2014 Worldwide Game Industry Revenue $81.5 Billion from 1.7 Billion Gamers

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According to Newzoo, the top 100 countries in the world by game revenue includes:

  • 1.7 billion gamers
  • $81.5 billion in revenue for 2014 this year
  • The US is the top country for game revenue in 2014 at $20.5 billion
  • Japan monetizes the most per person online at $120.20

I ran the numbers differently than they did. You can see the ranks of game revenue by country on the left, but I chose to look at it differently. I divided the revenue by the online population of each country. This gave me the RPPO (Revenue Per Person Online) – since I figure this is a good gauge of technology and that these people are also likely playing on mobile devices. Then I ran the ARPD (Average Revenue Per Day) based on that number divided by 365. It results in some interesting data.

For me, this is most interesting for geographic (soft) launches of mobile games. If we can look at how a game monetizes in specific country or two, we can make a more educated guess about how it might monetize given the propensity to spend per country. Of course it isn’t flawless, but it sure does give an interesting set of benchmarks to measure against. Here’s the full list.

RANK COUNTRY POP INTERNET POP REVENUE RPPO ARPD
3 Japan 126,999,808 101,663,346  $       12,219,552,000  $    120.20  $    0.3293
6 Korea 49,512,026 42,629,854  $         3,356,202,000  $      78.73  $    0.2157
1 USA 322,583,006 274,292,330  $       20,484,628,000  $      74.68  $    0.2046
5 United Kingdom 63,489,234 55,476,893  $         3,426,259,000  $      61.76  $    0.1692
13 Australia 23,630,169 20,806,364  $         1,143,044,000  $      54.94  $    0.1505
8 Canada 35,524,732 31,890,552  $         1,717,991,000  $      53.87  $    0.1476
4 Germany 82,652,256 71,080,940  $         3,528,196,000  $      49.64  $    0.1360
20 Switzerland 8,157,896 6,950,527  $            325,731,000  $      46.86  $    0.1284
7 France 64,641,279 56,237,913  $         2,608,818,000  $      46.39  $    0.1271
30 Ireland 4,677,340 3,899,031  $            179,576,000  $      46.06  $    0.1262
25 Norway 5,091,924 4,888,247  $            223,430,000  $      45.71  $    0.1252
21 Austria 8,526,429 7,111,042  $            310,340,000  $      43.64  $    0.1196
9 Italy 61,070,224 36,886,415  $         1,514,067,000  $      41.05  $    0.1125
19 Sweden 9,631,261 9,053,385  $            370,406,000  $      40.91  $    0.1121
88 Iceland 333,135 323,141  $              13,121,000  $      40.60  $    0.1112
71 Luxembourg 536,761 505,736  $              20,535,000  $      40.60  $    0.1112
26 Denmark 5,640,184 5,470,978  $            221,460,000  $      40.48  $    0.1109
29 Finland 5,443,497 5,096,746  $            205,745,000  $      40.37  $    0.1106
10 Spain 47,066,402 37,370,723  $         1,489,366,000  $      39.85  $    0.1092
34 New Zealand 4,551,349 4,164,939  $            140,004,000  $      33.61  $    0.0921
15 Taiwan 23,532,713 19,292,118  $            643,417,000  $      33.35  $    0.0914
97 Malta 430,146 307,812  $                9,872,000  $      32.07  $    0.0879
22 Belgium 11,144,420 9,807,090  $            293,560,000  $      29.93  $    0.0820
17 Netherlands 16,802,463 15,861,525  $            433,195,000  $      27.31  $    0.0748
27 Portugal 10,610,304 7,983,193  $            214,519,000  $      26.87  $    0.0736
2 China 1,393,783,836 701,073,270  $       17,866,677,000  $      25.48  $    0.0698
46 Singapore 5,517,102 4,378,372  $              81,606,000  $      18.64  $    0.0511
14 Mexico 123,799,215 56,130,564  $         1,006,072,000  $      17.92  $    0.0491
92 Cyprus 1,153,058 779,928  $              11,722,000  $      15.03  $    0.0412
67 Slovenia 2,075,592 1,494,426  $              21,206,000  $      14.19  $    0.0389
40 Czech Republic 10,740,468 8,491,414  $            117,774,000  $      13.87  $    0.0380
83 Estonia 1,283,771 1,078,368  $              14,508,000  $      13.45  $    0.0369
50 Hong Kong 7,259,569 5,372,081  $              70,797,000  $      13.18  $    0.0361
12 Russian 142,467,651 88,059,255  $         1,143,197,000  $      12.98  $    0.0356
53 Slovakia 5,454,154 4,830,199  $              60,760,000  $      12.58  $    0.0345
65 Qatar 2,267,916 2,084,215  $              25,549,000  $      12.26  $    0.0336
64 Lithuania 3,008,287 2,223,124  $              27,068,000  $      12.18  $    0.0334
49 Greece 11,128,404 6,899,610  $              79,699,000  $      11.55  $    0.0316
11 Brazil 202,033,670 118,593,764  $         1,339,375,000  $      11.29  $    0.0309
69 Panama 3,926,017 1,970,861  $              20,980,000  $      10.65  $    0.0292
48 Hungary 9,933,173 7,549,211  $              80,322,000  $      10.64  $    0.0292
23 Poland 38,220,543 26,372,175  $            279,656,000  $      10.60  $    0.0291
18 Turkey 75,837,020 37,349,732  $            375,039,000  $      10.04  $    0.0275
80 Latvia 2,041,111 1,605,130  $              15,915,000  $        9.92  $    0.0272
