Mobile games revenue jumped by 27 per cent year-over-year to $19.3 billion in Q2 2020, according to Sensor Tower.
Furthermore, it experienced a rise of 10.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter, as Q1 2020 hit $17.5 billion, an increase of 16 per cent year-over-year. In May, revenue hit its peak at $6.6 billion for the month, representing an improvement of 21.5 per cent year-on-year.
The US generated the most revenue through mobile games in H1 2020. It brought in over $10 billion during those six months. In Q1 the country saw $4.5 billion in revenue, which grew by 24.4 per cent to $5.6 billion in Q2. Japan wasn’t far behind; for the first half of the year, it generated $8 billion. Hitting $3.8 billion in quarter one, it climbed 13.2 per cent in quarter two making $4.3 billion.
Unsurprisingly, China also cracked the top three as it generated $6.7 billion in H1 through the App Store alone. However, due to its lockdown being lifted earlier than other countries, it saw a decrease of 8.6 per cent quarter-over-quarter to $3.2 billion.
It is believed that worldwide lockdown put in place due to the coronavirus outbreak is the cause of impressive revenue and download heights.
Impressive numbers
However, revenue did trail behind the surge in downloads in Q1 with new installs hitting 13.4 billion, which represented an increase of 38 per cent and 20.7 per cent year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter respectively. Meanwhile, Q2 downloads hit 15 billion, up 45.2 per cent year-over-year and 12.7 per cent quarter-over-quarter.
When it came to individual countries, India accumulated the most installs with 2.7 billion in Q2, a rise that was close to 50 per cent quarter-on-quarter as Q1 saw 1.8 billion. It was followed by the US in second, which generated over 1.4 billion in both quarters. Meanwhile, in third, Brazil experienced an increase of nine per cent quarter-over-quarter from 1.1 billion in Q1 to 1.2 billion in Q2.
In China, the country saw 743 million installs in Q1 at the height of its pandemic. However, that number decreased by 35.8 per cent to 477 million in Q2 as its lockdown measures were lifted, while many over countries were experiencing its outbreak peak.
Top players
Overall, PUBG Mobile generated the most revenue overall across both the App Store and Google Play. Last month, it was revealed that the mobile battle royale had broken $3 billion in lifetime revenue, $1.3 billion of which had been generated in the first six months of 2020.
In Q1 2020, Tencent’s title generated $674.5 million, while that dropped by eight per cent in Q2 to $621 million. On top of that, the Chinese firm secured second place with Honor of Kings as it topped the App Store chart. Meanwhile, Lineage 2M took the number one spot on Google Play.
Although, PUBG Mobile was not the only game to have seen significant growth over the course of the coronavirus outbreak. Having hit $1.5 million in lifetime revenue back in June, Roblox Mobile has been on the rise too. It generated $190.7 million in quarter one and grew a staggering 58.8 per cent to $302.8 million in quarter two. Overall, it came in at fourth on the chart.
Niantic has also benefited from the enforcement of lockdown as Pokemon GO made $254 million in Q2, an increase of 32.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Last month, the company hit $3.6 billion in lifetime revenue. Performance-wise, the augmented reality title took the fifth spot overall.
