14 DAY TRIAL // A market research report shows that the United States of America, China and Japan account for 60 percent of global video game revenue.
The news seems incredible at first glance, but the three countries outstrip by far all subsequent ones when it comes to the amount of money they spend on video games and video game-related content, including casual and mobile sectors.
The information comes from market research firm Newzoo, listing the top 100 countries based on global games revenue, with data gathered from performance to date and Q4 2014 projections.
The data used for the study is based on a combination of multiple outlets, such as primary consumer research, transactional data, quarterly reports from involved companies, census data, and consumer revenues generated by companies in the global games industry.
However, the data does not include gambling or betting-related revenue, nor does it include revenue from hardware sales, so it should provide an accurate picture of video gaming income.
Lonely at the top
The report shows that Asian companies account for around half of the global revenue from the top 25 companies in the world, with Tencent being at number one, registering 50 percent more revenue than its closes rival, Electronic Arts, thanks to a 40 percent year-over-year boom.
Activision Blizzard, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Google, King, GungHo and Nexon close the top 10, showing the sheer size of mobile and casual gaming, as well as the robust economics behind free-to-play games.
In addition to revealing the figures, Newzoo has also predicted a slowdown of growth over the course of next year, as the sales effect that the entry of two major consoles had on the market will begin to lessen, and companies such as King, the maker of the ubiquitous Candy Crush Saga, will start experiencing slight falls in revenue growth.
Furthermore, the firm has revealed that companies such as Ubisoft and TakeTwo Interactive, which are traditionally much more dependent on the success of their core franchises on console, are less indicative of the global trend and growth rate of the industry, as their revenues are much more volatile, making their periodic growth rates more wild.
In any case, if you're wondering how much your country is contributing to the global games industry, you can head over to the Newzoo website and check out the charts, listing the top 100 countries by game revenue, along with some nice helpful visual guides showing market revenue distribution across the world.
