The gaming industry saw a revival of sorts during the high of the covid-19 lockdowns, as people generally had a little more free time on their hands. With mobile gaming being the easiest and most affordable option for new entrants, it makes logical sense that the Mobile gaming segment would have seen some of the most memorable revenue gains.

Let’s take a look at five of the biggest gainers of 2020.

Roblox

According to Sensor Tower, a leading source of mobile gaming related data, the fifth position on the list of 2020’s biggest earners in the mobile gaming space goes to Roblox. The game was developed by the Roblox Corporation and managed to pull in nearly $1.1 billion over the course of 2020.

Coin Master

Fourth position goes to Coin Master, a wildly successful offering from Moon Active. According to the given data, Coin master was able to generate  $1.1 billion during 2020.

Pokemon Go

Third place goes to Niantic’s long established Pokemon Go, which managed to bring in $1.2 billion. For Pokemon Go, 2020 may well have been it’s best year as it realised a revenue increase of approximately 31%.

Honour of Kings

The runner-up position goes to a game from Chinese mobile gaming n powerhouse – Tencent Mobile – Honour of Kings, which grossed an estimated $2.5 billion during 2020. This marks an increase of approximately 42% when compared to data from the  previous year.

PUBG Mobile

The highest grossing mobile game of 2020 also happens to an offering from Tencent, this time it’s PUBG Mobile. The wildly popular battle-royale style game managed to generate a staggering $2.6 billion over the course of 2020, effectively increasing revenue by 64% during 2020.

Conclusion

The roller coaster ride that 2020 brought had some surprising outcomes for many, the most pleasant of which seem to have all gone towards Tencent – which can boast ownership of the two biggest earners of 2020. 

With a good number of nations, their workforce, and their students having gotten themselves a little better acquainted with the idea of working from home, it’s quite possible that the gaming scene may still say some more growth in the coming years – albeit at a less explosive pace. With that wrapped up, 2021 might be another great year for mobile gaming, and the gaming industry as a whole.

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Nintendo’s Pokemon Go, may be one of the first real mass-use cases for extended reality technology, however the game offered minimal interactivity. In fact, many players report to playing Pokemon Go with the augmented reality feature turned off. What the Smurfs game offered users – mostly kids, and nostalgic grownups – was a world overlayed onto real surfaces in the players’ environments. The game also enabled players to control character movements, and interact with the world as if it were real. More than what the Pokemon Go offering gave users, in terms of experience.

The Smurf’s augmented reality game was part of a marketing push, for the 2017 release of the latest installment in the tech giant’s entertainment wing’s attempt to resurrect, and update the little blue creatures’ franchise. The children’s app became more than a marketing vehicle however, and morphed into a proof-of-concept, in terms of how enterprises can harness the power of mixed reality to develop interactive marketing tools.

Sony Pictures Entertainment’s head of digital marketing, Elias Plishner, commented, “Smurfs: The Lost Village takes moviegoers into the world of the Smurfs, and the HoloLens allows us to go one better: to bring our world and the Smurfs’ world together in a mixed-reality setting. It’s huge fun for the moviegoer that perfectly whets the appetite for the movie.”

OMD’s executive director, Stuart Morris, chimed in saying,“In the world of movie marketing, immersive storytelling is key for enhancing those moments when a consumer is engaging with one of our movie titles. By virtually immersing consumers within the world of Smurfs: The Lost Village, the AOL HoloLens experience is the perfect example of delivering key storytelling moments in a way no one has seen before. OMD’s close partnership with Sony Pictures Animation ensures that together, we are at the forefront of exciting, story-telling opportunities in a rapidly shifting technological landscape.”

Though the Smurfs app was targeted at children, the game was – at the time – only available on the Hololens, which was  – at the time – in preproduction, and would set the user back $3,000. Not an amount of money that is easy to come by for the average kid. Which is likely why it failed to make waves. A shame, considering that it was an incredible example of where the world would go – in terms of use of the technology. 

Microsoft’s Hololens has since become a leading Mixed Reality headset product, and has been implemented in training programs by Mercedes Benz, and other firms, in classrooms, and in business for a number of different uses. Hololens headsets have not seen much consumer adoption however, due to a hefty price point – they’ll cost a buyer anything from $3,000-$5,000 dollars. Augmented reality is one of the technologies of the future that economists predict will have a huge impact on how we do things in the next few years. Perhaps once the technology becomes more affordable, we’ll see wider consumer use. 

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