36 Chile 17,772,871 13,789,971  $            132,225,000  $        9.59  $    0.0263
63 Croatia 4,272,044 2,978,469  $              28,209,000  $        9.47  $    0.0259
55 Belarus 9,307,609 5,511,966  $              51,472,000  $        9.34  $    0.0256
38 Romania 21,640,168 13,196,174  $            122,354,000  $        9.27  $    0.0254
58 Bulgaria 7,167,998 4,548,095  $              41,977,000  $        9.23  $    0.0253
73 Uruguay 3,418,694 2,137,709  $              19,473,000  $        9.11  $    0.0250
24 Argentina 41,803,125 27,004,819  $            243,946,000  $        9.03  $    0.0247
86 TFYR Macedonia 2,108,434 1,572,892  $              13,238,000  $        8.42  $    0.0231
57 Serbia 9,468,378 5,586,343  $              46,297,000  $        8.29  $    0.0227
56 Israel 7,822,107 6,323,391  $              47,912,000  $        7.58  $    0.0208
33 Saudi Arabia 29,369,428 19,677,517  $            143,522,000  $        7.29  $    0.0200
99 Bahrain 1,344,111 1,236,582  $                8,872,000  $        7.17  $    0.0197
72 Costa Rica 4,937,755 2,876,736  $              20,216,000  $        7.03  $    0.0193
52 United Arab Emirates 9,445,624 8,973,343  $              62,819,000  $        7.00  $    0.0192
43 Peru 30,769,077 13,107,627  $              88,903,000  $        6.78  $    0.0186
82 Puerto Rico 3,683,601 2,144,961  $              14,535,000  $        6.78  $    0.0186
28 Colombia 48,929,706 31,589,018  $            209,041,000  $        6.62  $    0.0181
70 Oman 3,926,492 3,121,561  $              20,618,000  $        6.61  $    0.0181
74 Kuwait 3,479,371 2,963,728  $              18,644,000  $        6.29  $    0.0172
90 Albania 3,185,413 2,048,858  $              12,481,000  $        6.09  $    0.0167
39 Ukraine 44,941,303 19,630,361  $            118,604,000  $        6.04  $    0.0166
59 Ecuador 15,982,551 6,806,968  $              40,869,000  $        6.00  $    0.0164
42 Venezuela 30,851,343 15,953,229  $              89,000,000  $        5.58  $    0.0153
93 Libya 6,253,452 1,974,840  $              10,981,000  $        5.56  $    0.0152
81 Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,824,746 2,857,850  $              15,627,000  $        5.47  $    0.0150
60 Dominican Republic 10,528,954 6,089,947  $              33,063,000  $        5.43  $    0.0149
98 Jamaica 2,798,837 1,749,553  $                9,327,000  $        5.33  $    0.0146
78 Lebanon 4,965,914 3,749,265  $              16,933,000  $        4.52  $    0.0124
95 Paraguay 6,917,579 2,313,238  $              10,200,000  $        4.41  $    0.0121
96 El Salvador 6,383,752 2,470,512  $              10,043,000  $        4.07  $    0.0111
87 Cuba 11,258,597 3,429,369  $              13,208,000  $        3.85  $    0.0106
45 Malaysia 30,187,896 22,520,170  $              81,861,000  $        3.64  $    0.0100
91 Guatemala 15,859,714 3,711,173  $              12,433,000  $        3.35  $    0.0092
62 Kazakhstan 16,606,878 9,758,202  $              30,491,000  $        3.12  $    0.0086
44 South Africa 53,139,528 28,179,892  $              85,101,000  $        3.02  $    0.0083
84 Bolivia 10,847,664 4,617,851  $              13,622,000  $        2.95  $    0.0081
51 Thailand 67,222,972 21,578,574  $              63,628,000  $        2.95  $    0.0081
35 Vietnam 92,547,959 44,728,429  $            131,242,000  $        2.93  $    0.0080
76 Syrian Arab Republic 21,986,615 6,134,266  $              17,524,000  $        2.86  $    0.0078
47 Iran 78,470,222 28,249,280  $              80,384,000  $        2.85  $    0.0078
37 Egypt 83,386,739 43,819,731  $            122,434,000  $        2.79  $    0.0077
79 Azerbaijan 9,514,887 5,956,319  $              16,110,000  $        2.70  $    0.0074
54 Morocco 33,492,909 19,760,816  $              53,322,000  $        2.70  $    0.0074
32 Indonesia 252,812,245 54,405,195  $            146,684,000  $        2.70  $    0.0074
16 India 1,267,401,849 223,062,725  $            582,853,000  $        2.61  $    0.0072
85 Tunisia 11,116,899 5,127,114  $              13,302,000  $        2.59  $    0.0071
75 Algeria 39,928,947 7,063,431  $              17,836,000  $        2.53  $    0.0069
41 Philippines 100,096,496 48,526,781  $            115,611,000  $        2.38  $    0.0065
94 Angola 22,137,261 4,706,382  $              10,667,000  $        2.27  $    0.0062
31 Nigeria 178,516,904 74,584,362  $            152,824,000  $        2.05  $    0.0056
100 Sri Lanka 21,445,775 5,333,564  $                8,857,000  $        1.66  $    0.0045
66 Uzbekistan 29,324,920 14,416,131  $              21,900,000  $        1.52  $    0.0042
61 Pakistan 185,132,926 21,993,792  $              30,505,000  $        1.39  $    0.0038
89 Sudan 38,764,090 9,691,023  $              12,692,000  $        1.31  $    0.0036
77 Bangladesh 158,512,570 14,107,619  $              17,555,000  $        1.24  $    0.0034
68 Kenya 45,545,980 18,355,030  $              21,151,000  $        1.15  $    0.0032

