2022 proved to be a turbulent year for the market, but new data indicates that just five games drew in more than $7.2 billion, reports Sportslens.This is just shy of eight percent of the total drawn by the entire mobile gaming industry throughout the year.
Diving straight in at the top, Honor of Kings is identified as the year’s top performer, earning more than $2.2 billion throughout the year. This was followed by PUBG Mobile ($1.7 billion), Genshin Impact ($1.56 billion) and Candy Crush Saga ($1.02 billion). Roblox, which drew $861.8 million, is the only title within the top five not to cross the billion dollar threshold.
This suggests that 2022 was a bumper year for Tencent, which publishes both Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile, which earned more than the other three titles combined. However, each game saw a different year in terms of growth. While Honor of Kings saw a year-on-year revenue increase of around 25 percent compared to $1.76 billion in 2021, PUBG Mobile saw revenue fall from over $2 billion in 2021 to $1.72 billion in 2022.
Additionally, Genshin Impact and Candy Crush Saga both saw growth in 2022 while Roblox saw revenue decline by almost $100 million, falling to $862 million.
Overall, revenue for the five top-grossing games was around $400 million higher than in 2021, showcasing once again the remarkable resilience of the mobile gaming market.
A dip in player numbers
A Statista and Mobilegamer survey found that mobile gamers fell 5.7 percent in 2022, a total decline of around 104 million people. However, the company is forecasting a significant bounce back, with the number of mobile gamers expected to jump by 165 million in 2023, bringing the total to 1.86 billion players worldwide. China alone is forecast to have more than 546 million gamers by the end of the year, while the USA is forecast to cross the 157 million mark.
Furthermore, the group is predicting that this growth will continue in the coming years, and that the number of mobile gamers worldwide will exceed 2 billion by 2025.
We listed Tencent and Roblox as two of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.
