Alternative name for this chart: The Power of Micro transactions.
The issue is they created a problem and sold the solution to minors. The number of young teens i have seen that pay the $30 AUD to get rid of ads is genuinely insane. I thought no one would pay for that…but guess what people do.
A little misleading, just in terms of how you define “largest platform.”
If 1000 people pay $10 for a game on Platform A, and on Platform B, 97 people play a game for free while 3 people each spend $5,000 on microtransactions, this metric would call Platform B the “larger platform,” despite having only 10% of the userbase of Platform A.
And this is more or less the difference between mobile gaming and gaming on other platforms. Mobile games tend to be cheap, simple, and heavily dependent on ads and a few extremely irresponsible people with microtransactions, while console and PC games (especially Steam PC games) tend to be the serious products that drive the medium forward, with more honest and transparent point-of-sale pricing.
Suggestion: I was confused about the graphic and it took me a while to see what was presented because “iPhone Launch” sits as a point in console space, rather than a timeline item. It’s not super intuitive that mobile is the largest platform at that moment because of the style of the graph. If those are the things that are key to show, maybe a different type of presentation might be better?
Why is the iPhone launch on the console portion?
Thats because Snake came with the phone before the Iphone.
Sigh… We’re in an era where PC’s are on a much, much better path than consoles, yet we have mobile games ruining PC’s rightful place as #1.
I read a Newzoo report for 2024 year in gaming and it was Mobile Gaming earning $92.5 billion, all of consoles gaming earning $50.3 billion, and PC Gaming earning $41.5 billion.
All of consoles revenue + PC revenues = almost as much as Mobile Gaming revenue.
fucking wild.
I feel like this is a similar phenomenon to dollar stores displacing grocery stores. It’s not because they are better in any way, but they are cheap and convenient.
Freemium games are evil.
PC gaming being on track to overtake consoles is also kinda wild to see.
I wonder how this would look if handhelds were lumped in with “mobile”?
2010 was truly the beginning of the end. That’s when that story broke that the WOW mount outsold Starcraft 2 (It actually did not but it made a ton of money and still spelled doom for the consumer).
Mobile games are pure trash, money-grabbers for teenagers… Console video games feel more artistic and culturally important.
Mobile is to gaming what McDonalds burgers are to food. Bummer if that is all you got available.
Most of the “mobile gaming” market is actually not really gaming, but rather casinos in disguise. I don’t see why we should include slot machines under the term “mobile gaming” just because those slot machines are on the app store.
Is this because of whales? I’ve lost count of the thousands of dollars I’ve spent on PC/console games over the years but to this day I haven’t spent a single penny on a mobile game. It genuinely feels like the least bang for your buck
r/dataissad
I saw the financials of a gaming company I followed and PC was marked as legacy platform..
Happy to see PC slowly (very slowly) overtaking (in a decade, 5 years?) consoles. I have never understood the point in buying something that can do only one thing for nearly the same price as something that can do nearly everything. Probably a professional bias…
Also, mobile gaming is to PC (and console) games what telenovellas are to theatre movies. In quality and probably revenue. Not sure it’s very interesting to compare both.
Mobile gaming and gambling have a lot in common. Mobile games are not designed to be good, they’re designed to milk people with micro transactions via similar dopamine oriented psychological mechanisms. Both should be regulated to the tits.
Sadly the business models successes of “mobile games” spill over to regular games who have management pressure to compete. And that competition is difficult: mobile games are cheaper to develop and generate truck loads of cash.
I’m surprised at how the growth has slown down since the pandemic
And it’s literally all garbage lmao
The best mobile games are just ports from PC/console
![[OC] Gaming Platform Revenue over Time](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/br3f6svwrrwf1-1920x1024.png)
22 comments
Sources: Visual Capitalist, Mimshacks, Sci-Tech Today – Accessed Oct’25
Alternative name for this chart: The Power of Micro transactions.
The issue is they created a problem and sold the solution to minors. The number of young teens i have seen that pay the $30 AUD to get rid of ads is genuinely insane. I thought no one would pay for that…but guess what people do.
A little misleading, just in terms of how you define “largest platform.”
If 1000 people pay $10 for a game on Platform A, and on Platform B, 97 people play a game for free while 3 people each spend $5,000 on microtransactions, this metric would call Platform B the “larger platform,” despite having only 10% of the userbase of Platform A.
And this is more or less the difference between mobile gaming and gaming on other platforms. Mobile games tend to be cheap, simple, and heavily dependent on ads and a few extremely irresponsible people with microtransactions, while console and PC games (especially Steam PC games) tend to be the serious products that drive the medium forward, with more honest and transparent point-of-sale pricing.
Suggestion: I was confused about the graphic and it took me a while to see what was presented because “iPhone Launch” sits as a point in console space, rather than a timeline item. It’s not super intuitive that mobile is the largest platform at that moment because of the style of the graph. If those are the things that are key to show, maybe a different type of presentation might be better?
Why is the iPhone launch on the console portion?
Thats because Snake came with the phone before the Iphone.
Sigh… We’re in an era where PC’s are on a much, much better path than consoles, yet we have mobile games ruining PC’s rightful place as #1.
I read a Newzoo report for 2024 year in gaming and it was Mobile Gaming earning $92.5 billion, all of consoles gaming earning $50.3 billion, and PC Gaming earning $41.5 billion.
All of consoles revenue + PC revenues = almost as much as Mobile Gaming revenue.
fucking wild.
I feel like this is a similar phenomenon to dollar stores displacing grocery stores. It’s not because they are better in any way, but they are cheap and convenient.
Freemium games are evil.
PC gaming being on track to overtake consoles is also kinda wild to see.
I wonder how this would look if handhelds were lumped in with “mobile”?
2010 was truly the beginning of the end. That’s when that story broke that the WOW mount outsold Starcraft 2 (It actually did not but it made a ton of money and still spelled doom for the consumer).
Mobile games are pure trash, money-grabbers for teenagers… Console video games feel more artistic and culturally important.
Mobile is to gaming what McDonalds burgers are to food. Bummer if that is all you got available.
Most of the “mobile gaming” market is actually not really gaming, but rather casinos in disguise. I don’t see why we should include slot machines under the term “mobile gaming” just because those slot machines are on the app store.
Is this because of whales? I’ve lost count of the thousands of dollars I’ve spent on PC/console games over the years but to this day I haven’t spent a single penny on a mobile game. It genuinely feels like the least bang for your buck
r/dataissad
I saw the financials of a gaming company I followed and PC was marked as legacy platform..
Happy to see PC slowly (very slowly) overtaking (in a decade, 5 years?) consoles. I have never understood the point in buying something that can do only one thing for nearly the same price as something that can do nearly everything. Probably a professional bias…
Also, mobile gaming is to PC (and console) games what telenovellas are to theatre movies. In quality and probably revenue. Not sure it’s very interesting to compare both.
Mobile gaming and gambling have a lot in common. Mobile games are not designed to be good, they’re designed to milk people with micro transactions via similar dopamine oriented psychological mechanisms. Both should be regulated to the tits.
Sadly the business models successes of “mobile games” spill over to regular games who have management pressure to compete. And that competition is difficult: mobile games are cheaper to develop and generate truck loads of cash.
I’m surprised at how the growth has slown down since the pandemic
And it’s literally all garbage lmao
The best mobile games are just ports from PC/console
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