Six of the world’s top 10 largest public corporations are now involved the games industry.
Bloomberg reports that Chinese tech giant Tencent has now ousted international banking and financial services holding company Wells Fargo as the 10th biggest firm in the world in terms of market cap.
Following a gain of 1.6% on Wednesday, April 5th 2017, Tencent had a market capitalisation of $279 billion.
It joins giants such as Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook – all of which are in the top six.
Here you can see a full rundown of the top 10 public companies by market cap:
- Apple
- Alphabet
- Microsoft
- Amazon
- Berkshire Hathaway
- Exxon Mobil
- Johnson & Johnson
- JPMorgan
- Tencent
Gaming giant
Tencent offers an array of services, including its hugely popular messaging apps such as WeChat.
Its games business is also enormous. A number of its titles are regularly in the top 10 in China, and it owns stakes and/or has invested in companies across the world including Miniclip, Riot Games, Pocket Gems, Glu Mobile and Paradox Interactive.
It further proved its games industry muscle in 2016 by acquiring Clash of Clans and Clash Royale developer Supercell for $8.6 billion
All of its operations added up to an impressive $21.9 billion in revenues in 2016, an increase of 48%. Profits also jumped 42% to $5.9 billion for the year.
Global gaming influence
Apple meanwhile continues to be by far the most valuable company in the world at $754 billion – nearly $200 billion more than second-placed Alphabet, owner of Google.
Both play key roles in the mobile games industry as owners of the App Store and Google Play Stores. Apple also owns the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and Google has developed the Android OS and new Pixel devices.
Microsoft has its fingers firmly in the console pie with the Xbox One, as well as playing a key role in the PC space
Amazon has made numerous significant investments in the games industry of late, including building the Lumberyard game engine and buying streaming platform Twitch for $970 million.
Facebook meanwhile is a key platform for user acquisition amongst mobile developers, and the social media giant is looking to grow its status as a gaming platform back to its former glory with Gameroom and Instant Games.
