40 of App Annie’s top 52 mobile companies make mobile games

Today App Annie, the mobile data and analytics company, released its 2021 top publisher awards. And of the 52 top publishers it identified, 40 of them were primarily engaged in making mobile games.

At number one was Tencent (Games for Peace), followed by NetEase (Knives Out) and then Playrix (Gardenscapes). While App Annie also noted that Lilith (12th), Roblox (19th), Moon Active (23rd) and Scopely (28th) had shifted up by more than 10 places on their efforts last year. Their keys titles were Rise of Kingdoms, ROBLOX, Coin Master, and MARVEL Strike Force respectively.

The US continued to have the largest number of top publishers at 16, while China was close behind at 15. Although purely in gaming terms, China took the lead.

The list is compiled via revenues from App Store and Google Play. Which means there are still huge amounts of revenue from Chinese app stores that aren’t included, a problem for any such listing.

Regional rankings show clear preferences for content made for geo-specific audiences. With none of the top-three performing publishers in any region making it to a similar position elsewhere as well. The market may be global, but there are still clear divisions.

Americas: Activision Blizzard (#1), Zynga (#2), Google (#3)
Asia Pacific: Tencent (#1), NetEase (#2) BANDAI NAMCO (#3)
EMEA: Playrix (#1), Supercell (#2), Playtika (#3)

“Through passion, we unite — through connection, we thrive! First and foremost, we offer our most sincere gratitude to our players and App Annie. NetEase Games will continue our endeavors to create innovative games and provide the most satisfying gaming experience to gamers worldwide.” – Matt Liu, Senior Global Publishing & Marketing Director, NetEase Games

“It is a privilege to be awarded by our trusted partner App Annie this year. The Playrix team is happy that our games have brought a lot of joy to our customers around the globe during the pandemic. And this year we will focus on bringing even more through our new games.” Maxim Kirilenko, Senior Business Development Director, Playrix

“We’re honored to be recognized with the Top Publisher award and truly see this as a celebration of our players,” said Daniel Alegre, President and COO of Activision Blizzard. “We have the best player communities across our Activision, Blizzard, and King games, who inspire our teams throughout the year. We look forward to bringing more content and experiences to our fans this year.” – Daniel Alegre, President and COO of Activision Blizzard

“We congratulate these exceptional leaders from across the world,” said Theodore Krantz, Chief Executive Officer of App Annie. “With mobile accelerating at an even faster rate than anticipated, publishers must engage with this audience to stay relevant.”