In 2021, the top 10 public game companies reached $126 billion in revenue combined, according to a Newzoo report. This is a 10.2% growth year-over-year, as the consolidation trend in the industry continues.
- The top 10 companies accounted for 65.3% of total market revenues of $192.7 billion.
- Tencent, which operates huge domestic hits and owns international developers like Riot Games and Supercell, remained the largest game company by revenue globally, generating $32.2 billion last year (up 9.9% year-over-year).
- It is followed by Sony ($18.2 billion), Apple ($15.3 billion), Microsoft ($12.9 billion), and Google ($11 billion).
- Companies in the top 10, however, showed the slowest growth of all public companies covered by Newzoo. The top 11-25 firms began to capture a bigger market share, while those ranked 26 and below had the fastest growth.
- This is due to the fact that the top 10 giants tend to grow through M&A, analysts explain.
- If taking the biggest deals announced in the industry over the last few months into account, the top 10 would be slightlty different.
- If regulators approve the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft would become the second biggest company by revenue globally.
- It is still not enough to dethrone Tencent, but Sony and Apple would be pushed to third and fourth place, respectively, in this case.
- If Take-Two already owned Zynga in 2021, it would have broken into the top 10 companies by revenue last year.
The full report can be found here.