What 5 billion-dollar games tell us about mobile in 2020

The mobile game industry has been one of the biggest growth sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research firm Sensor Tower estimates that the global market has hit $75.4 billion this year, which is 19.5% higher than in 2019.

This surge helped five games hit an astounding $1 billion in revenue so far in 2020, according to Sensor Tower’s estimates (the firm provides enterprise-level research to companies in the biggest media industry in the world). While these games were already global hits, they benefited from the pandemic’s quarantine and stay-at-home orders. And as much of the world begins to see a return to normalcy (the United States being an obvious exception), the firm is finding that people are still playing more than in 2019.