TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Mobile gaming to surpass USD$100bn (£76.8bn) in 2020; stable year for video games on Kickstarter; and Star Wars mobile games pass USD$1bn (£768m).

Mobile gaming to surpass USD$100bn (£76.8bn) in 2020

Mobile gaming is forecast to generate over USD$100bn (£76.8bn) globally this year, according to the State of Mobile 2020 report released by App Annie. Through 2019, mobile gaming saw 25% more consumer spend than console and PC gaming combined, with this dominance anticipated to continue into this year. The number of titles which surpassed consumer spending of USD$5m (£3.8m) during the year rose by 17% to 1121, while mobile games generating more than USD$100m (£76.8m) from in-game spending across iOS and Android increased sharply by 59% to 140. Core mobile titles, comprising RPG, strategy, and action, generated the majority (76%) of consumer spend, with casual games attracting 18% of total spend.

Mobile advertising is set to drive a large share of revenue growth for this year, with ad spend across all apps (gaming and non-gaming) set to increase by 26% from 2019 to reach USD$240bn (£184bn). For gaming, advertisers are increasingly using the medium for branding campaigns over performance marketing, while ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active user) cited as being 250% higher for gaming apps than other verticals in November 2019.

Stable year for video games on Kickstarter

Funding pledged for video gaming projects remained relatively steady through 2019, increasing by 2.68% to surpass USD$16.28m (£12.5m), according to analysis by ICO Partners. The entirety of this growth has been attributed to projects with funding goals of USD$100,000 (£76,800) or less, with a reduction in the number of projects raising between USD$100,000 (£76,800) and USD$500,000 (£383,900) from 25 to 19. While funding for projects raising through Kickstarter has remained fairly static, direct crowdfunding programmes have seen remarkable success in 2019, most notably with Star Citizen, which has raised over USD$263m (£202m) to date, with USD$9m (£6.9m) raised in November 2019 alone.

For the overall gaming category, over USD$208m (£160m) was raised by successful projects on the crowdfunding platform, with the overriding majority of this growth driven by tabletop projects, with an 16% increase in projects funded and a total of USD$176.3m (£135.4m) raised. This will be heartening to video gaming firms diversifying assets into board and card gaming, with Riot launching a tabletop division earlier this week and Rebellion launching a physical title based on the Sniper Elite franchise via its Unplugged division.

Star Wars mobile games pass USD$1bn (£768m) in player spend

Mobile titles based on the Star Wars franchise have passed USD$1bn (£768m) in lifetime consumer spending, according to estimates from Sensor Tower. The majority of the player spend has been generated by Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, developed by Capital Games and published by Electronic Arts, which has attracted USD$924m (£709m) to date, with an average revenue per download (RPD) of USD$13.20 (£10.13). USD$93m (£71.4m) has been generated by Star Wars Commander (developed and published by Disney, rights currently owned by Zynga), while players have spent USD$11m (£8.4m) in crossover title LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. The majority of spend has been generated in the United States, with US players spending USD$640m (£491m) on Star Wars titles, with Germany the next most lucrative market with USD$66m (£51m) in player spend.

With Disney looking to further leverage its IP with the global launch of the Disney+ streaming platform and the recent release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it will be interesting to note whether this has a tangible effect on its franchised mobile titles.