spending was May. During the month, gamers spent about $ 7 billion;
  • gamers from the USA invested the most money in mobile games. Their expenses amounted to $16.5 billion — 38.8% more than in January-September 2019. The peak of mobile spending growth was in the second quarter (33%), when Americans spent $5.8 billion in three months;
  • Japanese players ranked second in terms of spending. They left more than $13 billion in games. Interestingly, in Japan, mobile revenue showed steady growth in each quarter. The revenues of the last, third quarter increased the most compared to 2019 — by 16.3%;
  • Chinese gamers complete the top three in gaming spending — $10.6 billion in nine months (only the App Store is taken into account). The fastest growing quarter for China was the first, which immediately rose by 19%.

Download data (in Google Play and App Store)

  • from January to September 2020, gamers downloaded mobile games 42.7 billion times (+ 36.9%);
  • The overwhelming number of downloads came from Google Play — 34.7 billion. For comparison, a year ago android users were responsible for only 24.3 billion installations;

  • the picture of the growth rate of downloads almost completely repeats the situation with mobile revenue. A strong first half of the year and a still successful, but already slowed down third quarter;
  • but the surge in downloads occurred a month earlier — in April. Then the players made 5.4 billion installations;
  • India became the leader in downloads, which generated 7.3 billion installations. The second quarter turned out to be the record period for the growth of downloads (+50%);
  • the second place was taken by the USA — 4.2 billion downloads. During the first and second quarters, Americans downloaded the games about the same number of times. But in the third quarter, interest in mobile games fell — only 1.3 billion downloads were made;
  • the third place went to Brazil, which brought 3.5 billion installations. The second and third quarters were equally successful for the South American state. The period from January to March was the weakest — 1 billion downloads.

Top Games

  • PUBG Mobile is the highest—grossing game of the first nine months of 2020. During this time, the title earned $ 2 billion. This includes the income of the Chinese version called Game For Peace;
  • Honor of Kings took second place in terms of revenue, and Pokémon GO came in third;
  • The most downloaded game was Garena Free Fire, which has over 220 million downloads. PUBG Mobile is in second place. On the third — Subway Surfers.

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