Note: This post is from April 2016. You can find the April 2017 version here.

Today, Newzoo released the latest quarterly update of its Global Games Market Report. It shows that gamers worldwide will generate a total of $99.6 billion in revenues in 2016, up 8.5% compared to 2015. For the first time, mobile gaming will take a larger share than PC with $36.9 billion, up 21.3% globally. APAC continues to dominate worldwide, accounting for 47% of the market. China alone accounts for one-quarter of all global game revenues. Newzoo expects the global market to grow at a CAGR of +6.6% toward 2019, eventually reaching $118.6 billion with mobile gaming at $52.5 billion.

You can find the below data and more in our Free Global Games Market 2016 Report.

The Q2 2016 Update of Newzoo’s Global Games Market Premium service was made available to its clients this week. The latest revenue and gamer estimates by segment on a global, regional and country level can now be analyzed in Newzoo’s Games Market Dashboard.

APAC Accounts for 47% of the Global Market; China Mobile Revenues hit $10 Billion

APAC territories will generate $46.6 billion this year, or 47% of total global game revenues. This growth represents a 10.7% YoY increase. China alone accounts for half of APAC’s revenues, reaching $24.4 billion this year to cement its place as the largest games market in the world, ahead of the US’s anticipated market size of $23.5 billion. China’s PC market is showing signs of slowing growth, with a 4% increase compared to the previous 16% as the success of “core” mobile titles is starting to cannibalize PC game spending. However, the mobile segment in China is growing even faster than estimated and will reach $10.0 billion this year, up 41% from $7.1 billion in 2015. China will remain the largest games market for the foreseeable future, growing to $28.9 billion by 2019.

Note: This post is from April 2016. You can find the April 2017 version here.

North America is the second largest region with estimated revenues of $25.4 billion in 2016, a YoY growth rate of 4.1%. This growth is mainly driven by the mobile segment. Console revenues remain stable as the segment moves toward digital and continuous monetization. Western Europe will see a slightly higher growth rate of +4.4% which can be mainly attributed to the fact that the region has seen slower adoption of mobile gaming to date. Eastern Europe, meanwhile, will even grow a bit more, from the past year’s crisis with a 7.3% YoY growth rate.

Free 2016 Global Games Market Report What’s included? The Key Trends in Global, Mobile, and PC/Console Gaming

Global 2016 Revenues Per Screen, Segment, & Region

2015-2019 Gaming Revenues Per Segment

Revenues & Key KPIs Per Sub-Region: North America, Latin America, Western & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, Oceania, and Asia-Pacific.

After suffering from a period of severe economic headwinds and falling exchange rates, Latin America will see healthy growth again, reaching $4.1 billion in 2016, an impressive 20.1% YoY increase. Mobile games will generate $1.4 billion, up significantly from $900 million last year. Other market research reports have mentioned far higher revenues for this part of the world but, despite a huge mobile gaming audience of more than 190 million consumers, spending has remained low.

Mobile Gaming to Reach $37.0 Billion Despite Lower Growth for Tablets Than Anticipated

In early 2012, Newzoo introduced the consumer-centric Screen Segmentation as an alternative for the traditional game segmentation. Our prediction that each of the four screens would take 25% of the market and align with time spent by consumers has largely come true. An exception is the Floating Screen. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the rapid decline of handheld console revenues. Secondly, the popularity of large screen smartphones which cater to high-end mobile games have dented spending on tablet games, making tablet revenue growth lower than originally anticipated.

The Computer Screen is the most lucrative on a global scale, with revenues of almost $32 billion. The vast majority of this will from (mid)core PC/MMO games, while casual webgame revenues continue to decline. This is followed closely by the Entertainment Screen (TV/Console) which will grow to $29.0 billion. The Personal Screen, or smartphones, is the fastest growing with a YoY growth rate of 23.7% and by 2018 will take the lead globally. The Floating Screen (tablets & handheld consoles) remains the least important gaming screen, with revenues of $11.6 billion, as handheld revenues are expected to plummet another 24% this year.

VR Is Not a Fifth Screen; Revenues Absorbed in PC, Console, Mobile Gaming Segments

Worth noting is that Newzoo expects game software revenues from VR to remain marginal for the near future and to largely substitute other game spending on console, PC and mobile. As the uptake of VR hardware plays out, game software revenues will automatically be absorbed into current PC, TV/console and mobile revenues. VR and AR will in the long term change how consumers communicate with each other and interact with content. In the short to medium term, Newzoo expects the lion’s share of VR revenues to be generated by hardware sales, spectator content, and live viewing formats. To fulfill the need of its clients to size and profile VR target groups on a global scale, Newzoo is currently performing a VR research project in 26 countries.

Key Growth Driver Going Forward: Games Evolving to All-Round Entertainment Franchises

As Newzoo recently reported, the games industry shows signs of accelerated growth following global alignment of business models and platforms. The biggest driver going forward is the convergence of games and video on a global scale, with esports at the epicenter. This trend is transforming games into all-round entertainment franchises, opening up new ways of engagement and complementary revenue streams. This is good news for the games industry, which was already on a healthy growth curve through success on mobile.

Note: This post is from April 2016. You can find all of our latest estimates at Newzoo Resources.

Global Games Market Methodology

Newzoo’s Global Games Market Forecast Model projects gamer numbers and revenues per segment, region and screen on a global, regional and country level. It also shows the share of paying gamers and average spend in the same granularity. These projections are analyzed in various ways, comparing year-on-year growth rates, market share, CAGRs and absolute amounts in USD between the regions and segments, as well as the development of specific regions or segments in time. These projections are compared to available third-party sources on a local or global level. Given the pace of the developments in the games industry, Newzoo reviews its conclusions and assumptions every quarter, taking into account newly available data and insights. Before publication of any data, Newzoo also performs validation checks in various ways including comparison against historic internal data, comparison against market figures from alternative sources and validation from several Newzoo clients.

You can find a more in-depth explanation of Newzoo’s methodology and terminologies here.