Two years after its first-ever revenue drop, caused by the challenges in monetization, regulatory issues in China, and changes in user behavior post-pandemic, the gaming industry not only recovered but is set to reach a new record valuation.
According to data presented by Betideas.com, mobile game creators worldwide will gross roughly $196 billion in revenue this year, 20% more than before the 2022 hit. However, this figure is projected to grow by 30% and hit nearly $250 billion by 2027.
Card and Sports Mobile Games to See the Biggest Growth by 2027
Mobile games have dominated the gaming landscape for years, being far ahead of console and PC games in terms of revenue and users. That didn’t change in 2024, despite shifts and headwinds the market faced in the past two years.
After record growth during the pandemic, user spending dropped across major Western markets. The increasing competition and market saturation brought a surge of new game releases, with fewer “big wins” in terms of game launches. There were also considerable investment shifts and mergers, with many gaming companies facing pressure to expand into new regions or being involved in mergers to stay competitive. The industry also began exploring AI to enhance game development and player experience and potentially overcome market challenges in the future.
According to the Statista Market Insights survey, the mobile gaming industry is expected to gross $196.1 billion in 2024, almost 14% more than last year. This massive figure includes revenue from the one-time purchase of an app, in-app purchases revenue (IAP), and in-app advertising revenue. Although the annual growth rate is expected to slow down and drop to 7.6% in the next three years, that won’t stop the market from reaching a new record valuation.
According to Statista, mobile game developers worldwide will gross nearly $250 billion in 2027, or roughly 30% more than this year. Almost one-third of that value, or around $70 billion, will come from role-playing mobile games. Action, strategy, and puzzle gaming apps follow, with $24.5 billion, $22.5 billion, and $22 billion in revenue, respectively.
However, card games and sports games lead in terms of growth. Statista data show the revenue in the card mobile games segment will grow by 30% and hit $18.6 billion in the next three years. Sports mobile games, including titles like FIFA Mobile, NBA Live Mobile Basketball, and Madden NFL Mobile, follow with a 34% growth and $13.8 billion in revenue in this period.
200 Million New Users in the Next Three Years
Besides a solid 30% revenue growth, the mobile gaming industry will also see double-digit downloads increase in the next three years. According to Statista, mobile games will hit 154 billion downloads by the end of 2024, up from 134.9 billion last year. This figure is expected to grow by another 17% by 2027 and hit 176 billion, 16 billion more than the combined downloads of all other app categories combined.
The number of people playing mobile games will also continue surging. Statista expects roughly 200 million people to flock to mobile games in the next three years, pushing the total user count in the mobile games segment to 1.9 billion.