The skyrocketing popularity of mobile gaming shouldn't come as a surprise. A recent analysis compiled by App Annie in partnership with the IDC indicates that the mobile gaming sector is significantly contributing to the growth of the global gaming business. Gaming spending will reach $204 billion in 2021, but what is interesting to notice is that close to half of that total comes from mobile devices. Mobile will add $120 billion, PC and Mac gaming will add $41 billion, home consoles will make $39 billion, and handhelds will contribute $4 billion, according to the report. Microsoft's service Xbox Live, Sony's service PlayStation Plus, and Nintendo's service Nintendo Switch Online are all part of the market niche for the home consoles.
Even more astounding is that mobile gaming spending went from roughly $30 billion in 2014 to more than $120 billion in 2021, while platforms for the PC and Mac, which only saw $29 billion in 2014, are predicted to reach $41 billion in 2021. Since the scale of the worldwide gambling business, which includes the successful top UK casinos, is projected to be worth $227 billion, those numbers give some context to how powerful the gaming industry is. Approximately two top-grossing games during the first quarter of 2021 are responsible for rising mobile gaming spending. In Google Play and the App Store, Roblox, from US Roblox Corporation, and miHoYo, from Chinese miHoYo, were the leaders. Coin Master, the Israeli-created casual game by Moon Active, was situated in the third position, followed by Pokémon Go in fourth. Surprisingly, the only game in the top ten without a real-time aspect is Candy Crash Saga.
Based on the results, mobile game downloads worldwide have increased by 30% from the final quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2021. That's an amazing 1 billion downloads each week. In contrast, in-app purchases by consumers more than doubled to an enormous $1.7 billion every week. North America and Western Europe are projected to contribute the most to consumer expenditure.
Another highlight of the report claims that mobile gaming will outpace home console sales for quite some time, even though the home console business enjoys a resurgence because of the newest generation of console titles. Sony's PS5 and Microsoft's Xbox 'Next' are encountering stock shortages that negatively impact the broader market. The two key drivers behind the growth of mobile gaming are: The first characteristic that they offer is cross-platform capabilities, and the second feature they profit from is the console-like experience.
Finally, the research says that as far as PC gaming is concerned, Valve's Steam has seen a 46% growth in the number of people who play games online and that the Nintendo Switch Lite is far and away from the leading handheld gaming console manufacturer in terms of customer expenditure.