New Digital and Retail Game Revenue Data – U.S., Europe and China

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According to NPD, 2012 digital game sales were:

  • U.S. -$5.9 billion (40 percent of total U.S. dollars spent on games, up from 28 percent in 2010)
  • U.K. – $1.7 billion
  • Germany – $1.4 billion
  • France – $1 billion.

For 2012, the U.S. breaks down as:

  • New retail games – $7.1 billion
  • Used games – $1.59 billion
  • Digital games and DLC -$2.22 billion
  • Game subscriptions – $1.05 billion
  • Social network games – $544 million
  • Game rentals -$198 million
  • Mobile games -$2.11 billion
  • Digital full games and DLC combined grew 33.9 percent for the year
  • Subscriptions grew 12.9 percent
  • Mobile games grew 10.4 percent
Here are some other random points and findings from the analyst panel at GDC 2013:
  • The UK has the highest percentage of console players
  • France prefers portable consoles
  • Germany prefers computers
  • US is most partial to gaming on mobile and tablet platforms
  • In the US, 27 percent of mobile gamers pay
  • In Europe, 40 percent of mobile gamers pay
  • U.K. average spending on mobile games is $16
  • U.S. average spending on mobile games is $9
  • In China, Mobile game spending is projected to reach$1 billion this year, and $2.8 billion in 2016.

