In the past two years, the smartphone gaming market has experienced phenomenal growth. Many companies have established themselves in this particularly lucrative field to such an extent that now one may wonder if there is still room for competition in this market. So, can we really imagine that the field of mobile gaming has reached saturation?
Sure, we’re less limited but that doesn’t stop the video game from progressing. Gaming market turnover will grow by 1.4% in 2021, $180 billion in revenue.
mobile game brought alone $93 billion in revenuethis is 52% of the video game market, With this market segment growing at 4.4%, it would have overtaken gaming on home consoles and PC. This market should indeed register an annual growth rate of 11% between 2019 and 2024.
The Google Play Store is expected to generate $28.2 billion in revenue, while the third-party Android App Store will generate $21.3 billion in revenue.
market dominated by giants
Mobile analytics company AppAnnie has released a study deciphering the mobile gaming market. Several important points emerge. The first concern is the extraordinary economic explosion in the region, which has become a major issue for all studios. The market is occupied by giants such as King, Supercell, Tencent or Gunghy, which top the rankings of gaming applications, the most downloaded and the most profitable.
In the wake of the “flappy edge”, the so-called simple game, which requires only one repetitive action on the part of the player, was a resounding success in 2014. It is difficult to predict whether the market is saturated, despite everything of a very complex nature: a publisher like Electronic Arts, for example, has over 900 game applications, divided into 3 subsidiaries and 15 different publisher accounts. has been done.
Small studios are on the rise
Knowing whether a market is consolidating or breaking up is the focus of the study. In the first case, it would be very difficult for new publishers to exist, while in the second case, competition would still take its place. Contrary to all expectations, the rate of business concentration in the mobile gaming industry decreased by about 40% globally in 2014.
Despite significant acquisitions like Z2live by King, this branch surprisingly has room for new publishers who are likely to achieve excellent monetization of their games. This more balanced distribution of income thus suggests interesting possibilities for small and medium-sized studios. More modest infrastructure may still exist in the market, although this varies greatly depending on the geographic region.
still room for competition
To determine market conditions, AppAnnie uses the Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index indicator. By analyzing the market share of mobile gaming players in each country, it makes it possible to define the concentration of region by nation nation. The result of these calculations is that some markets are already completely saturated, preventing the appearance of new studios, while others, more fragmented in terms of income, leave real room for competition.
The entire Asian market now appears to be blocked in this area, the scene of a clash between the giants of gaming for mobile phones. In China, Alibaba and Tencent are heavily in competition, as is Netmarble Group in South Korea. In terms of downloads and profitability, Europe and the United States, however, offer real possibilities for new studios. Strong demand for games and less space for big names in this space give smaller publishers an opportunity to make the most of games. In full development, the field of mobile games still has a certain economic potential.