In this article we are going to list the 15 largest gaming companies in the world. I have been an avid fan of gaming for as long as I can remember, starting with Sega when I was very little and couldn’t afford a decent console, to finally buying an Xbox later on, and all the generations that followed since. There are few things that provide as much fun as an afternoon or a night of gaming, with no care in the world. Whether it’s a single player game, and you quietly spend the night playing the games that bring you the most joy, or multiplayer online gaming, where you either play with your friends and have a blast, or against random strangers, cursing them when you lose since it can only be their fault, gaming has helped improve many lives, whether you admit it or not.
There are hundreds of millions of gamers across the world, who have helped the gaming industry go from being considered a joke to being recognized as a key industry, which was worth over $155 billion in 2019 and is expected to cross $250 billion b7 2025, as a result of an astounding CAGR of 9.17%. The gaming experience itself has changed dramatically from games developed in early days, as developers continue to innovate and come up with new ideas that are implemented in games, to help them stand out in a fiercely competitive industry. You can now play video games which will fully immerse you in their world, while the way you interact with other characters in the game and the decisions you make will impact the course the game will take, which is an unbelievable feat when you think about it. Gamers are notoriously demanding and in addition to stellar graphics, games require stories that would rival the best movies out there in or else, the success will be somewhat less than envisioned.
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Among the many innovations in the gaming industry is cloud gaming, which refers to a server, where the games are actually stored, to do all the relevant and necessary calculations and computations, which include rendering of screens, video streaming and game logic process encoding, with several companies in this sector having been established, posing a threat to traditional gaming. Some of the largest gaming companies in the world are now entering into partnerships with cloud gaming companies to make their mark felt in a new sector.
While gaming has always been considered to be a past time rather than a profession, the world keeps evolving constantly and this mindset has changed significantly as well. Nowadays, on platforms such as YouTube and Steam, gamers can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars over a year, if not millions of dollars, when they’re streaming the games they’re playing along with their commentary on the game. Meanwhile, competitive e-sports have taken on a new life and are more popular than ever before, as people across the world battle in the most popular games in the world to earn millions of dollars available in prize money. As gaming becomes more and more mainstream, the amount of money on display will increase significantly as well, with more than $200 million paid out across 4,000 tournaments in 2019 alone. This is a 29% increase from the previous year, showing the growth of the industry and competitive gaming.
When the worst pandemic in a century broke out in 2020, most countries across the world went into lockdowns, with billions of people unable to leave their homes unless it was for an essential reason such as getting medicine or food. All non-essential businesses were closed and people suddenly had a lot of time on their hands as they couldn’t socialize or go out at all. Many people hence turned to gaming in this time and this was a boon for the industry and a survey in March 2020 showed that video gamers spent around 45% more time playing video games in lockdown as compared to the time before. Likewise, e-sports saw major growth in the pandemic as well, for similar reasons. Apart from the US, France, UK and Germany also witnessed growths ranging from 20-38% as both online and offline plays increased. Of course, the pandemic was still disastrous to an extent for gaming companies since offices had to be closed and development of games was hence delayed.
One thing many people don’t know is the pressure that gaming companies and their employees face, especially at the time of launch of a major video game. Working extra hours and through weekends for the last few months before a game is released is common practice, to ensure that the game is in the correct shape at the time of release, as evidenced by the very recent release of Cyberpunk 2077, developed by a beloved gaming company CD Projekt. Even though the release was delayed multiple times to ensure a smooth release, even after release the game has been roundly criticized especially by those who’ve bought the game for the PS4 or the Xbox, due to numerous bugs and this led to the company’s shares falling by 9.4% after release. While it is likely that subsequent patches will fix the bugs, the goodwill of the company established by the Witcher series will take time to recover after this setback.
The largest gaming companies in the world earn billions of dollars in revenue annually, while releasing some of the biggest games you’ll have ever seen. Since many of these companies are not listed, it is not easy to access their information, which is why we have relied on Q4 2019 revenue of these companies. On the other hand, the listed companies are considered as prime for investment, and you might want to consider taking a look at the top 10 video gaming stocks. While there is a chance you may not have heard of these companies, it is unlikely that you won’t have heard of their most famous games. So let’s take a look at the companies which have brought joy to millions of people in a time of panic, starting with number 15:
15. Century Huatong
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 478
A befuddling company that creates games as well as automobile parts, Century Huatong, like most Chinese gaming companies, focuses on mobile games.
Copyright: loganban / 123RF Stock Photo
14. Ubisoft
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 510
Ubisoft is responsible for the ever popular Assassin’s Creed series, in addition to Prince of Persia, Watch Dogs, Just Dance and Tom Clancy’s series.
