• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 3, 2020

As publishers continued to shift from PCs and consoles to smartphones, mobile games earned nearly three out of every five dollars spent on digital games in 2019.

That’s according to SuperData, Nielsen’s gaming research unit, which partly attributed the trend to increasingly powerful smartphones.

Mobile games accounted for nearly $65 billion in revenue in 2019, while PC games accounted for nearly $30 billion, and consoles accounted for $15.4 billion.

Game-related videos were responsible for $6.5 billion in revenue last year, while “extended reality” games, including virtual reality and augmented reality, took in about $6.3 billion in revenue.

The entire gaming industry earned about $120 billion in 2019, which was up an estimated 3% year-over-year. Free-to-play spending accounted for 80% of all digital gaming revenue in 2019.

The business model’s low barrier to entry is well-suited to multiplayer games, which depend on maintaining a large player base.

Total premium game revenue declined 5% year-over-year to nearly $19 billion, which SuperData blamed on fewer hit titles in 2019.

Continuing to transfix legions of young gamers, Fortnite raked in $1.8 billion in revenue in 2019.

While Fortnite’s revenue was down year-over-year, the game still surpassed other free-to-play titles, the result of consistent content updates and monetization through “battle passes,” which reward players with in-game items.  

Looking ahead, SuperData expects the gaming industry to take in nearly $125 billion this year, which would represent about 4%, year-over-year.