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Mobile games revenue to hit $37 billion in 2016, overtaking PC

Landmark year expected for mobile says Newzoo

Mobile games revenue to hit $37 billion in 2016, overtaking PC

The latest quarterly update of Newzoo's Global Games Market Report has projected $99.6 billion in overall gaming revenues for 2016, of which $36.9 billion (37%) will come from mobile.

Overall revenue is estimated to be up 8.4% on 2015, but mobile's the area in which Newzoo expects the biggest growth - a 21.3% year-on-year revenue increase is expected to see it leapfrog PC gaming revenues for the first time ever.

Mobile leads growth

This is due to a number of factors.

Mobile revenues in China, for example - accounting for half of all revenues for the world-leading APAC region, expected to generate $24.4 billion (23.5% of worldwide revenues) on its own - are expected to hit $10 billion.

And this is having a direct impact on the growth of the Chinese PC market, which has slowed 4% as the success of core mobile titles begins to cannibalise spending.

The world's second biggest gaming market, North America, is expected to experience year-on-year growth of 4.1% - bringing it to $25.4 billion - which is also driven primarily by mobile gaming.

Tablet decline

What's interesting, however, is that while game revenues from what Newzoo refers to as "The Personal Screen" - the smartphone - are expected to experience year-on year growth of 23.7%, leading globally by 2018, tablet spending is in decline.

While admittedly suffering from being categorised with handheld consoles - revenues from which are set to plummet 24% - "The Floating Screen," which includes tablets, is deemed by Newzoo to be "the least important gaming screen."

You can read more about Newzoo's methodology here.

Features Editor

Matt is really bad at playing games, but hopefully a little better at writing about them. He's Features Editor for PocketGamer.biz, and has also written for lesser publications such as IGN, VICE, and Paste Magazine.