The FTC v. Microsoft hearings have wrapped up, and boy, have they left us with intriguing revelations to ponder. One of the most noteworthy is the astounding dominance of Nintendo, particularly in the realm of console publishing revenues. It seems that neutrality pays off.
TweakTown recently reported on the court proceedings where economist Dr. Liz Bailey presented fascinating data that highlights Nintendo’s undeniable dominance in the console gaming market. According to Dr. Bailey, Nintendo’s publishing revenue for 2021 stood at a staggering $5.18 billion.
In comparison, Sony’s revenue amounted to $2.1 billion, trailing behind by a significant $3.08 billion, while Xbox’s revenue paled in comparison at $1.372 billion, a whopping $3.8 billion less than Nintendo’s.
Here is a detailed list of 2021’s Console Market Publishing Revenues:
- Nintendo – $5.18 billion
- Electronic Arts – $4.508 billion
- Take-Two Interactive – $2.352 billion
- Sony Interactive Entertainment – $2.1 billion
- Activision-Blizzard – $2.072 billion
- Epic Games – $1.708 billion
- Ubisoft – $1.428 billion
- Xbox Game Studios – $1.372 billion
- Bandai Namco – $980 million
Moreover, Dr. Bailey provided an in-depth analysis of the expansive video game market, encompassing various platforms such as mobile and console gaming, stating:
There’s essentially 3 sources of hardware on which gaming happens. Mobile is the largest, it’s about 70%, what I’m showing here is global gaming revenue by 2021. About $150 billion, about 70%. PC gaming is about $33 billion, console gaming at $28 billion.
Xbox is less than half of 1% of mobile gaming revenue.
Activision Blizzard is also very small in mobile gaming, combined, Microsoft will move up to 3.8% of mobile gaming.
Shoutout to PC gaming, which according to the internet has been “dead” for at least a decade now. Doing pretty good for a dead market! When asked about the market shares of each publisher in the console gaming industry, Dr. Bailey responded:
Dr. Bailey: Activision is 5th on list, with 7.4% share of console gaming.
Question: Where does Xbox Games Studios fall on this list?
Dr. Bailey: They’re 8th on this, with 4.9% share. This includes ZeniMax.
Question: Where does Sony fall?
Dr. Bailey: Sony is one step higher than Activision, they’re at #4 with 7.5%.
It’s worth noting that the revenue figures mentioned earlier specifically pertain to first-party game sales and associated monetization. These numbers account for both the eighth-generation consoles, such as the Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, as well as the ninth-generation consoles, including the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.
When we really dig into the numbers, it’s no surprise that Nintendo has a firm grip on the gaming market, leaving Sony and Xbox in the dust. Just take a look at the sales figures as of March this year: a staggering 1.03 billion copies of Nintendo games have been sold.
We’re talking about big first-party hitters here, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with a whopping 53.79 million copies sold, Animal Crossing: New Horizons with 42.21 million copies, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with 31.09 million copies, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with 29.81 million copies, and Pokemon Sword and Shield with 25.82 million copies.
That’s not all. Nintendo has also managed to move an impressive 125.62 million Switch units since its release in 2017. Nintendo has clearly emerged as the top player in the gaming industry, surpassing both Sony and Microsoft. The recent FTC hearings also shed light on Nintendo’s dominance, particularly in terms of revenue generated by Minecraft Switch.
It was revealed that the Nintendo version of the game has outperformed the PlayStation and Xbox versions, with twice the revenue of the PlayStation version and four times that of the Xbox version – though this does play to Microsoft’s benefit in some sense, as they own the IP.
The success of the Switch has truly revolutionized Nintendo’s position in the market. With these revelations becoming public, it’s highly likely that we will see a surge of game developers porting their titles to the next Nintendo console.
Moreover, Activision’s CEO, Bobby Kotick, has disclosed that the upcoming Nintendo console’s power will be comparable to eighth-generation consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
