Mobile Games Generated More Than $40 Billion in 2016
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Mobile Games Generated More Than $40 Billion in 2016

First ever joint look at mobile, mobile VR and VR markets by SuperData Research and Unity Technologies shows the category equaling that of global box office sales during that time

NEW YORK — (BUSINESS WIRE) — February 1, 2017 — The mobile games market generated $40.6 billion in worldwide revenue in 2016 – a sum equivalent to all global box office sales during the same time period – and grew 18% over the year before. Mobile games now account for half of the entire global digital games market.

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That’s according to a report, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: The 2016 Mobile Games Market” issued today by SuperData Research, the leading provider of marketing intelligence for the playable media and digital gaming industry, and Unity Technologies, the leading platform for creating games and experiences in 2D, 3D, VR and AR.

The analysis, which examines the combined mobile, mobile VR and VR markets, is the first to be issued jointly by the two companies and is based upon data from both.

“The sustained growth of the global mobile games market is helping to legitimize games in the traditional media landscape,” says Stephanie Llamas, VP of Research and Strategy of SuperData Research. “The size of the market is also attracting the leading players in the gaming market, as can be seen with Activision’s Blizzard deal to buy King and Tencent acquiring Supercell.”

According to the analysis by SuperData Research and Unity, Asia represents the largest mobile games market in the world, producing $24.8 billion in revenue in 2016, while North America and Europe generated $6.9 billion and $5.7 billion respectively.

The ever growing US mobile market also represents a tremendous opportunity for marketers, as now Americans play mobile games more often than they watch Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube. Americans spent 5% more year over year on mobile games in 2016, and that number will continue to rise.

“Players are installing more apps than ever and are more engaged with mobile games than TV and online videos,” shared John Cheng, General Manager of Unity Analytics. “They play six days a week and watch content only five. It’s been phenomenal to watch engagement on the different mobile and VR platforms grow, and that trend will continue to increase in the foreseeable future.”

From Q1 to Q4, the time spent on mobile games grew by 12% on iOS and 9% on Android respectively, with gamers averaging almost 30 minutes of play time each day. As consumers continue to spend more time playing on mobile devices, the companies expect mobile gaming will continue to make strides towards the mainstream, giving marketers and developers an even greater opportunity to monetize this trend.

Additional findings from the report include:

For more information about SuperData Research, please visit www.superdataresearch.com. Additionally, please visit http://unity3d.com for more information about Unity Technologies. A copy of the full report is available here.

About SuperData

Founded by veteran games industry researchers, SuperData is the world’s leading provider of market intelligence covering the global markets for free-to-play games, digital console, mobile, PC, streaming media, eSports, and virtual reality. Using digital point-of-sale data received from publishers, developers and payment service providers, SuperData’s analyses are based on the monthly spending of over 78 million paying online gamers worldwide, in combination with qualitative consumer insights. SuperData helps its customers understand what people play, connect to, watch, and spend on.

www.superdataresearch.com

About Unity Technologies

Unity Technologies is the creator of flexible and high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create rich interactive 2D, 3D, VR and AR experiences. Unity’s powerful graphics engine and full-featured editor serve as the foundation to develop beautiful games or apps and easily bring them to multiple platforms: mobile devices, home entertainment systems, personal computers, and embedded systems. Unity also offers solutions and services for creating games, boosting productivity, and connecting with audiences including Unity Ads, Unity Analytics, Unity Asset Store, Unity Cloud Build, Unity Collaborate, Unity Connect and Unity Certification. Unity Technologies serves millions of registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists around the globe. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com to see the latest games and experiences created in Unity, go to: http://madewith.unity.com.



Contact:

Daddi Brand Communications for SuperData Research
Bill Daddi, 646-370-1341
Email Contact
917-620-3717
or
Alight Public Relations for Unity Technologies
Melissa Sheridan, 415-609-6875
Email Contact