The gaming industry will see its mobile revenue grow by 25.5 per cent year-on-year to hit $70 billion at the end of 2018, with smartphones accounting for most of the spend, research company Newzoo reported.

Smartphones will generate 80 per cent of mobile revenue with the rest coming from tablets. This will also be the first time more than half of total game revenue will come from mobile, followed by consoles and then PC games.

The company predicted mobile game revenue will grow to $106 billion in 2021. By then, smartphone and tablet games will generate 59 per cent of revenues in the entire market.

APAC
China will account for more than a quarter of global game revenues, reaching $37.9 billion in 2018, the company said.

It will remain the number one gaming market by revenues and by number of players. Mobile is the dominant force and will generate 61 per cent of revenues in 2018, growing to 70 per cent by 2021.

Meanwhile Japanese gamers spend the most of any country, particularly on mobile games. The average spend per player in Japan is 1.5-times higher than in North America, and more than 2.5-times higher than in Western Europe.

In total, APAC territories will generate $71.4 billion, or 52 per cent of total global game revenues in 2018. This represents a 17 per cent year-on-year increase, nearly all of which is attributable to mobile: the segment will grow $9.7 billion to hit $44.7 billion in 2018.

“The APAC territories are a primary driver of continued growth for the global games industry, as the number of smartphone users in emerging markets such as India and Southeast Asia grows exponentially and, at the same time, the willingness to spend on mobile games grows in more established markets like China and Japan,” the company stated.

APAC is followed by North America, which will see estimated revenues of $32.7 billion in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent. Most of this growth will, again, come from smartphone gaming.

In European countries, mobile gamers are less willing to spend than those in North America, with the average spend per player in the latter region 1.6-times as high as in Europe.