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Mobile games revenue increased by 13% to $61.7 billion in 2019

Honor of Kings tops the list for worldwide spending at $1.43 billion

Mobile games revenue increased by 13% to $61.7 billion in 2019

Revenue earned from mobile games grew to $61.7 billion in 2019, according to Sensor Tower.

After earning $54.7 billion in 2018, the figure increased by an estimated 13 per cent to solidify the market's continued growth. This number accounted for 74 per cent of all in-app spending for the year, which dropped three per cent due to the rise of non-game apps.

Mobile games represented 84 per cent of all revenue made on Google Play, and contributed to 64 per cent of revenues on the App Store.

Spending across the App Store in games rose by 11.4 per cent year-on-year from $33.2 billion to $37 billion.

Top grossing games

The top grossing iOS title was Tencent's Honor of Kings, generating approximately $1.43 billion from worldwide spending. On Android, NCSOFT's Lineage M topped the list with $691 million.

Downloads of mobile games additionally grew by 9.9 per cent year-on-year to reach 42.1 billion. Google Play installs represented the majority at 78 per cent of all game downloads, equal to 32.9 billion.

Garena Free Fire took the top spot on Android for the highest number of installs, with Call of Duty: Mobile claiming victory on iOS.

Over the Christmas period, mobile games spending reached $210 million, showing an eight per cent increase year-on-year.

Niantic's Pokemon Go also achieved a strong year, earning $894 million from player spending to cement 2019 as the game's best year to date, since launching in 2016.

Deputy Editor

Matthew Forde is the deputy editor at PocketGamer.biz and also a member of the Pocket Gamer Podcast. You can find him on Twitter @MattForde64 talking about stats, data and everything pop culture related - particularly superheroes.