2020 Global Mobile Game Competitiveness Report

Recently, Gamma Data and Newzoo jointly released the “2020 Global Mobile Game Competitiveness Report”, which conducted a detailed study of the global mobile game market and the overall overseas development of Chinese game companies, and announced the top 20 Chinese companies in the global mobile game market.

The report shows:

• In 2020, the global mobile game market is expected to exceed US$86 billion, an increase of more than 25%.
• In 2020, the actual sales revenue of China’s self-developed mobile games in overseas market is expected to exceed 13 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of more than 48% (the final data will be on the China Game Industry Report in mid-December).
• In developed regions such as Britain, America, Germany, Japan and South Korea, Chinese games have grown rapidly for two consecutive years
• Tencent, NetEase, Century Huatong, Sanqi Mutual Entertainment, and Perfect World entered the global competitiveness list of Chinese mobile game companies
• The TOP20 of overseas Chinese games are mainly shooting and SLG Games

Global mobile games are expected to exceed US$86 billion in 2020

China’s self-developed mobile game overseas revenue is expected to exceed 13 billion U.S. dollars

Gamma data and Newzoo’s research show that in 2020, the global mobile game market will see a significant growth, with an overall increase of nearly US$20 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25.6%.

In 2020, the actual sales revenue of China’s independently developed mobile online games in overseas markets will increase significantly.

Chinese games two years’ rapid growth of Chinese games in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Britain and other countries

In 2020, China’s mobile games have performed outstandingly in many countries around the world, especially in the strong traditional game markets such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, Britain and Germany. The rapid growth for two consecutive years is impressive.

In 2020, the number of Chinese publishers in the TOP100 in major markets around the world is on the rise, more and more companies gain their own edges through their differentiated strategies. In terms of the number of products, more and more domestic mobile games have entered the TOP100 in the following markets. Taking South Korea as an example, 34 domestic games have entered the Top100 games. That means Chinese publishers (developers) not only need to compete with local game developers but also with domestic companies in foreign markets.

This report also analyzes the characteristics of multiple mobile game markets in China, the United States, Japan, and South Korea in more detail.

The stability of long-time products in Japan’s mobile game market begins to decline

In 2020, the stability of long-time games launched in or before 2015 in the Japanese market has gone into declining stage. The revenue ratio has fallen from 53.9% in 2019 to 41.3% this year, and the revenue ratio of newly launched products has increased significantly in the past two years.

Increased market opportunities for new products

In 2020, with the old products’ revenue declining in the Japanese market, a total of 16 new games entered the Top 100 revenue list. The number of new games has doubled year-on-year. Among them mainly are domestic games and Japanese local games. Well-known domestic game companies such as miHoYo, Happy Element, Lilith Games, HyperGryph, 4399, and Tencent Games have successfully broken into Japanese market.

Korean mobile gaming market

ARPG/MMORPG gameplay is highly concentrated

High-quality products have a greater chance of obtaining high revenue.

Gamers in South Korean mobile game market are in favor of ARPG/MMORPG games as the gameplay, and the revenue of these two genres accounts for more than 60% in two years.

Based on this market characteristic, high-quality ARPG/MMORPG products will have more opportunities in this market, and many domestic game companies have accumulated long-term accumulation in this field, combined with local market characteristics, will greatly increase the success rate of products.

User preference causes scarcity of long-time products

But it also brings market opportunities for new products

The Korean mobile game market is changing rapidly between new and old products. Over 50% of the market revenue in 2020 is contributed by game launched in the past two years, and the revenue of products launched before 2019 has declined rapidly. Gamma data believes that the gameplay structure of the Korean market is relatively special, and users are highly concentrated in MMORPG and ARPG gameplay. Such products have more difficulties in long-term operations, so product iteration will become faster.

This form of the Korean mobile game market also brings more market opportunities for new travels. At the same time, high-speed iterations also allow innovative products to achieve outstanding performance and give users a more differentiated gaming experience.

Two domestic games enter the TOP5 Fastest Growing Games

“Lineage” have been severely affected by new games

In 2020, among the top 100 mobile games in South Korean market, there are two domestic mobile games that have a significant year-on-year increase compared to last year. They are “기적의검 (Crasher Origin)” released by 4399 and “Age of Z: Origins” released by Camel Software. Both products have achieved growth in the Korean market with a high-quality + marketing strategy without IP. In addition, under the impact of a large number of new games in Korean market in 2020, the former-released games are threatened. Among them, there are 15 products in the MMORPG/ARPG category that entered the top 100. Under such an impact, the Korean market’s “Lineage” series and other MMORPG products have also experienced a serious decline in sales, but “기적의검 (Crasher Origin)”, which belongs to this category, has shown high sales growth. It reflects the quality of the product and the operational strength of the company.