NEWZOO TREND REPORT THE MOBILE GAMING LANDSCAPE 2015 AND THE POWER USERS WHO SHAPED IT Includes contributions from FOREWORD ANOTHER BIG YEAR FOR MOBILE GAMING It has been the biggest year in the history of the an audience who respect and play “core” games. Sony’s announcement that PS4 Remote Play, mobile gaming industry. With the sector And though they consume video content on which allows console owners to play content generating revenues of over $30 billion and King, mobile devices, mobile Power Users spend their without carrying the product around, comes hot arguably the biggest player in the market, valued time and money heavily on services like Netflix or on the tail of Microsoft allowing Xbox One titles at $6 billion, it’s fair to say that mobile gaming Twitch, which work across platforms. What I to run on Windows. Meanwhile, mobile VR, such has reached heights in 2015 that few of us would believe we’ve seen in mobile gaming in 2015 is the as Samsung’s Gear headset, will ensure that have expected a decade ago. Unfortunately, what beginning of a broader trend toward gaming’s newest trend is built with mobility and this means for the industry now and in the future convergence. As shown by the success of flexibility of use in mind. has been clouded by antagonistic models of Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter on mobile in June 2015 thinking. Whether deliberately or otherwise, and Fallout 4 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, game This report from Newzoo has solidified in my mobile gaming’s success has tended to be framed companies are beginning to realize that mind that soon we will no longer talk about as a battle with console or PC. consumers desire gaming content to fit the mobile games as a genre, but as a method of various contexts that form their lives. consumption. The whole games industry is about When I unpacked the data from this report, a to go mobile; I believe this will support, rather different picture emerged. It’s clear that most As a result, we’ll be seeing in 2016 onward a than threaten, businesses as they create diverse, players are not in one camp or the other; they’re and successful, games in the future. move away from defining games by their in both. Big Spenders on mobile games also platform toward models that allow game - George Osborn spend significantly within the rest of the gaming George Osborn is a games writer who has written for The space. Free marketers, who share game content content to be played and, equally important, Guardian, Games Industry Biz and Pocket Gamer. He is currently the Editor for Mobile Games Forum and runs a but don’t pay for it, aren’t casual gamers; they’re viewed everywhere. content marketing business called Mobile Mavericks. 2 INTRODUCTION AN OVERVIEW OF TRENDS, INSIGHTS AND DATA This report is provides a “just in case you missed new number two: Activision Blizzard. For “With this report, Newzoo has provided a it” overview of the key trends, insights and data Newzoo, 2015 was a pivotal year in our history as unique summary of the year. It details not we have published in the past 12 months. There our growth accelerated. Compared to January of only macro-economic consumption patterns are also some new gems to be found in this 39- this year, we have doubled our headcount. page document. As our data on mobile broadens Without disclosing our complete strategic and in the gaming eco system, but also their and deepens through our own data crunching and tactical line-up of plans and products, the world derivation from player transactions. An modelling, we also rely on a number of strong and will see a lot of new and innovative things coming essential read for anyone involved in the innovative partners for insights on China, in-depth from Newzoo in 2016 in terms of markets tracked, business of game development.” appstore data and game monetization metrics. type of intelligence that we provide and industries that we serve, particularly in the mobile - Mark Robinson deltaDNA CEO & Co-Founder The biggest news on mobile last year was without space. a doubt Activision Blizzard buying King, not just because it is the biggest acquisition in games In the first quarter of 2016, we will be expanding history. It is illustrative of many things that have our US presence considerably including moving shaken up our industry in the past years. to a new San Francisco office: RocketSpace. As the majority of our clients already come from the In 