Over the past decade, very few gaming developers have created more revenue than Epic Games. The company behind the extremely popular Battle Royale title, Fortnite, has created a massive fanbase around the world, and that translates to a lot of money as well. Even though the game is free, cosmetics for items such as skins, pickaxes and many more have raked in huge bucks for them.
This has allowed the company to post monstrous revenue numbers for 2018 and 2019. In 2018, Epic posted a revenue of almost $2.5 billion, and in 2019, they earned almost $1.7 billion. Even though the earnings decreased by $700 million, the company still held the top spot for the second time.
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However, with the pandemic and the other issues surrounding the developers, another company leapfrogged them to the top spot thanks to mobile gaming.
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Tencent’s TiMi Studios overtakes Epic Games in revenue for 2020
TiMi Studios, a developer in the massive conglomerate of Tencent, recently revealed their revenue for 2020. The company generated a whopping $10 billion for the year, because of the massive popularity of mobile gaming. To put things in perspective, TiMi Studios earned four times more than Epic in their best year, which was 2018.
The studio’s library includes popular titles such as Call of Duty Mobile and Honor of Kings. The success at TiMi Studios has allowed Tencent to post a remarkable revenue figure of nearly $24 billion. During the pandemic, mobile gaming received a massive boost since a lot of players needed something to endure during lockdowns in various countries.
Tencent's TiMi Studios, the developers of games such as Honor of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile, generated $10 billion in 2020.
This makes it the #1 studio by revenue during the year, and that's just 1 studio in Tencent, not the entire company.https://t.co/mifOhWQlqg
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) April 2, 2021
Why Fortnite couldn’t make a huge splash in 2020
2020 was a huge year for mobile gaming because of the large player base it suddenly gained because of the pandemic. This allowed FPS titles like Call of Duty Mobile and many more to increase their revenue exponentially. But with Epic Games also releasing Fortnite for smartphones, they could have also posted similar numbers to that of TiMi Studios.
The major roadblock for Epic Games last year was the massive lawsuit they filed against Apple. The developers removed the game from the App Store, which removed a huge chunk of their player base. With the rise of mobile gaming, Fortnite had to be present on all platforms for them to come close to TiMi Studios.
We can only wait and see if the developers release the game for iOS devices time soon. Without a huge platform like mobile gaming, Epic Games will have a hard time to catchup with Tencent and their subsidiaries.
