There aren’t many mobile franchise games on the American market. Only 9% of titles relate to products made under license. At the same time, they account for 23% of the earnings of the entire mobile in the USA.
This is reported by Sensor Tower, based on data from last year.
What else did the analysts say:
- Of the 20 highest—grossing mobile games in the US market, five are based on well-known franchises. These are Pokémon GO, PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty: Mobile, Marvel Strike Force and Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle. In total, these titles earned $1.4 billion in the American market last year. Pokémon GO became the leader in revenue, in which Americans left $ 480 million;
Top 20 mobile games by revenue in the USA in 2020According to Sensor Tower estimates, in 2020, the share of mobile games made by franchises accounted for 17% of all downloads in the United States;
- last year, US gamers began to download franchise titles much more actively. During the year, downloads of the ten most profitable projects under license increased by 31%. For comparison, downloads of the most profitable original games during the same time fell by 3.9%;
- the revenue of the top ten at the box office of both original games and licensed games rose by 33.8% last year compared to 2019;
Revenue growth and downloads of original games and licensed projects34% of the revenue of all licensed games came from projects that were made based on video game franchises.
- For example, Pokémon GO received 12% of total revenue, PUBG Mobile — 7%, and Call of Duty: Mobile — 6%;
- manga games (13%), movies and TV series (12%), comics (10%) are also popular;
- the most significant revenue growth was for manga projects — 54% in annual terms;
The share of revenue of licensed games in different categories and its growth in 2020The AR games category consists almost entirely of games made on the basis of franchises, and receives 99.9% of revenue from them.
- In action games, 66.4% of all revenue comes from licensed titles, in RPG — 47.1%, and in shooters — 44.9%;
Share of revenue from licensed projects in mobile game categoriesin dollars, the RPG category earns the most from licensed games — over $1.1 billion for 2020.
- Then there are strategies, casinos, AR projects and shooters;
Rating of mobile categories by revenue from licensed gamescategories in which there is both a large concentration of licensed games and a rapid growth in revenue of such games: shooters, RPG and action.
Comparison of mobile categories by revenue growth and number of licensed games