SuperData Research values worldwide games market at $91 billion

How much do you think the worldwide gaming market is worth? Go on, take a guess.

Did you guess $91 billion? That’s how much the market is worth, according to Superdata Research’s end of year report, which singled out mobile gaming, helped by strong performances from Pokemon Go and Clash Royale, as leading the pack, contributing an estimated $41b to the global figure.

PC had a decent bite of the apple too, gobbling up just short of $36b throughout the year, largely from free-to-play online titles and downloadable games. Overwatch was a winner for the premium market, earning $586 million by itself, but as is now the industry standard, free to play games are the real winners. League of Legends is on top, earning $1.7b throughout the year –– close to $150m every month –– while other games popular around the world were also big earners: Dungeon Fighter Challenge, Crossfire and World of Tanks and DOTA 2 all appear at the top of the earnings report.

"After launching more than seven years ago, League of Legends is still on the top earning Riot $150 million per month. Dota 2 comes in second at $23.4 million per month this year, show fans’ hesitation to switch to another MOBA," said the report, highlighting DOTA and League of Legend’s monolithic status in the MOBA community.

"The modest success of mid-tier titles like Heroes of the Storm, Smite, Heroes of Newerth, and Paragon is still dwarfed by the top two, a persistent trend over the past several years."

The report notes that esports and free-to-play titles are expected to grow year-on-year for at least the next three years, while the premium PC market –– games you have to pay for before you can play them –– is expected to decline very slightly in 2017 before growing again in 2018, although Superdata don’t provide any information on why this might be the case.