Amazing! Apple beats Microsoft, Nintendo in gaming

Apple has beaten both Microsoft and Nintendo to become the third in the list in terms of gaming revenue in 2021. Tencent and Sony are on the first and second rank respectively.

Apple ranks third in gaming revenue after Sony and Tencent. (AFP)

Apple has ranked third in gaming revenue amongst global public companies by outpacing Microsoft and Nintendo. The first and second spots have been grabbed by Tencent- the Chinese company that owns titles such as "League of Legends" and "PUBG Mobile" and Sony respectively. The Cupertino based tech giant has pulled in an estimated $15.3 billion revenue in games in 2021. “The mobile games market grew +12.5% year on year in 2021. Of course, this rise also helped mobile's two biggest platform holders grow their 2021 games revenues, +17.7% year on year for #3 Apple and +20.8% for #5 Google,” reported NewZoo.

Both Google and Apple are the largest platform holders for mobile gaming. While Apple has its own gaming service, the majority of its gaming revenue is sourced from third-party games available on the App Store. Both the companies take between a 15% and 30% cut of all games purchased via their respective app stores.

The first rank holder Tencent has earned $32.2 billion in 2021, which is 9.9% higher than the previous year while Sony grabs second place with $18.2 billion in revenue, which is nearly 2.3% decline year-over-year. The report further shared that Sony and Nintendo did not see as much growth as expected due to pandemic-caused delays on consoles.

On the other hand, Microsoft enjoyed healthy growth +9.6% year on year because of its Xbox Game Pass subscription. Xbox Game Pass recently crossed the 25-million-subscriber mark. Meanwhile, Sea Limited that has grabbed 10th spot in the list saw triple-digit year-on-year growth due its battle royale title Free Fire.

Though, the Apple does not break out revenue share by individual app categories, gaming is known to be a massive revenue driver for the company's Services segment.