Newzoo: Top 25 games firms made $34.5bn in H1 2016
Mobile accounts for 40% of all revenues of Top 10, industry leaders show biggest growth in five years
A new report from Newzoo reveals that the 25 most successful games companies generated just under $35bn in revenue during the first half of the year.
The researcher's latest Global Games Market Report shows the leading firms, ranked by revenue, had a combined growth of 22% over last year's Top 25. That's the biggest H1 growth seen since 2012.
It will come as little surprise that mobile gaming was a major contributor to this growth. The sector now accounts for 40% of all revenues made by the Top 10 companies, a year-on-year increase from 34%.
Similarly, Tencent's position at the No.1 public games company based on revenue will shock few. In the first half of 2016, the Chinese giant reported revenues of $5.3bn and its position was aided by the soon-to-be-completed acquisition of Supercell.
The fastest growing companies were all Asian, led by Sony, NetEase, Mixi and Konami. The latter two were the biggest risers, each moving up four ranks in the Top 25. Interestingly, the biggest contributor to Sony's growth was increased revenues generated through PSN, a combination of digital game sales and PlayStation Plus subscriptions.
Ubisoft was the highest newcomer in the Top 25 thanks to the success of Tom Clancy's The Division. The publisher's revenues were up 193% when compared to the first half of 2015. Newzoo expects a strong performance from the firm with Watch Dogs 2 and Steep on the way.
However, it wasn't all tales of growth. Three firms saw revenue decreases of more than 10%: Warner Bros, Facebook and GungHo.
The Top 10 public companies by games revenue for H1 2016 were as follows:
- Tencent
- Sony
- Activision Blizzard
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Electronic Arts
- NetEase
- Bandai Namco
- Mixi
