Apple Arcade is predicted to reach 12 million subscribers by the end of 2020.
The prediction was made by IHS Markit Technology director of research and analysis games Piers Harding-Rolls as part of a "prediction panel" for GamesIndustry.biz.
Subscriptions were a major topic for the panel, with many others also forecasting the models increased growth. In the US, video game spending across subscription services rose by 20 per cent for the first three quarters of 2019.
Apple launched its game subscription service in September and has been regularly adding games to the catalogue, recently bringing the total available to over 100.
Continue to proliferate
"Games subscription services continue to proliferate but the wholesale shift to this form of monetisation as we've seen in video and music entertainment is not on the cards," Harding-Rolls told GamesIndustry.biz.
"Indeed, subscription services have become more commercially legitimate precisely because of other forms of monetisation particularly microtransactions, which can be applied to games bundled into these services.
"Even so, Apple is taking a different approach with Arcade by not supporting advertising or IAP monetisation, and I forecast [it] will hit 12 million subscribers by the end of 2020. This will make it the biggest bundled games subscription service globally."
Though no official numbers have been given regarding the success of Apple Arcade, critically the service has been applauded. Initially priced at $4.99 a month, Apple recently added an annual subscription for the service priced at $49.99.
