Mobile games revenue surpassed PC and console games revenues for the first time in 2016, according to DFC Intelligence.

The intelligence firm claims in a new report that the mobile gaming market generated over $30 billion in revenues in 2016. This is an increase of 32% compared to 2015.

DFC states that the majority of the growth in the industry was due to China. Developers such as Tencent and Netease doubled their revenues in 2016, it says.

Keep it mobile

"Large console and PC game publishers have not really been significant players in the mobile space but that is starting to change," said DFC analyst David Cole.

"Japan has been a market trend leader in games since the 1980s and large game publishers like Bandai Namco and Square Enix are seeing major growth as they bring key franchise to mobile devices."

This may not be all that surprising given other research conducted on 2016's mobile games revenue. Superdata Research and Unity teamed up back in February 2017 for a report which stated that the mobile games industry generated $40.8 billion in revenues in 2016, for example.