New Delhi: PUBG Mobile from Tencent has emerged as the top-grossing mobile game worldwide for January 2022 with approximately $237 million in player spending. According to Sensor Tower, about 64 per cent of PUBG Mobile's revenue was from China, where it has been localised as Game For Peace, followed by eight per cent from the US and seven per cent from Turkey.
Honor of Kings from Tencent was the second highest earning mobile game worldwide for January 2022 with $233.2 million in gross revenue. About 96 per cent of Honor of Kings' revenue was from China, followed by 2 per cent from Taiwan. The next top grossing game was Genshin Impact from miHoYo, followed by Candy Crush Saga from King and Roblox from Roblox Corporation.
The global mobile games market generated an estimated $7.4 billion from player spending across the App Store and Google Play in January 2022, marking a decrease of approximately 7 per cent year-over-year. The number market for global revenue in January 2022 was the US, which generated $2.1 billion, or 28 per cent of total player spending worldwide. Japan ranked number two for revenue at 19.3 per cent, followed by China, where Google Play is not available, at 17.8 per cent.
Genshin Impact has had a strong start to the year, generating $208.7 million from player spending in January, a rise of 37 per cent year-over-year.
In India, PUBG Mobile and many other apps are banned under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, since they were involved in activities causing prejudice to the sovereignty and integrity of the country.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, PUBG developer Krafton reported its 2021 net income of $434.5 million, which is 6.5 per cent down from the previous year. The company said in a regulatory filing that operating profit for the year fell 17.4 per cent on-year to 639.6 billion won. Annual revenue increased from 12.9 per cent to 1.88 trillion won. Krafton has invested $5.4 million in Nautilus Mobile, an Indian sports game developer. It is Krafton's first investment in an Indian game development studio.