2015, Tencent expanded its lead as largest US, it was just a matter of time before we would company in the world by game revenues, move more of our shop into their neighborhood. generating $4.2Bn in the first half of 2015 alone. It - Peter Warman also has a significant minority stake in world’s Newzoo CEO & Co-Founder 3 THE MOBILE 1 MARKET A SNAPSHOT OF DEVELOPMENTS IN 2015 KEY SOURCE: NEWZOO’S 2015 GLOBAL GAMES MARKET REPORT The industry standard for trends, gamer numbers and revenue projections, used by the majority of global games, media and hardware companies. MOBILE REVENUES CONTINUE TO GROW 2014-2018 GLOBAL MOBILE GAMES MARKET REVENUES SPLIT BY SMARTPHONE & TABLET © 2015 Newzoo | Source: Newzoo Global Games Market Report Premium +23% Smartphone Tablet year-on-year global 2014-2018 growth between 2014- CAGR +15.9% $44.2Bn 2015 $40.4Bn $35.5Bn $12.9 $30.0Bn $12.8 $24.5Bn $11.2 $9.4 $7.4 $17.0 $20.6 $24.4 $27.6 $31.3 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 5 ASIA LEADS AS WESTERN MARKETS MATURE 2015 MOBILE GAMES REVENUES PER REGION & YoY GROWTH RATES © 2015 Newzoo | Source: Newzoo Global Games Market Report Premium +69% year-on-year growth for E-EU $0.8Bn the greater Southeast W-EU +10.0% NAM Asia region $6.5Bn $3.7Bn CHINA KOREA +15.1% +12.0% $6.5Bn $1.9Bn +46.5% +8.7% MEA JAPAN $1.1Bn REST APAC +82.8% $6.2Bn $1.8Bn +5.8% +69.1% OCEANIA LATAM $0.6Bn $1.1Bn +12.0% +72.9% 6 CHINA BECOMES THE #1 MARKET IN 2015 2015 MOBILE SHARE OF 2014-2015 COUNTRY REVENUES GLOBAL GROWTH 1 China $6,530M 21.7% +46.5% 237M Apple devices were 2 Japan $6,180M 20.6% +5.8% actively used in China 3 US $6,020M 20.0% +15.2% (October 2015), or 29% 4 South Korea $1,850M 6.2% +8.7% of all smartphones & 5 UK $1,010M 3.4% +11.3% tablets 6 Germany $820M 2.7% +12.7% 7 France $520M 1.7% +10.9% 8 Australia $520M 1.7% +10.8% 9 Canada $510M 1.7% +13.5% 10 Taiwan $480M 1.6% +51.2% $24,440M 81.3% +18.9% 7 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD ACQUIRES KING Activision Blizzard’s TOP 10 COMPANIES BY GAME REVENUES, H1 2014 VS. H1 2015 © 2015 Newzoo | Source: Newzoo Global Games Market Report Premium acquisition of King makes it the #2 Public company by game revenues 8 MERGER ENTERTAINS 81.4M AMERICANS OVERLAP ACTIVISION/BLIZZARD ACTIVISION/BLIZZARD KING PLAYERS & KING PLAYERS PLAYERS © 2015 Newzoo PLAYERS HAVE PLAYED ONE 48.5M 51% 24.5M 43% 57.3M PLAYERS HAVE PLAYED ONE OF THESE KEY FRANCHISES OF THESE KEY FRANCHISES IN IN THE PAST 3 MONTHS Americans have played at Americans have played at least Americans have played at THE PAST 3 MONTHS least one of Activision one of Activision Blizzard’s least one of King’s key Blizzard’s key franchises in franchises and one of King in the franchises in the past 3 the past 3 months past 3 months. months SHARE OF ACTIVISION BLIZZARD PLAYERS THAT ALSO PLAYS KING FRANCHISES | PAST 3 MONTHS | 26 COUNTRIES © 2015 Newzoo 33.3% 63.9% 55.5% 35.0% 41.3% 28.0% 46.5% 45.5% 52.8% 27.0% 38.7% 38.1% 31.2% CAN BR MEX AUS UK GER FR ES IT SE NL BE PL 19.8% 64.7% 76.0% 60.0% 58.3% 63.3% 67.3% 44.6% 57.6% 42.5% 34.6% 39.6% 32.4% RU TR IN TH IND VN PH SI MA TW CN JP KOR © 2015 Newzoo Consumer Research in 27 Countries, Newzoo Data Explorer, Consumers Aged 10 to 65 9 MOBILE 2 POWER USERS WHO ARE THE FREE MARKETERS & BIG SPENDERS? KEY SOURCE: NEWZOO’S 2015 COUNTRY CONSUMER INSIGHTS Get access to in-depth consumer insights and data on 27 countries on over 200 variables. Size and profile your market in terms of your target group INTRODUCTION TO THE POWER USER Free Marketers Big Spenders Free Marketers play games > 10 hours per Big Spenders in the US spend > $25* per week without spending money month on or in mobile games *varies country to country Defining value in mobile game monetization has focused With only 2.8% of mobile gamers classified as Big Spenders almost entirely on how much money a player spends. This has globally, gaming companies have focused more and more come at the expense of considering a group of users who on unearthing these “whales”, measuring their value and don’t spend but are still highly valuable. Among non-paying attempting to increase their spend. Globally, there are 49.3 mobile gamers, there is a user segment that delivers meaningful value to marketers, even when they’re not actively million mobile gamers who can be classed as Big Spenders. being tapped into. Globally, 5.3% of all mobile gamers are Free The US boasts the highest percentage of these lucrative Marketers, or 90 million people.