In 2023, mobile games under licenses earned $16 billion
The analytical company Sensor Tower has published a report for 2023 on mobile games that are made under license. We share the main thing from it.
- $16 billion is the total gross revenue of such titles from in—game purchases in 2023.
- Most of this amount came from games developed within the framework of video game franchises — $5 billion. Analysts attributed IP like Pokémon, Call of Duty and Diablo to such franchises. Next in terms of revenue are anime/manga games ($2 billion), sports IP ($1.1 billion) and board games ($1 billion).
Distribution of revenue by media segments
- In 2023, the largest licensed game publishers in terms of revenue were Scopely, Tencent and Bandai Namco. Eight out of ten publishers in the box office top are from Asia. The two remaining companies (Scopely and the fourth-place Niantic) come from the USA.
Top 10 highest-grossing mobile game publishers by license from 2020 to 2023
- The games that earned the most during the year were created under licenses issued by Hasbro, NCSOFT, Nintendo, Hitotsubashi Group and Disney.
The top 20 companies whose mobile games earned the most under licenses in 2023. The names of their largest IP addresses in terms of revenue of games created based on them are also indicated.
- Among the games, MONOPOLY GO! became the leader of the year at the box office. According to analysts, she earned $896 million on in-game purchases alone. Recall that in November 2023, Scopely announced that the total revenue of MONOPOLY GO! In the seven months since its release, it has exceeded $1 billion.
- 36% of the revenue of all video game franchises came from RPG games. The highest-grossing game in this genre was Fate/Grand Order.
- Geolocation games, strategy games, shooters and action games are also included in the top 5 genres in terms of revenue from titles for video game franchises.
Top 5 highest-grossing mobile game genres by licenses in different media segments