Minerva Studio/Shutterstock.com
13. 37 Interactive
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 526
37 Interactive has more than 2,000 employees and and is one of the biggest gaming companies in China, focusing more on mobile games.
Copyright: djedzura / 123RF Stock Photo
12. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 565
The video game arm of Warner Bros owns several gaming studios, which have produced the famous Batman: Arkham series as well as F.E.A.R and the Mortal Kombat series.
Pixabay/Public Domain
11. Bandai Namco Entertainment
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 721
Banda Namco is another gaming company which isn’t well known by name but produces famous titles such as the Tekken series, Pac-Man and Dark Souls.
10. Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO)
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 930
It is the owner of the best selling video game in history, GTA V and apart from Rockstar Games, also owns 2K, both of which are responsible for it being one of the largest gaming companies in the world.
Pixabay/Public Domain
9. Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA)
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,593
EA is an American gaming company which produces video games belonging to different genres including the Need for Speed series, Mass Effect, Battlefield and The Sims. It is also know for its EA Sports arm which produces FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Live, NHL and UFC.
Pixabay/Public Domain
8. NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES)
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,666
This was the only company in this list I had not heard of before my research, since its a Chinese company which focuses on online gaming and is responsible for the Westward Journey series, as well as local versions of Warcraft III and World of Warcraft among other titles.
Pixabay/Public Domain
7. Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVIA)
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,749
Activision Blizzard is responsible for many beloved titles over the past decade and more and owns several major intellectual property which includes but is not limited to Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero and even Candy Crush Saga, which would at its peak, earn Activision $1 million a day alone.
Pixabay/Public Domain
6. Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,877
While Google is more popular for its other achievements in the tech industry, it has also made major strides in the gaming industry after the announcement of Google Stadia, a cloud gaming service which can stream games in 4k quality at up to 60 FPS. While it has received a mix response from users, it has been enough to allow Google to become one of the largest gaming companies in the world.
Pixabay/Public Domain
5. Nintendo
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 2,286
Not only is Nintendo the oldest company in this list, having been founded 131 years ago as a trading card company, it is also responsible for some of the most beloved consoles in history, including the Game Boy, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Wii and the Nintendo DS. It is also responsible for some of the most popular gaming titles in the world including Mario, Donkey Kong, Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. among many others.
Pixabay/Public Domain
4. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 2,831
Microsoft is the owner of the Xbox Game Studios, which makes games exclusively for the Xbox console as well as mobile gaming. It is perhaps most famous for the creation of the Halo games series, which helped propel the Xbox to new heights as well as the racing game series Forza. These two series are some of the most popular gaming series in the world.
Pixabay/Public Domain
3. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 2,887
Apple is of course famous for being the most valuable company in the world in terms of market cap but is also one of the biggest gaming companies out there thanks to its gaming apps on its products, which have earned it additional billions of dollars in revenue annually. In fact, mobile gaming makes up around 45% of the gaming industry, which is a fun fact to know, especially considering how most hardcore gamers don’t even consider mobile gaming as ‘real gaming’.
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2. Sony (NYSE:SNY)
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 3,879
Hardware sales are not included in the revenue calculated for these rankings, otherwise Sony would have been at the top of this list by far, thanks to its PlayStation series which are the best selling video game consoles of all time. In fact, there has been a bit of a debacle with the release of the PS5, which has immediately sold out globally and even major retailers are unable to obtain stock of the console. The revenue does however include earnings from PS Plus, which is an online membership required by PlayStation users if they want to do anything online on their PS4.
Copyright: wolterk / 123RF Stock Photo
1. Tencent
Revenue in Q4 0f 2019 (in millions of dollars): 5,225
There is a strong chance that you may not have heard of the company but that does not change the fact that Tencent tops the list of 10 largest gaming companies in the world, with over $5.2 billion earned in Q4 alone. Tencent Games is the video game arm of one of the biggest conglomerates in the world, and has four internal video game development studios. Instead of making games for the PC or video game consoles, where you’d find most hardcore gamers, Tencent actually focuses more on making mobile games which are generally only available in China.
The company is perhaps most famous for developing Honor of Kings, a multiplayers online battle arena which is one of the most popular games in the world with more than 80 million active daily players and more than 200 million active monthly users. It has now crossed 100 million daily players, which is a landmark achievement in and of itself. It is also the creator of another massively popular online game in League of Legends as well as being a part owner of some of the most globally popular games, Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Escape from Tarkov.
Pixabay/Public Domain
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Disclosure: None. 15 largest gaming companies in the world is originally published at Insider Monkey.
