The top five grossing mobile games of 2016 generated 28% of the US mobile market's revenues in 2016.
That's according to a new joint report from Sega Networks and Sensor Tower, who collaborated on a US Mobile Market Report for 2016. It analysed 362 games that generated at least $250,000 in combined revenues on iOS and Android for one month in 2016.
While the top five companies generated a significant proportion of the mobile market's revenue, this is actually down from 40% in 2015.
Annual overall revenues from mobile companies increased 7% to $6.15 billion in 2016.
Clash Royale topped the grossing charts for games released in 2016 in the US, generating $277.1 million. Pokemon GO was close behind with $270.2 million. Revenues dropped sharply from there – the third top grossing game was Lords Mobile, which generated $18.1 million.
Big spenders
The disparity between revenues is such that Clash Royale and Pokemon GO alone generated 83% of the revenues of the top ten games launched in 2016. Pokemon GO also accounted for 37% of all downloads in the top ten.
Overall for games old and new, MZ was the top publisher for 2016, with Game of War and Mobile Strike generating a combined $917.5 million.
Supercell came second with $809.2 million, while King, Playtika and Niantic made up the rest of the top five publishers.
The report also found that while games using original IPs saw a 30% growth in revenues, branded IPs are rapidly catching up with a 139% growth in 2016. The report claims that branded IP games should surpass original IP in terms in revenues generated in 2018.
It should be noted that Clash Royale is considered a branded IP since it is based on Clash of Clans.