Recent research estimates that the top five mobile games in the world earned $7.2 billion in revenue in 2022, an increase of $400 million from the previous year.
While 2022 was a challenging year for the mobile gaming industry, due to the extensive user base, mobile games and applications still generated billions of dollars in revenue.
Although the earnings of games like Candy Crush Saga, Honor of Kings, and Genshin Impact increased, those of Roblox and PUBG Mobile decreased.
Two games dominated the mobile gaming market in terms of player expenditure. According to Statista and Mobile Gamer, Tencent’s megahits, Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile, continue to generate far more money than any other mobile game. While Honor of Kings saw increased earnings, PUBG Mobile experienced a decrease.
Honor of Kings surpassed $2.2 billion in sales in 2022, making it the highest-grossing mobile game in the world. This was an increase of nearly 30% from the previous year. However, PUBG Mobile players’ spending fell by approximately $300 million between 2022 and 2021, from over $2 billion to $1.72 billion. The two Tencent games produced nearly $4 billion last year, which is more than the total earnings of Genshin Impact, Candy Crush Saga, and Roblox put together.
Compared to 2021, when players spent $1.26 billion on Genshin Impact, players in 2022 spent $1.56 billion. The expansion of Candy Crush Saga’s in-app purchases was also spectacular. Players of Candy Crush Saga spent $1.03 billion in 2022, up from $884 million the year before.
Similarly to PUBG Mobile, Roblox suffered a decline in 2022, with player spending dropping from $900 million the previous year to $862 million. The five games earned $7.2 billion in 2022, up from $6.8 billion the year before. By 2023, the number of people who regularly engage in mobile gaming is expected to increase by 165 million.
Three of the top five grossing titles increased their income in one of the most challenging years for the mobile gaming business. A Statista poll found that in 2022, the total number of mobile gamers dropped by 104 million, or 5.7%, from the previous year.
According to Statista, however, not only will this downward trend reverse, but the total number of people playing mobile games will increase from its current 1.86 billion in 2023 by a whopping 165 million. The mobile games business in China, which is by far the biggest in the world, is forecast to grow to 546 million users in 2018, while the mobile games market in the United States is projected to grow to more than 157 million users in the same period.
By 2025, the number of people playing mobile games online will have surpassed 2 billion. With such a large customer base, revenue is sure to rise.
