According to Digi-Capital’s latest Global Games Investment Review report, by 2017 mobile and online games could push worldwide gaming software revenues to $100 billion.
The investment bank expects mobile and online games to account for 60 per cent ($60 billion) of worldwide revenues within the next three years mostly on the basis of the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 24 per cent since 2011.
The firm found mobile was the main driver of record mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the last year, accounting for $4.6 billion of a record $12.5 billion in games M&A. The free-to-play massively multiplayer online (MMO) market was the next biggest driver with $4 billion in M&A business, followed by tech interests with $2.8 billion.
That total covers the last year, but most of it has come in 2014, with gaming M&A accounting for a record $6.6 billion in the first six months of the year alone, which has already eclipsed the $5.6 billion in mergers and acquisitions recorded for the entirety of 2013.
Digi-Capital offered a number of reasons for the increase of M&A activity beyond the simple explanations of massive growth in the field. The firm also revealed that some acquirers were interested in “stopping mobile insurgents from eating their lunch,” indicating the Zynga pick-up of Natural Motion would fall under that category.
These are some really positive signs for the global gaming space, considering how overcrowded the casual gaming side of things has become and with MMO being the second major contributor to driving revenues up, its only great news for online gaming sites.