From hypercasual games to hardcore titles, people are playing more types of mobile games than ever before. Among midcore and hardcore games, Strategy games have been a longstanding favorite for committed gamers looking for a challenge. A new report from GameRefinery details the success of Strategy games in the U.S. as the third-largest genre on iOS. Meanwhile, Newzoo predicts that there will be 2 billion gamers by the end of the year. Read on for more details from these reports in this week’s Mobile Monday!
Global Mobile Game Revenue will Grow to $77 Billion in 2020
Newzoo’s data in its Global Mobile Market Report 2020 says the number of people using a smartphone is expected to cross the four billion mark by 2023. The number of mobile users in 2020 is believed to be on track to hit 3.5 billion, which is around 45% of the world’s total population. This total represents a year-on-year growth of 6.7% which will be driven mostly by emerging regions. Because of the size of China’s mobile market, the country will account for one-quarter of overall smartphone users. Additionally, despite the delay caused by COVID-19, 5G is still on the way with just under 200 million smartphones expected to support the network by the end of 2020.
The report also expects the number of mobile gamers to hit 2.5 billion by the end of 2020. According to their data, global mobile game revenue will grow to $77.2 billion by the end of the year. More than half of this total will come from the iOS platform. Google Play revenue is expected to reach $27.9 billion, 36% of the total market. Revenues from all third-party Android stores will account for the remaining $10.6 billion, approximately 14% of the total.
Chinese Strategy Games Account for 56% of Genre Revenues in the U.S.
According to a report from GameRefinery, Strategy is the third most popular game type, taking up 13% of the market. The genre is also very popular in Japan and China where strategy games generate about 8% and 29% of mobile game revenue respectively. Also, Strategy is the only category in the U.S. market where most of the revenues generated are from Chinese companies. Strategy games from the country make up 56% of revenue generated by the genre.
The Strategy market in the U.S. is very crowded and most of the top-grossing games are getting quite old. The genre could do with some new games to freshen things up given 67% of the top-grossing 200 strategy games are over two years old. Two of the top three games, Clash of Clans and Game of Thrones: Conquest, are considered “Old Masters.” Strategy’s biggest driving force in terms of sub-genres is 4X games. Currently, 22 of the 27 strategy games within the U.S.’ top 200 are in the 4X sub-genre.
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