• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 15, 2018

Mobile gaming is soaring.

If it continues to outperform analyst estimates, revenue from video-game software and hardware could approach $170 billion this year. That’s according to Digi-Capital, which forecasts that gaming software and hardware could near $235 billion by 2022.

The tech advisory firm is especially bullish about gaming software, which it believes could drive around three-quarters of total market revenue in five years.

If the growth of mobile gaming software continues apace, it could deliver in the $55 billion to $60 billion range, this year, and grow to $90 billion to $95 billion by 2022.

PC gaming hardware sales could hit $30 billion to $35 billion in 2018, growing steadily to between $40 billion and $45 billion in the same timeframe.

Rounding out the top growth categories, PC games (of the online variety) could drive $20 billion to $25 billion, this year -- also growing steadily to $25 billion to $30 billion by 2022.

For their part, the physical sales of console games could still produce significant revenue by 2022, despite long-term declines.

Giving marketers a reason to be hopeful, Digi-Capital foresees steady growth in gaming advertising. At a platform level, mobile gaming software could approach two-fifths of all gaming revenue by 2022.

Console games (including software and hardware) could see less than one-sixth of all market revenue in 5 years.

VR gaming software and hardware and AR gaming software are both going to be big, Digi-Capital insists. However,  they are not yet on the same scale as the three major platforms.

Conversely, web games are not growing. eSports might still produce less than 1% of total industry revenue, long-term. Still, it does wonders as a marketing tool for games on the major platforms, Digi-Capital suggests.

By region, the advisory firm expects the US, China, Japan and South Korea to take nearly two-thirds of global games market revenue in five years. Yet, when grouped into regions with the 50 other games countries Digi-Capital covers, Asia should continue to be bigger than North America and Western Europe combined.