Mobile gaming earns big in 2017

Free-to-play gaming is king, and the smartphone platform reigns throughout 2017.

Analyst firm SuperData just published their latest year in review report to highlight how key sectors of the games industry fared in 2017. According to the data, mobile gaming topped the free-to-play market in Asia, North America and Europe with some $51 billion in collective earnings, representing 72% of the combined revenues across mobile, free-to-play PC, and social gaming for the year. Free-to-play gaming, specifically mobile, typically top the yearly earnings charts above console gaming.

One of the more surprising metrics shows just how many people actually play F2P games around the world: SuperData notes that one in three people on the planet play on PC or mobile, and actually pull in $82 billion of the global games market, or about 89%. In fact players spent $14 billion more on mobile games in 2017 than in 2016, showing a clear rise in the popularity and the appeal of buying in-game purchases.