Top Public Video Game Companies | By Revenue

This Top Video Game Companies ranking is based on analysis of annual and quarterly financial reports published by a number of relevant publicly listed game companies. For companies that do not split out their game revenues, the analysis includes estimates, which may or may not be indicated explicitly. Revenues (GAAP) are restated to reflect Calendar Years, therefore do not necessarily match reported Fiscal Year results of individual companies. Revenues exclude hardware sales and other non-game sales to the extent publicly available. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo estimates represent all Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo non-hardware platform revenues (including Xbox Live, PSN, and Nintendo eShop revenues respectively).

[Imortus_san]

They sell more games on console then on PC.

[_SilverHawk_]

Top 5 gaming companies in 2018 revenues: Tencent - $19.7 billion
Sony - $14.2 billion
Microsoft - $9.8 billion
Apple - $9.5 billion
Activision-Blizzard - $6.9 billion

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Activision is 5th only overall, they’re only behind much larger companies. Yet, Activision still laid off hundreds of staff, despite record profits...

[WelkinCole]

Crazy how Sony increased from 10b in 2017 to 14.25b in 2018

In 2015 they were at 5b. Year over year has been north of 40%

In a space of 3 years they nearly triple their gaming revenue which is nuts.

PS4 is a monster

[elJoker5]

Did i miss read the charts they showed. they had M's after the numbers not B's... which is a big difference with $$. Just saying..

Top 5 gaming companies in 2018 revenues:
Tencent - $19.733M
Sony - $14.218M
Microsoft - $9.754M
Apple - $9.453M
Activision-Blizzard - $6.892M

[The_Hooligan]

@ Joker

I thought the same but it is actually a comma so it would be 19,733 and 14,218 and so forth.

[meep316]

3 platforms vs one, not to mention valve is a private company and not even included in this. Also a lot of that console revenue is them charging for services that are free on pc, but that’s how Sony and Microsoft make up for having either no profits or loses on hardware.

[PhoenixUp]

Do people just not get how lucrative console gaming is to so many companies?

You’ve got to be out of your mind if you think that they’ll ever become irrelevant.

[Minute Man 721]

And to think in the 80s people in the states thought it was a fad

[Hardiman]

My parents and grandparents said "these kiddy toys won't last" ha how wrong they were!

If I'm honest though as a kid in the 80's I never imagined gaming would become what it is today. I think Metal Gear Solid was the first game to really show me what gaming could be.

[rainslacker]

I was an 80's kid. I knew gaming would get bigger. Maybe wishful thinking in that decade though, as I had no logical reason to base that on when I was that young.:)

[PhoenixUp]

There have been various successful things that people thought would fail at a certain point in time.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki...

However it becomes sad and ridiculous when someone keeps saying something will fail despite continuously being proven wrong.

[UltraNova]

Haven't you heard? Next gen will be the last. Consoles are dead...

[PhoenixUp]

Consoles might as well be zombies at this point

[Obscure_Observer]

@PhoenixUp

I like this one better. From Shuhei Yoshida:

"I don’t, you know, mind hearing something like that, because it’s so interesting… Consoles were announced dead for the longest time. Even at the time when PlayStation One was being worked on, some analyst said that PC games would dominate in the future and there would be no place for home consoles.

Every time these things are proven wrong, and as long as we have passionate people wanting to continue to play on game consoles, we wll try hard to continue, and even make it bigger for the future.”

https://www.dualshockers.co...

How Patcher still have the balls to make predictions about gaming is beyond me.

[Obscure_Observer]

@PhoenixUp

"Do people just not get how lucrative console gaming is to so many companies?"

And yet, you´ll hear from some idiots that Microsoft is about to leave the console market to become third party publisher. Lol!

Look at the results that Phil Spencer managed to achieve with less than half userbase that Sony has. With the new studios and games, things will only get better!

[rainslacker]

One doesn't need to be a console maker to make money on the console market.

MS isn't leaving the console market this or next gen though, so people are beating a dead horse. They should just wait until next gen to bring it up again....kind of like these, "Consoles are dead" articles do.

[TheColbertinator]

Only fools think PC and console gaming is dying right now

[harmny]

Tencent Is number 1 apple is 4 and Google is 6.

[TheColbertinator]

Exactly. 2,3,5,8,9,10 all have huge investments in console/PC gaming and are highly profitable as a result. I'm glad you understand.

[rainslacker]

Something doing better doesn't mean that something else is dying. The entire gaming market is growing and expanding. New markets don't mean the end of another. It's like saying hammers are going the way of the dodo because a nail becomes available and starts selling to more roofers.

[SheenuTheLegend]

but where is epic games?

[Minimox16]

its part of Tencent i believe.

[Gamist2dot0]

So MS numbers include Windows/PC game sales. Makes sense.

[TekoIie]

Sorry to burst the bubble but MS is definitely not seeing much money from PC games sales. The vast majority of that revenue is definitely through console gamers.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

Source?

[TekoIie]

@Felix

If you believe a sizeable chunk of thst revenue is from PC gamers then you basically believe Sate of Decay 2, Forza Horizon 4 and Sea of Theives sold incredibly well on PC. Do you believe that?

Or is it maybe easier to believe that Minecraft, XBLG, GamePass and 3rd party game sales on consoles is where the money's coming from...

[Razzer]

"Source?"

