Sensor Tower: Mobile games spending to reach just shy of $90bn in 2021
But firm says share of mobile gaming across all in-app spending in decline
Sensor Tower has released its 2021 mobile report, with game spending reaching $89.6 billion across Google Play and the iOS App Store, a 12.6% rise compared to 2020.
Mobile gaming represented 67.4% of all in-app spending, which is in decline compared to previous years. In 2019, games represented 74.1% of all in-app spending, and 71.7% in 2020.
Sensor Tower said this decrease is due to growth in other sectors, in particular the Entertainment category, which "received a large boost from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic."
Gaming represented 61.5% of the App Store's revenue in 2021, and 78% of Google Play's revenue. Sensor Tower predicts that users are going to be spending $52.3 billion globally on games on the App Store by the end of the year, and $37.3 billion on Google's Play Store.
Spending on the App Store is up 9.9% year-on-year, and 16.6% on the Play Store.
Looking at the charts for the year, PUBG Mobile was the top grossing game worldwide across the two platforms, followed by Honor of Kings and Genshin Impact.
Around 84% of all mobile games installs are on Google Play, the report further said, a 1.3% growth year-on-year.
Garena Free Fire was the most downloaded game of the year across both Google Play and App Store, followed by Subway Surfers and PUBG Mobile.