The German Client-Based MMO Market was €474 Million in 2012

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According to SuperData:

  • The European client-based MMO market totalled $1.3 billion in 2012
  • Three publishers dominate the space, generating 70% of all revenue
  • Germany is the largest European client-based MMO market with €474 Million in 2012 sales
  • The UK  client-based MMO market was €281 Million in 2012
  • France was the third largest country in terms of client-based MMO  at €222 Million

Turkey has 19.5 Million Gamers

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I just got some new data points on the video game industry in Turkey:

  • Turkey has a population of 78 million people, with 50 percent under 25 years old
  • 33 percent of the population of Turkey has Facebook accounts
  • 92 percent of the total population has a mobile phone, 30 percent of which are smartphone users
  • Turkey has seen a 25 percent increase in video games sales 2009-2011
  • 28 percent of the population plays video games
  • Turkey has 22,500 cyber cafés
  • 40 percent of the population has internet access at home, 72 percent of which are playing games
  • 52 percent of the gaming population pays for games

Brazil Has 29 million Social Gamers and 8.1 Million Are Paying Users

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According to a new report from Newzoo:

  • The number of American social gamers is 88.9 million, of which, 19 million are paying users
  • There number of social gamers in brazil is 29 million, of which 8.1 million are paying users and growing at 26.1 percent year-over-year
    Almost half of the 200 million Brazilians now have access to the internet
  • 28% of social network gamers in Brazil spend money on social games, higher than the 21% share in the US

Key Facts on Demographics & Preferences of Brazilan Social Gamers

  • Players consist of an equal amount of men and women (49% v 51%) but when it comes to payers, males dominate (56% v 44%)
  • In Brazil, 21-35 year olds makeup the largest portion of players (47%) and payers (50%)
  • 86% of Brazilian social network gamers play on Facebook and 31% play on Orkut
  • 38% of social gamers in Brazil social games developer Zynga, making it the most recognized international publisher brand, followed by GameHouse (19%) and King.com (17%)
  • Strategy is the most popular genre in both Brazil and the US
  • “Core” genres make up the top three in Brazil with action/adventure and race games in 2nd and 3rd place compared to “Casual” genres Puzzles and Quizzes/Trivia in the US.

Activision Digital Distribution Grows to 37 Percent, But California Taxation Will Soon Become an Issue

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Activision Blizzard had $1.14 billion in digital sales during the second quarter of 2011, up from $967 million for the same period last year.

Digital sales were 37 percent of the company’s revenue, which as a percentage of overall revenue, was up 27 percent over the previous year.

These numbers underscore the growing importance of digital distribution for games and are additional data points showing that the market is shifting to a greater percentage of products being downloaded directly by consumers.

One thing that needs to be considered is California’s internet taxation where online sales will be subject to sales tax, regardless of where the consumer resides since the majority of Activision’s business is in Santa Monica, California. This will be an area to watch as online game companies start to fight the newly passed bill that will definitely cut into profits.

Unfortunately, California’s lawmakers don’t have the foresight to see how digital commerce jobs will be moving out of the state and into new corporate entities. For a parallel, they need only look at how Amazon has reacted to taxation of internet sales by moving operations from states that choose to impose the taxes, to those that would rather have their citizens employed and taxed on payroll and income.

We would expect to see more online game companies moving their operations and especially billing outside of California in the next 18-24 months to remain competitive and protect shareholder value.

NPD Reports Digital Game Revenues Were $1.85 Billion in Q1 2011

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The NPD Group reported that in the first quarter:

  • Digital revenues totaled $1.85 billion
  • Traditional retail sales totaled $2 billion
  • Zynga reported revenues of $235.4 million in the first quarter

The analysts are predicting further drops in retail revenue:

  • Cowen & Co. predicts sales will decline 12%
  • Wedbush Securities predicts a 6% drop

China has 235 Million Registered Social Network Gamers

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The weekly Niko Partners newsletter has some info on the growing Chinese Social Network Game Market.

According to Gamelook.com.cn –

As of 2011:

  • There are 235 million registered social network game players in China
  • There are 150 million active social network game players in China
  • 64.8 percent of registered social network game players in China are active players
  • The number of registered players grew 33.7 percent over the past year

Cerca Trova Advisors Releases New Gaming & Interactive Entertainment Monthly

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Our friends at Cerca Trova Advisors put out a new newsletter and I recommend it highly. Thanks to Martin Wierzbicki and Gerard Wiener who know their stuff on Game Investment and M&A.

Monthly Digest of M&A and Investment Activity, May/June 2011

The games M&A and fundraising juggernaut continues its breathtaking pace as we enter the month of June. Rarely has a day passed, let alone a week, without a head turning (or sometimes, head scratching) deal being announced. Even if one does not include the prospective transactions that almost made it to the finish line and those currently in the pipeline, this year’s deal making remains unprecedented for its combination of depth, breadth, geographical scope and sheer size.

