New data revealing the highest-grossing mobile games of 2023 has made it plain to see why Sony is taking strides into the sector in search of its own piece of the pie. Companies like Tencent are making just shy of $5 billion per year from their mobile games alone, with Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile both making one billion each last year. Hoyoverse, the team behind Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, then grossed $1.71 billion from the two titles' mobile versions alone in 2023.
To try and carve out its own audience on mobile, Sony appears first to be making a Horizon MMO for smartphones with help from NCSOFT, which it recently announced a "strategic partnership" with. There have already been a few failed efforts like Run Sackboy Run and Ultimate Sackboy, but having acquired Neon Koi (formally Savage Game Studios) and signed up Apple Arcade executives for the push, it seems Sony is still very serious about getting into mobile games in a serious manner.
When King, one of the arms under Activision recently purchased by Microsoft, is making close to $1 billion off of Candy Crush Saga in 12 months, it looks like money Sony is leaving on the table if it doesn't take advantage. The best bit is all of that money could be used to fund more of the games you love on PS5. Much like its Games as a Service initiative, if Sony lands a winner, it'll be doing so much better as a company as a whole.
2023's Top Grossing Mobile Games
- Honor of Kings — $1.48 billion
- PUBG Mobile — $1.14 billion
- Candy Crush Saga — $956.9 million
- Genshin Impact — $943.8 million
- Roblox — $868.6 million
- Royal Match — $835.2 million
- Coin Master — $728.7 million
- Honkai: Star Rail — $659.1 million
- Monopoly Go — $645 million
- Gardenscapes — $605.7 million
[source mobilegamer.biz]
Comments 41
Removed - unconstructive
Hail @bugzbunny109!!
And people complain about their focus on entering the mobile/live service markets.
Have you seen the cost of Spider-Man 2?! How do you think they’ll continue to fund these games going forward.
Smart move.
I forgot PUBG even existed and I've never even heard of half of these games. I guess there's a lot of old grannies still playing candy crush.
@Jacko11 And to think Sony don't nickle and dime games like SM2 either. They could easily put suits on a daily store or sell xp boosters as a way to recover costs but they don't.
I'm all for this push. Build new smartphone focused studios! This will have very little impact on PS5 titles, but could help bolster Sonys checkbook to continue to push amazing creative single player games instead of chasing live service crap.
Also I cant believe Monopoly Go is on there. It's not even a game. Push a button and watch a piece go around a board randomly while you buy more spins. Awful awful game.
It's getting old but what's wrong with people.
Aslong as they are using third parties for these mobile games then I don't see a problem. Extra bucks for Sony to use towards playstation games.
We do it to ourselves, sadly.
What Sony doesn't seem to understand is the number of ongoing staff many of these games have. Hoyoverse (Genshin, Honkai etc.) employ well over a thousand people to maintain those two games and keep them updated on a regular schedule.
What they really need is smaller break out hits that doesn't require the same amount of ongoing development for over a decade.
Or get Media Molecule to make Dreams 2 for mobile (and console + PC) and get the people of the world to make UGC for you.
Honestly the main problem big gaming companies have is that they try to make a full fledged game.
You don't need a full fledged game, just make a game that you can play while commuting, which most games on that list actually manage to accomplish.
I know that Sony has dealings with Mihoyo, but it was a huge miss that they did not acquire them when Genshin came out. Their games print money, and are actually quite good rpgs. With a 3rd one coming out, that company's stock is going to skyrocket.
@Athrum - Doubtful Sony could afford them even then. Genshin is their biggest earner but Honkai Impact 3rd was already making them ridiculous money before that even released.
Depressing. But expected.
The only thing I play on my phone is Sudoku and Wordle. Gotta maintain my streaks. And they don't ask me for money.
Honestly, if Nintendo couldn't make a significant dent in the mobile space by making good mobile games, I just don't know if Sony could either. The financial and creative focus of the companies is just too different from the typical mobile market. The Switch may be a mobile chipset, but it's very much a dedicated console.
Nintendo can't bleed resources into the mobile space without hurting its core business and I am not sure Sony could either.
If you want to make a mobile hit, you have to dedicate basically all of your resources to do so. Look at the recent example of why Naughty Dog abandoned Factions...it would suck up the entire studio!
