And China is leading the pack

For decades the video gaming market has been dominated by either purpose-built consoles or cumbersome computers. From the early days of Atari and Commodore to the modern era of Microsoft and Ryzen, most video games were played at home. But then, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry changed the face of consumer electronics, and gaming, forever. Today, over 6 billion people own a smartphone, so it’s no surprise that mobile gaming now makes up over 52% of the market, bringing in over $90 billion in revenue in 2021.

These numbers come from a report released by gaming industry analyst Newzoo. The report highlights that not only is the mobile gaming market now larger than consoles and PCs combined, it’s also the fastest growing market segment. And while PCs and consoles continue to contract as workplace restrictions and lockdowns are eased, overall industry revenue is rising, meaning that not only is mobile gaming more popular than ever, it’s actually pushing the growth of the industry as a whole.

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This paradigm shift can be explained by a few factors. The growth of the smartphone market has exploded since 2010, with most of that growth being led by the rising popularity of the Android operating system. The near ubiquity of Android makes it easy for developers to create games for many different phones, with iOS being the only other true contender. And for the past two years, the global pandemic has placed restrictions on the large teams of developers necessary to make AAA-titles for the likes of Microsoft and Sony.

The lion's share of the $90 billion market revenue came from the Asia-Pacific region, with China accounting for over $30 billion in revenue (compared to $15 billion in the US). And not all of that can be attributed solely to its vast population — Chinese gaming companies like Tencent (Call of Duty, PUBG) and Mihoyo (Genshin Impact) brought in $18 billion in revenue from overseas last year.

It’s also worth mentioning that the biggest gains are coming from emerging economies in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Although these regions account for less than 10% of the overall mobile games market, they’re showing the fastest growth which is projected to continue for the next few years.

With smartphone ownership expected to keep growing (it’s projected to exceed 7 billion by 2024), and the spread of high-speed networks across the globe, the mobile games market has nowhere to go but up.

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Daniel covers Android and tech news. He's been writing for over 20 years in newspapers, magazines, and websites. He's always on the lookout for what's new and cutting edge.