There has been a lot of talk about Sony wanting to enter the mobile gaming market with titles from PlayStation. Till now, Sony has dipped its toes in the ever-growing market by releasing companion games and apps, including Uncharted: Fortune Hunter on iOS. On the other hand, for a company like Nintendo who can no longer compete in the dedicated console space and is being squeezed by mobile games in the handheld space, embracing mobile is their only path going forward. For Sony, PlayStation is in a period of tremendous success but as the above chart shows, it’s nothing compared to the mobile market.
We as hardcore gamers can think what we’d like but we’re now a small part of the gaming landscape. That doesn’t mean Sony should or will abandon hardcore gaming. But the upside of also embracing mobile games and perhaps tying them into the PlayStation ecosystem can be an extremely lucrative endeavor if successfully executed. Chris Kerr writing for Gamasutra:
Smartphone owners spent $41 billion dollars on mobile games in 2016, according to analytics group SuperData’s annual Year in Review.
That’s a huge increase on the $24.7 million mobile games pulled in last year, highlighting the upward trajectory of the nearly decade old market.
The free report reveals that, collectively, mobile games engaged 2.6 billion monthly active users (MAU), while the platform’s single biggest earner was Monster Strike with revenues of $1.3 billion.
As for the top 5 games, they break down as such:
- Monster Strike – $1.3 billion
- Clash of Clans – $1.2 billion
- Clash Royale – $1.1 billion
- Game of War: Fire Age – $0.91 billion
- Mobile Strike – $0.9 billion
These are some absolutely insane numbers. And not every game is going to make its way into the top 5, nor will they be a Nintendo title, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be willing to play in the space. From Nintendo who just released Super Mario Run on iOS:
Nintendo has since released official download figures for Super Mario Run and claims that 40 million people have downloaded the free version of the game in just four days.
Speaking of Nintendo:
Another notable release, Pokemon Go, fell just outside those top 5 titles with revenues of $788 million. During its best month (August), Pokemon Go peaked with earnings of $203 million and 290 MAU.
How could they not want to play in that space? What types of games do you think Sony should create for mobile?
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