I bet all of these games are done by companies that live and breathe the one game on this list. There isn't much room for anything else.
When you look at how many games King has made only 11 are still active with another 19 that are discontinued. That's less than a 50% success rate. 30 games in 13 years of existence.
The people who made Honor of Kings have 27 games under its belt. 21 of those games are on mobile.
Mihoyo have 11 games under its belt.
Bottom line, it's going to take a lot of failed attempted to get a hit so I hope Sony is prepared. Granted, all it takes is one to hit the jackpot, but it's still a heavy investment to get there.
Sony is better off either acquiring an established mobile company or starting one of its own. Don't take resources from other studios to do it. Either way, it's a heavy investment that could take years to "get right".
Why don't Sony make a phone/portal/psp hybrid and have proper mobile gaming. I loved my Sony play phone and they definitely should have an updated one.
Ironically Sony already had a mobile game the generated over $1b a year, Fate/Grand Order. It’s made by aniplex which comes under Sony Music, not SIE though.
Understand the thinking, but Sony continues to think they can just walk in these markets and say "we're here, bring us $$$!", same thing happened with PC, the first few had success due to the novelty of it but now they're dust in the wind.
Mobile gamers are an entirely different breed, NINTENDO with MARIO couldn't breakthrough and have abandoned their mobile plans.
As desperately as Sony has tried to get their gaming to not be so dependent on console, it just isn't that easy, especially after 30+ years of doing it.
Money. That's it, that's the answer.
Bit naive to assume that any hypothetical profits of a mobile or GaaS ‘winner’ will be reinvested into PlayStation Studios single player games. If they do hit the jackpot, a big chunk will go the shareholders and I doubt they will want to invest in expensive, lower ROI, single player games if they can milk a successful mobile/GaaS cash cow dry.
I miss the trendsetting PS1 and PS2 days. Nowadays it feels PlayStation is just chasing trends.
Sony should consider how easy it is to get PSP titles up and running on mobile devices and either sell ports for $10 a pop or include them in a layer of the PS+ sub.
no Fortnite not on this list ?
As someone else already said, it's surprising how many people are actively working in the teams for these games. It requires huge staff numbers to keep a lot of these things running.
@Jacko11 "And people complain about their focus on entering the mobile/live service markets."
As they should, we saw Nintendo who have more universally loved IPs than Playstation try their hand at mobile and failed miserably. Also seeing as Jim's brilliant live service strategy is imploding on itself we the complainers were correct.
PlayStation needs to focus on what they do they best, unfortunately that also is not sustainable. They seem to think that they can only make 200+ million budget games, smaller scale games are impossible 🤷
I’m shocked COD Mobile isn’t up there on the list
I need to create a mobile free to play game loaded with in-game purchases. Will be able to buy a few islands to live on within a month.
@Tecinthebrain have you actually read that back before posting.
The focus on mobile/live service is not detracting from single player - it will only benefit with big hits.
Nintendo? They tried Mario Kart where you couldn’t play friends online, what else was thereelse? Plus this isn’t about Nintendo.
“PlayStation needs to focus on what they do they best, unfortunately that also is not sustainable.” So you’d rather have them compromise their vision immediately without trying a different strategy first with Jim Ryan? What a truly awful take on the situation 😂
The thing is that it's a complete gamble. You either make a game that everyone wants to play and earns billions or you get a flop that was just a waste of development time and is dead within the year.
Actually it's a little known fact that Sony also owns one of the most profitable mobile games of all time, a mobile game that can and has made billions of dollars per year. and really props up Sony's profit margins of recent times
Fate/ grand Order.
It's little known because the publisher is Aniplex, a random subsidiary of Sony Music. And it's also not available in Europe.
I do wonder if that list is accurate or if it's just accounting western sales through Google/apple
@Jacko11 @Tecinthebrain Nintendo and Sony's goals for mobile were different. Nintendo were using mobile to convince more people to buy Switch hardware and software. For example play Mario Kart Tour, see that MK8 Deluxe is a much better game so buy a Switch + MK8 Deluxe. So Nintendo were successful with their mobile strategy as Switch is currently the 3rd best selling console for total sales (only behind PS2 and DS) and Switch software sales are also extremely high.
