Mobile Gaming Saw $10B in H1 2021 Revenue – Are NFTs Next?

Mobile devices are accessible, easily portable, and for a large portion of the world population, they serve as a first computer. These reasons, along with an ever-improving technology that has made mobile devices capable of offering console-like graphics and gaming experiences, have made mobile gaming an enormous industry.

In 2020, approximately 2.7 billion people, which accounted for 35% of the world population, were mobile gamers. Furthermore, consumers have spent more than $10 billion on mobile games in the first half of this year — up by around 25% year-over-year. 

Meanwhile, innovations like NFTs have given a new life to the mobile gaming industry by offering a wave of novel opportunities. For instance, Axie Infinity, a blockchain-based video game that utilizes NFTs to uniquely identify digital items, enables players to actually make money while playing the game.

Mobile Gaming Growth in H1 2021 Explained

A recent report dubbed “2021 Mobile Gaming Tear Down” reveals that the mobile gaming market has seen explosive growth in the first half of 2021. As per projections by the report, mobile gaming is estimated to become a $120 billion industry by the year-end.

On average, customers have spent more than $1.7 billion per month on mobile games, totaling a whopping $10.32 billion. In comparison, consumers spent $8.33 billion in the first half of 2020 on mobile games, which represents a growth of around 25% YOY.

The increased spending corresponds to the number of games generating more than $1 million each month. During the first half of the year, over 800 mobile games managed to reach this threshold, up by around 25% compared to 2019 when only 650 games were earning over $1M monthly.

In terms of hours being played, consumers worldwide spend over five billion hours per week on mobile games, a jump of 35% compared to 2019. In March this year, weekly game downloads exceeded 1 billion for the first time, and has since remained at that level since.

Prior to this, research revealed that the top 10 iPhone games in the United States were cumulatively generating over $11 million in daily revenue as of June 2021. Among iPhone games, Roblox generates over $3 million in daily revenue. 

NFTs to Drive Innovation in Mobile Gaming

Innovation has been one major driver for the mobile gaming industry. With the competition being fierce in the market, developers need to constantly innovate and captivate in order to stay ahead of the game.

One group that has attained this is Axie Infinity, which brings non-fungible tokens to the innovation-oriented gaming industry. Axie Infinity, the hottest crypto game on the market, is a blockchain-based video game in which players acquire NFTs of cute monsters and can earn SLP tokens by playing the game. 

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are, in simplest terms, unique digital tokens, witnessed massive adoption earlier this year. While NFTs like artwork and images initially saw major growth, other categories like CryptoPunks and Axies have recently managed to catch up. 

As covered by The Tokenist, the market for NFTs is now recording new highs after a period of extreme market quietness. Just recently, the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea transacted $95 million in just two days. Moreover, Axie Infinity, which has witnessed 6,500% growth in terms of revenue this year, delivered $127 million in sales in one week.

Axie is also exploding in terms of new users, with the game recently topping 1 million daily active users. So much so that Axie has struggled to remain online under the weight of increasing user demand.

Arguably, NFTs are the next big thing to drive innovation inside the gaming industry. By offering new possibilities in accessing and interacting with a global audience, NFTs can inundate the mobile gaming industry with a flood of new opportunities.

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Do you think NFTs will become a substantial part of the mobile gaming industry? Let us know in the comments below.