Who will dominate the lucrative mobile game market? According to a new report by Newzoo, the top four publishers have remained completely unchanged since 2015, with Supercell, King, Tencent and Machine Zone still dominating app stores around the globe.
US Market
Games catering to the midcore market top the iOS revenue charts, with Game of War: Fire Age stealing the top spot from Clash of Clans and new entry, Mobile Strike sitting at number two. King Digital’s Candy Crush Saga is still “crushing it” at number three, holding its position from 2015 while Candy Crush Soda Saga dropped down to number five. While Supercell’s Clash Royale claimed the number one spot when it launched in March, the title dropped to number eight in June.
Of the top 10 grossing games in the US for June, there were only two new titles to hit the charts compared to 2015: Mobile Strike and Clash Royale.
Chinese Market
China is set to reach a $10 billion mobile games market this year. Tencent and NetEase are by far the most dominant publishers in China, earning about five times as much as the number three publisher. Tencent alone claimed about 45 percent of Chinese Android revenues in May, publishing 23 of the top 100 titles. King of Glory, a popular MOBA mobile game, continues to be the company’s top-performing title in terms of revenues while the most-installed game by the publisher is Happy Lord. Newzoo predicts that Tencent will climb even further in the coming months, following its recent acquisition of Supercell and Clash Royale’s release on the WeChat platform.
Mobile MMOs are the most popular games on the Chinese market, although top 10 charts fluctuate much more in this region than in the West. NetEase’s Fantasy Westward Journey is the only game to remain in the top ten since June 2015, while Fantasy Westward Journey 2 climbed back to number two in June, followed by Tencent’s King of Glory at number three. Fantasy Westward Journey 2 launched last October and the franchise consistently sits atop the App Store in the world’s biggest mobile market.
European Market
Supercell currently dominates the European iOS charts, with Clash Royale still claiming the number one position and Clash of Clans at number two, knocking King Digital down a notch. Supercell’s other hit titles, Hay Day and Boom Beach are also holding their top ten positions, making Supercell the number one grossing publisher in Europe.
Global Market
Since June 2015, there have been only two new publishers in the global top ten grossing ranking: NetEase and Epic War, a subsidiary of Machine Zone. Combined revenues on iOS of both Epic War and Machine Zone in June puts the company in second place position, directly behind Supercell. Epic War’s Mobile Strike, fronted by Hollywood icon Arnold Schwarzenegger, has taken the app store by storm since its release in July 2015.
