
You Would Never Guess Which Company is Making the Most Cash from Games
Games market research company NewZoo has made an informative graph comparing the top 10 companies based on game revenue in 2014.
A few surprises come from the results, most notably that the number one spot is taken by Tencent.
Wait, who is Tencent?
This Chinese investment holdings company is one of the world's largest internet companies alongside Amazon, Ebay, Google, and Facebook, with a market value of over $206 billion. In addition to its most famous invention, the QQ instant messenger platform (the what?), the company makes significant earnings selling virtual goods for its MMO's, like Dungeon Fighter Online, which you probably haven't heard of. But you have heard of the popular MOBA game League of Legends, right? Well, Tencent owns that too, thanks to its 2011 buyout of Riot Games.
Unsurprisingly, Sony is just behind Tencent, and is closely followed by Microsoft. Both the PS4 and Xbox One have been major hits, selling over 20 million and 10 million consoles, respectively. Unfortunately, Nintendo's position is a bit of a surprise and a letdown. The big N, who is almost exclusively a game company, comes in at an embarrassing 9th place, just in front of Ubisoft.
The Wii U isn't doing too great, but no one could have guessed that Nintendo was this far behind the competition, beaten out by King, makers of Candy Crush, as well as Android owner Google, and Apple's iOS platform. Things may be looking up for the Kyoto-based company however, as it was recently revealed that Nintendo's market cap is the highest it has been in 4 years--likely a side effect to their recent partnership with DeNA.
What do you think of the results? Any surprises that stuck out to you? Let us know down below!
Source sickr.files.wordpress.com
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asjfg09aphpApril 24, 2015, 8:43 pmWell, duh. Tencent Holdings owns a majority stake in Riot Games, the creators of League, a minority stake in Epic Games, creators of Gears of War, Unreal, and several other games. They're the fourth biggest internet company behind Amazon, Google, and eBay. When you own multiple awesome game devs you're gonna make a lot of money.
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lets put it in perspective for a second, Tencent is the Chinese equivelent of companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Blizzard all rolled into one. The only thing they are missing is their own console. They are also responsible for Monster Hunter Online in China, which has always been highly popular series in Asia.
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Let us not forget that Tencent operates in a country in which 1.35 BILLION people live. They could have never gone international and been alright.
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It's only a surprise if you don't have contacts in the Chinese interactive entertainment industry and the business world.
I certainly had inklings and thoughts a Chinese firm would be number one in this department, soon, if not now. -
Wow, I'm surprised you guys knew. I've heard of Tencent but only here and there. I mostly think of China as outsourcing game content. I expected one of the big three to be on top.