March 12, 2024, 10:05 am | Read time: 3 minutes
The U.S. hardware and software developer Apple has been making efforts to establish itself in the gaming industry for some time now–with measurable success, as current figures show. TECHBOOK takes a closer look at Apple’s often underestimated role in gaming.
Most people probably associate gaming with the brand Nintendo and consoles like PlayStation and Xbox. But Apple should also be mentioned here. The U.S. company generates significant revenue from video games.
Overview
Apple is firmly established in the gaming industry
In the third quarter of 2023, Apple generated around $3.65 billion (approximately 3.34 billion euros) from video games. This is shown by a current survey available on the statistics platform “Statista.” Apple is ahead of Sony and Microsoft, with $3.4 billion and $3.3 billion, respectively. The only company to earn more during this period was the Chinese internet giant Tencent, which is involved in 16 gaming companies, among others, including e-commerce and social media enterprises.
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What exactly does Apple do in gaming?
Video games naturally include mobile games. These apps, also known as “Mobile Games,” account for a significant portion of gaming sales. Between 2020 and 2021, download numbers increased by 50 percent, as can be read at the German Games Industry Association (Game). The COVID-19 pandemic likely triggered this development, but it persisted. In 2022, the market grew “by another percent to around 2.81 billion euros,” according to the publication.
Apple has been a major player in mobile games for a long time. And just in September, the company made a significant move: At the iPhone event, a series of consoles were introduced, including “Resident Evil,” “Death Stranding,” and “Assassin’s Creed Mirage,” which were previously only available for gaming hardware and PCs, but are now gradually being released for play on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. This is made possible by the new graphics units of the A17 Pro chips. TECHBOOK reported.
Why Apple could become so successful in gaming
Apple makes its games easily accessible. This is also thanks to its gaming subscription Apple Arcade, which allows users to download unlimited mobile games for a relatively affordable 6.99 euros per month. Also noteworthy is Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit, which helps use games developed for Windows on macOS.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the smartphone as a gaming console reaches virtually all age groups. This likely explains the enormous success of mobile games–and in this context, also of Apple, the world’s largest smartphone provider. According to the Game association, which bases the above figures on data from market research companies data.ai and GfK, 37 percent of Germans play mobile games, with a significant portion in the age group between 50 and 59 years. You probably can’t imagine them in front of a PlayStation. While the market segment for gaming hardware is reportedly declining, according to Game, “mobile gaming is a hobby for all ages.”