There isn't a source for that information, but it is common sense. That might change if Microsoft continues to put games on Steam like they are doing with the MCC. But I doubt seriously doubt MS is going any significant source of revenue from Windows 10 right now.

[rainslacker]

I'm sure they're seeing a lot of money from it. It may not be a huge percentage, but even if it's only 10% of the revenue, that's still around a billion dollars. A drop in the bucket in the overall picture, but still quite a bit of money.

[TekoIie]

@rainslacker

10% is not a drop in the bucket. Those games definitely didn't sell enough on PC to generate that sort of income. If they did then it means we've underestimated their success on consoles by a huge margin.

It's amazing how people are also disagreeing that subscriptions and 3rd party licensing is where the money is coming from.

[franwex]

Yeah take that Microsoft for making billions in gaming?

[Razzer]

What?

[otakuapologist]

It's funny to see Nintendo down there. The company is too nice and good to maximize their monetization strategies. No micro transactions, barely any DLC, no double-priced collector's editions, no pre-order bonuses... All the cancer kept out of the business while their evil competitors stride ahead.

[PhoenixUp]

You act like Nintendo only does good business yet you neglect how Nintendo continues to sell their games at full price, have overpriced accessories, & no GOTY editions of their games on the same platform means you’ll always have to buy the DLC separately for every game

[Ristul]

Sell some physical games with to small cartridges so the game needs to be downloaded instead of plug and play.

[badz149]

no DLC? LOL did you just forget they charge money for the higher difficulty setting for BoTW?

[AK91]

I'm surprised Take Two and Capcom are so low.

[Kabaneri]

Whats insane is that Tencent (Fortnite) is making more money than MS and Sony.

[harmny]

Not insane at all
Tencent Is not only fortnite. They own LoL 40% of fortnite and a part of Activision and Ubisoft. And then you have to add mobile. Like supercell and millions of other games

[GameBoyColor]

Tencent owns like a bunch of services and games on pc and now mobile and console. It's insane actually lol

[S2Killinit]

The fact that a Chinese game maker with a handful of games is on top of that list is very troubling.

[jeki]

Why?

[franwex]

It doesn’t really affect other game companies. Not sure why it’s troubling.

[S2Killinit]

Because they earned that money by making one cash cow game. No matter how great you think Fortnite is, it is still a a single game, and one whose formula can be a threat to the diversity of gaming, much in the way that weeds are a treat to a garden. Its not that weeds are bad, its that if you get too many of them, they hinder the growth and diversity of everything else.

[Prince-Ali]

Tencent dont just own Fortnite... they own A LOT and have their hands in a lot of different gaming areas.. and the fact they own the chinese market is key to this hence why they make soo much money.. The mobile market will continue to bring in rediculous amounts of money and Tencent have their monopoly on that in china and the asian market in general... If the games we are acquainted to wanna release in China they also tend to sign publishing/distribution deals with Tencent... So yeah no lool.. this isn't surprising AT ALL!!! lool

[rainslacker]

Tencent has been making money long before they made a bunch on Fortnite. They don't even own Epic outright, and there is no saying how much of the revenue from fortnite they actually receive. They may not be entitled to a complete share of that revenue.

Tencent has it's hands in so many different areas of gaming, and owns parts of so many different companies, I'm surprised they don't show up higher on the list.

[gangsta_red]

"... it is still a a single game, and one whose formula can be a threat to the diversity of gaming"

We heard this lame argument back when Call of Duty was first becoming popular and people were freaking out that every company would start making CoD clones.

And yet here we are with more games that are diverse and different despite CoD and Fortnite still being on top or popular.

We've also had other games that were highly successful that weren't Fortnite, how come you aren't worried that games like those could be copied and destroy diversity in gaming?

You talk about diversity in gaming but Fortnite is apart of that diversity that you don't want to see go away, it's just not the type of game you particularly enjoy or want to see more of.

[S2Killinit]

@gangster
Because it made a disproportionate amount of money. But i thought that was obvious.

[gangsta_red]

So making a disproportionate amount of money is a bad thing now?

I'll have to include that notion in my keys to success self help book.

[S2Killinit]

What? Are you deliberately daft?

[jeki]

Why is Valve Corporation so secretive?

I'd like to see where they are on that list.

[theshredded]

Didn't expect Bamco to be higher than Take Two and Ubisoft and I'm glad they are. They sell a huge amount of underrated fun games.

[kingPoS]

Awww snap! It like the PS2 era all over again. Games games games. It's part of why the PS2 was so successful back then.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[DVAcme]

Tencent shouldn't be on that list, they're a holdings company which just has gaming companies in its portfolio, not a dedicated game company.

Other than that, awesome to see Sony crushing it :)

[Father__Merrin]

The ps4 is a monster of a console. It's going to be over 120 million soon

[CrystalFantasy3]

Tecent should tell Riot to release the IG skin line already

[YourSixStudios_YT]

Sony has a 41% increase of change in revenue! Wow! Didn't expect that with how late we are in the console generation for PS4.

[zodiac909]

Who the hell is Tencent?!

[DVAcme]

Tencent are a Chinese conglomerate holdings company. They're the people who are big investors in Epic Games. They're also the people being accused for using the Epic Store as espionage for the Chinese.

Fuck Tencent.

[Immagaiden]

Look at Nintendo bringing up the rear

[danny818]

Everyone in this site acts like MS is going out of business