Nintendo's big challenge now is converting Switch purchases into purchases for the Switch's successor. Mobile isn't important here.
Sony's strategy however is that their single player epics aren't profitable so they rely heavily on 3rd party live service microtransactions (we know this because of the FTC trial). As a result they tried to get their own source especially with Microsoft being allowed to buy up so many publishers but Sony's strategy backfired as the live service bubble has mostly popped outside of the juggernauts.
@Grimwood Nothing is wrong with people. Those games are designed to hijack human reward instincts by tightening retention loops through countless product iterations leading to instant gratification gameplay. Whatever you do there feels satisfying. And your mind begs you for more. "What else am I going to do on my tube ride?" — and off it goes
People on here just love being negative on Ps live service push like clam down let one release first before you judge like damn concord is the first one to come out lets see what it about in 2024
They have tried mobile many times. They have Fate GO still going, WipEout Rush is dead not surprised. Sackboy Run I assume still is. They want to have something of profits/revenue in each platform besides orbiting the PS5 with remote play, VR and PC. Mobile is the way to do it. If they can try again. IF they can live service there then console. Sigh. Just come up with better business models, better games 'on mobile' then trash. IF they ported WipEout 2048, Pure, Pulse to mobile I'd be less disappointed. Or a new game on mobile with better effort put in.
Their first parties waste too much money on movie level stuff but sometimes eh execution they don't need to make it like a Pixar film or this and that tv show. Some cutscenes can be in gameplay/in-engine then pre-rendered or whatever extents these days but still separated. I want gameplay and I already moved on to their niche IPs, oh they ignore those, well third parties it is or not even using their consoles in the future. Barely giving me a PS5 reason to care and happy on PS4 with third parties then the current gen third parties that aren't that compelling or I can wait.
I gave Gear Club a go to compare to Gear Club Unlimited 2 on Switch, I enjoyed 2 on Switch actually and am glad Eden games are back. Rush was a piece of garbage, people who want managers even probably want better than Rush offered mobile or PC/console. GT4-6 B Spec is probably better than Rush was. Any effort could have been made with the details of the game. Sure it was WipEout but people want to 'play it' or have good mix of events from the series not just the ships/new ones and more. Fans wanted better not something that gives it a pretty bad look and it being dead makes sense why because no fans wanted to put up with a disappointment of care to the series of it's game design, business model and just sad use of resources. Sci-fi racers are revived on console and they go and make it for mobile and the laziest way possible. Tell us why we should care and not buy Fast Racing, Redout or others instead then give Sony our money for it.
It's an audience to go for but with smarter (or greedier) games I assume then the Vita era of PS Mobile that died in 2015 or the PS Allstars sponsored by Coke Zero back then and the cellphone era of the Ratchet Going Mobile/God of War Betrayal days.
@Jacko11 We complain about their focus on mobile/PC because it doesn't benefit us in any way, shape or form, it only serves to make Sony loose focus of their console base which is what has happed over the last couple of years
@JSnow2 Greed, Playstation have become very greedy recently and the success of Playstation isn't enough for them all of a sudden. Greed could well be their downfall
@Mr_B021 I remember when Xbox One players said day and date on PC will mean more investment in games for Xbox One players, look at how that turned out.
I mean... sure, everyone sees millions watching the top 10. But, most games made don't do that much and to dethrone one of these will be very difficult. If it was that easy, every company would have one of those.
Corporates never understand the concept of market saturation. 🤷
If Nintendo can't do it, chances are Sony can't either.
Jesus I guess we all about to start seeing all these laid off devs start making mobile games 😅
yup, those top 10 mobile games are the exception, not the rule. sony will not make that list and will fail like clockwork. why aren't we talking about the other 99% of mobile games that fail? there are literally dozens of service games that launch and shut down within a few months or a year. what makes sony immune to this type of failure? the odds are far greater that sony fails than succeeds in the mobile space. it doesn't take a genius to know that.
@TrickyDicky99 https://youtu.be/wKjxFJfcrcA?si=IARBxq6i8rogQTBc
I'd be very surprised if money made from mobile games was re invested into makeing games and all that for Ps5....
More likely pockets of those higher up and just go somewhere into the company
Fair play if they manage to make successful mobile games as it's a tight market
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