The latest Newzoo report looks at the strongest players of the games market in 2018. Last year, the top 25 companies by game revenue earned a record-breaking $107.3 billion, which signifies 16% growth over 2017.
The top 25’s earnings make up nearly 80% of the global $134.9 billion games market value.
The report also notes Google’s and Apple’s increased involvement in games. Both Google Play and App Store have generated consistent cash flow over the years, but the companies’ new projects might get them even bigger slices of the market. Google is betting on its streaming platform Stadia, and Apple is rolling out a new subscription service with selectively curated games. Both are to debut later this year.
In another notable trend, console showed impressive growth, making up 38% of the top 25’s combined revenue. That’s up from 34% in 2017. Furthermore, five out of the top 10 companies earned the majority of their revenues from console gaming.
- Sony earned $14.2 billion as a result of successful exclusive releases (up +41% from 2017).
- Microsoft generated revenues of $9.8 billion in 2018 (up +32% from 2017), reaping the benefits of Xbox subscription services
- Nintendo brought in $4.3 billion (up +36% from 2017), with the Nintendo Switch still growing in popularity.
Activision Blizzard, EA, and Ubisoft saw their growth slow down.
Top 25 Public Companies by Game Revenues (based on Newzoo research)
*=based on estimates
| RANK | COMPANY | TOTAL REVENUE | CHANGE |
| 1 | Tencent | $19,733M | 9 % |
| 2 | Sony* | $14,218M | 41 % |
| 3 | Microsoft* | $9,754M | 32 % |
| 4 | Apple* | $9,453M | +18 % |
| 5 | Activision Blizzard | $6,892M | +6 % |
| 6 | Google* | $6,497M | +22 % |
| 7 | NetEase | $6,177M | +11 % |
| 8 | EA | $5,294M | +4 % |
| 9 | Nintendo | $4,288M | +36 % |
| 10 | Bandai Namco | $2,741M | +13 % |
| 11 | TakeTwo Interactive | $2,580M | +35 % |
| 12 | Nexon | $2,252M | +8 % |
| 13 | Ubisoft | $2,221M | -3 % |
| 14 | Netmarble | $1,893M | -17 % |
| 15 | Warner Bros* | $1,835M | -5 % |
| 16 | Square Enix | $1,583M | -9 % |
| 17 | NCSoft | $1,343M | -8 % |
| 18 | Cyber Agent | $1,324M | +7 % |
| 19 | Mixi | $1,222M | -17 % |
| 20 | Konami | $1,210M | +12 % |
| 21 | Aristocrat Leisure | $1,146M | +187 % |
| 22 | 37 Interactive* | $1,091M | +27 % |
| 23 | Perfect World* | $897M | +3 % |
| 24 | Sega | $832M | -3 % |
| 25 | Capcom | $809M | +4 % |