Newzoo has revealed the top 25 public companies by game revenues and Tencent still reigns supreme for the first half of 2017. At $7.4 billion, the Chinese giant experienced impressive 50 percent growth year-over-year. This figure doesn’t even include the additional $1 billion or so from Supercell—which, despite being acquired by Tencent, remains a private company.
“Tencent’s robust growth was driven by the popularity of Honor of Kings, with 200 million players in China alone,” Newzoo said alongside its findings. “Tencent is looking to sustain its growth in several ways—the release of Honor of Kings in Europe and the United States, the launch of a WeGame platform that will compete with mobile app stores in China and the launch of a free-to-play version of Rocket League in China.”
Coming in at number two in the world is Sony with $4.3 billion in game revenue, growing 25 percent over the same period last year. Newzoo attributes this growth to an increase in sales through the PlayStation Network.
The top 25 public companies generated $41.4 billion in the first half of the year—an increase of 20 percent compared to the same period in 2016. A majority of this game revenue was generated by the top 10 companies, increasing 24 percent year over year to $31.4 billion. Mobile gaming accounted for 42 percent of all revenues generated by the top 10 companies, up from 40 percent in the first half of 2016.
The popularity of the Nintendo Switch has helped rejuvenate the brand, resulting in a 49 percent revenue increase and rising four spots in the top 25 list over last year. Newzoo predicts that on its current revenue trajectory, Nintendo could very well make the top 10 by the end of 2017.
Take-Two Interactive rose three spots on the list over the same period last year. The continued success of GTA V along with the revenues gained from GTA Online earned the company 44 percent growth in revenue.
Korean mobile game company Netmarble comes in at number 12, after completing a successful IPO in May. The company reported a revenue growth of 81 percent compared to the first half 2016, but the celebration may be short-lived.
“Netmarble benefitted from the release of Lineage2 Revolution in Q1, but now that Lineage’s IP owner NCSoft has released its own mobile version of the game (Lineage M), we expect Netmarble’s revenue growth to slow down significantly,” said Newzoo.
Sega regained momentum during the first half of 2017 but ultimately fell just short of the top 25 list. Zynga also fell short by a small margin, despite a strong second quarter thanks to its focus on mobile games.
The only company in the top 25 to report a double-digit decline in earnings was GungHo Entertainment. According to Newzoo, GungHo lost 20 percent of its revenues as it struggled to replicate the success of Puzzles & Dragons.
