Sony Earned $14Bn in 2018, Microsoft $9.8Bn; Tencent on Top with Almost $20Bn

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    According to Newzoo’s survey of the gaming industry, Microsoft and Sony earned approx $10Bn and $14Bn in 2018, with the bulk of that sum coming from the sales on their respective gaming consoles platforms. However, the top spot was retained by Chinese giant Tencent with a mammoth yearly revenue of almost $20Bn in 2018, up from $18bn in 2017.

    Sony vs Microsoft

    Apple and Activision Blizzard trailed behind with slightly higher earnings than last year, with Google and EA next in line. The latter’s revenue barely budged, but considering the Battlefront 2 loot-box drama and the dismal sales of Anthem and BFV, it’s hardly unexpected. Nintendo had a much better year thanks to the Switch console, with a year on year growth of 34%. It’s important to note that the companies that saw the highest boost in revenue are the three console manufacturers, Sony with 41%, Nintendo with 34% and finally Microsoft with a year-on-year growth of 32%. This report further states that the big three earned the majority of their profits via the console gaming market.

    Related:

    Console Gaming Grew, Mobile, and PC Declined Slightly in 2019

    One of the surprises from last year’s statistics includes the slight drop in mobile gaming which has been growing at an amazing rate, spurred by the launch of BattleRoyale titles, PUBG, and Fortnite on Android. The smartphone gaming market fell by one percent to 45% in 2018 (from 46% in 2017). Furthermore, the PC gaming space also saw a decline of 3% to 17% (from 20%). This may be attributed to the scarcity of graphics cards in the second half of the year due to the crypto-mining craze and increased pricing for the available parts.

    Sony vs Microsoft

    Console gaming had better times, rising from 34% to 38%. As already mentioned above, most of this money came from the sales of console games* the game consoles, namely the PS4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch. To sum up, the total game revenues of the top 25 public companies was $107.3Bn in 2018, an increase of 16% compared to the previous year.

    * Revenues exclude hardware sales and other non-game sales to the extent publicly available. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo estimates represent all Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo non-hardware platform revenues (including Xbox Live, PSN, and Nintendo eShop revenues respectively).

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