With the pandemic leaving the majority unable to leave their homes, the mobile gaming industry experienced a boost like never before, new reports reveal. Thanks to this boost, a record five mobile games including PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings from Tencent generated more than $1 billion in 2020 so far.
The new report has been released by Sensor Tower, which hails PUBG Mobile as the highest grossing game of the year till now. The game accumulated more than $2.6 billion in revenue on App Store and Google Play Store since the start of the year. Note that these earnings, marking a 64.3 percent increase from 2019, include that of PUBG Mobile¡¯s Chinese version - Game For Peace.
The game is closely followed by Honor of Kings, which stands at number 2 for the year till now. The game has raked in close to $2.5 billion in player spending, up 42.8 percent from the previous year.
Pok¨¦mon GO from Niantic ranks at number 3, accumulating $1.2 billion to date, up 31.5 percent from 2019. The game benefitted from several updates that let players play it amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
At number 4 is Coin Master from Moon Active, which generated $1.1 billion. This marked a more than two-times increase for the game from last year, picking up a cool $118 million just in November this year.
Last on the list of top five is Roblox from Roblox Corporation - an MMO that managed to almost double its 2019 mobile revenue to $1.1 billion. Thanks to the title¡¯s hit in the market, the company is now headed for an IPO next year.
This year¡¯s list of games grossing more than a billion dollars in revenue is the longest one to date. The milestone was achieved by three games last year - Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile and Fate/Grand Order from Sony¡¯s Aniplex. A similar case was seen in 2018, when Honor of Kings, Monster Strike and Fate/Grand Order hit the milestone.
The report mentions another game that might be close to achieving the target this year. Monster Strike from Mixi has racked up $958 million so far this year, up 2.8 percent from 2019. It is possible that the game expands this list further by the end of the year.