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.