Apple's take of gaming market suffers due to COVID-19

Apple has dropped to last place in a ranking of gaming software and services companies due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Research firm GlobalData announced Apple's plunge in its gaming software thematic scorecard on Monday, with analyst Rupantar Guha saying that the drop "can be attributed to changes the company has made in its gaming revenue channels," as well as the App Store and Apple Arcade during COVID-19.

One example, as pointed out by Guha, is Apple's coronavirus-spurred removal of the "Plague, Inc" game from the Chinese App Store in February. The analyst said that move slowed Apple's growth in China, which is the world's largest gaming market.

Similarly, Guha said it's "unclear" if Apple's 30-day free Apple Arcade trial will be enough to "attract a significant number of new subscribers."

GlobalData's thematic gaming scorecard.

Lastly, the GlobalData analyst says that, unlike rivals like Google and Amazon, Apple hasn't made any inroads in the esports industry, which the firm says caters to a "niche audience" of about 10% of the global online population.

"Despite having the tech capabilities and potential esports titles on the Apple Arcade, Apple has failed to benefit from the thriving esports market during the global lockdown," Guha wrote.

As of June 2019, Apple was the fourth-largest gaming company globally by Newzoo due to the iPhone and the rise of mobile gaming.

The company also launched its $4.99-a-month Apple Arcade gaming service in September 2019, which features more than 100 titles developed exclusively for its various platforms.

13 Comments

beowulfschmidt 2330 comments · 12 Years

About 4 years ago

Virtually every single entry on that list above Apple is either a full-focus gaming developer, distributor, or publisher (e.g. Valve), or has a major division devoted to gaming (e.g. Microsoft), while Apple is primarily a general computing product and services company. While Apple does pay attention to mobile gaming, I've posted before that I think they don't really care about gaming on Mac OS, and I don't see much evidence that they'd be heartbroken if even mobile gaming weren't a runaway record shattering thing.

Not sure this is an apples to apples, or even oranges, comparison.

gatorguy 24597 comments · 13 Years

About 4 years ago

Personally I'm more than a bit surprised, assuming the chart is accurate. I was seeing comments from posters just yesterday on another site about how successful Apple Arcade has been compared to other gaming services. That site doesn't allow links so I've no idea if that had any sources but I assumed they did.

mpantone 2214 comments · 18 Years

About 4 years ago

beowulfschmidt said:

Virtually every single entry on that list above Apple is either a full-focus gaming developer, distributor, or publisher (e.g. Valve), or has a major division devoted to gaming (e.g. Microsoft), while Apple is primarily a general computing product and services company. While Apple does pay attention to mobile gaming, I've posted before that I think they don't really care about gaming on Mac OS, and I don't see much evidence that they'd be heartbroken if even mobile gaming weren't a runaway record shattering thing.

Not sure this is an apples to apples, or even oranges, comparison.

You are correct.

This is even less surprising when one takes into account the platforms and marketshare.

Apple Arcade only runs on Apple devices running the latest version of the operating system. My iPhone XS is on iOS 12.4.1; no Apple Arcade for me. My two Macs are both running Mojave 10.14; no Arcade games there. And I have a third generation Apple TV. So no Apple Arcade in my home.

Game publishers like Activision Blizzard have titles that run on multiple platforms, almost all of them with more marketshare and penetration than Apple products. iPhones don't dominate the smartphone market, Macs comprise less than 10% of the PC market, and Apple TV is not the dominant force for set-top TV streamers. Plus Activision Blizzard has titles that run on consoles and likely handheld units. There is no Apple console hardware. Only the most recent iPod touch is supported by Apple Arcade. The previous generation iPod touches (like mine) is stuck at iOS 12.4.6, no Arcade there either.

You add all of this together and there's no plausible argument for Apple to have a dominant stance.

I don't even play videogames but this analysis is pretty short-sighted.

genovelle 1481 comments · 16 Years

About 4 years ago

mpantone said:

beowulfschmidt said:

Virtually every single entry on that list above Apple is either a full-focus gaming developer, distributor, or publisher (e.g. Valve), or has a major division devoted to gaming (e.g. Microsoft), while Apple is primarily a general computing product and services company. While Apple does pay attention to mobile gaming, I've posted before that I think they don't really care about gaming on Mac OS, and I don't see much evidence that they'd be heartbroken if even mobile gaming weren't a runaway record shattering thing.

Not sure this is an apples to apples, or even oranges, comparison.

You are correct.

This is even less surprising when one takes into account the platforms and marketshare.

Apple Arcade only runs on Apple devices running the latest version of the operating system. My iPhone XS is on iOS 12.4.1; no Apple Arcade for me. My two Macs are both running Mojave 10.14; no Arcade games there. And I have a third generation Apple TV. So no Apple Arcade in my home.

Game publishers like Activision Blizzard have titles that run on multiple platforms, almost all of them with more marketshare and penetration than Apple products. iPhones don't dominate the smartphone market, Macs comprise less than 10% of the PC market, and Apple TV is not the dominant force for set-top TV streamers. Plus Activision Blizzard has titles that run on consoles and likely handheld units. There is no Apple console hardware. Only the most recent iPod touch is supported by Apple Arcade. The previous generation iPod touches (like mine) is stuck at iOS 12.4.6, no Arcade there either.

You add all of this together and there's no plausible argument for Apple to have a dominant stance.

I don't even play videogames but this analysis is pretty short-sighted.

I believe it’s far too soon to see where Apple is headed with arcade. They are a long term planner. They are planning something big and is laying the foundation for it.