With May’s monthly scorecard of six acquisitions and eight fundings spanning eight countries (Turkey, Germany, Finland and Australia among others), there is no sign of a slowdown. Significantly, the latest batch of financing deals are also demonstrating that investors are still putting money into social gaming after several months of focusing on mobile, distribution and middleware plays. While the conventional wisdom during the last year has been that social gaming is played out, the money flow says not yet, at least when it comes to newer segments and geographies. And when we say money flow, we mean a lot of money. Kabam reeled in $85 million on May 26, which brings its 2011 haul to a staggering $115 million. Crowdstar brought home a not too shabby $23 million round (its first), German social games company woogo landed $24 million and Accel Partners, fresh on the heels of its $42 million round with Rovio, locked down a $12 million investment in another up-and-coming Finnish gaming company, Supercell.

On the M&A front, Zynga continued its steady march on the deal making path with the acquisition of DNA Games and the team behind the popular Cocos2D games engine, and Rovio completed its first major acquisition, adding the Finnish animation studio Kombo to its stable of artists, engineers and developers. Chinese games company Perfect World acquired Star Trek Online maker Cryptic Studios from Atari for €35 million. Electronic Arts hit a double this month with two acquisitions (no doubt trying to keep up with Zynga’s pace), announcing the purchase of Firemint on May 3, which will be folded into EA Interactive, as well as the acquisition of Mobile Post Production, a specialist cross-platform development house. Rounding out the month, News Corp’s IGN Entertainment consolidated its dominant position in games media with the purchase of Hearst’s UGO Entertainment in anticipation of a spin off from News Corp later this year. June is already shaping up to be another exciting month, so let’s see how the rest of the month plays out.

Games M&A Activity
On June 2nd, RockYou announced the acquisition of Australian social games developer 3 Blokes. Founded in 2006, 3 Blokes has developed four social games for the Facebook platform, including their most recent title, Galactic Trader, a space trading and combat game with 200K monthly active users. The team is led by George Fidler, who has previously worked for EA and The Creative Assembly. 3 Blokes will continue to operate independently as a RockYou studio and develop strategy and combat-driven Facebook games. It appears that RockYou, which just brought on a new CEO, is adopting Zynga’s strategy of acquiring small game studios to build talent and games. Earlier this year, the company bought social game studio Playdemic.

On June 1st, Angry Birds developer Rovio announced the acquisition of leading Finnish animation studio Kombo, for an undisclosed sum of cash and stock. The acquisition of the Helsinki-based studio strengthens Rovio’s animation production capabilities, which could be used both to support games development and to improve Rovio’s presence in other media including TV and film. Earlier this month, the company announced that Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 200 million times, cementing its title as the most popular game of the smartphone era, and the most popular game of all time, eclipsing Tetris by almost 2-to-1.

On May 31st, Chinese games company Perfect World announced the acquisition of Star Trek Online maker Cryptic Studios from Atari for €35 million ($50 million). Cryptic Studios developed the innovative and successful City of Heroes, as well as its subsequent expansion, City of Villains. Both titles garnered numerous awards from leading publications including GameSpy’s Game of the Year award in 2004. After developing both City of Heroes and City of Villains, Cryptic Studios was purchased by Atari in 2008 and created Champions Online and Star Trek Online. The deal highlights the expanding ambitions of Chinese games companies outside of China. Perfect World’s Chairman and CEO, Michael Chi, said that the acquisition will help it further penetrate into the U.S. and global online game markets.

On May 18th, ngmoco (DeNA) acquired Rough Cookie, the Dutch mobile games developer behind hits such as Star Defense, We Farm and We City. Rough Cookie will help DeNA to establish a presence in Europe as the company readies the global launch of its social network for mobile games, Mobage. Rough Cookie was founded 2008 by Wouter ten Brink, Danny Hoffman and Erik t’ Sas, to focus on smartphone games development. Star Defense was an early success; after ngmoco presented the game on the WWDC keynote stage, the title became a top-selling App Store game in the summer of 2009. The game earned Rough Cookie a Dutch Game Award as well as a mention in the Top 50 iPhone Developers of the Year, by Pocket Gamer. Terms of the deal were not announced.

On May 18th, Zynga announced the acquisition of DNA Games, a social games developer based in San Francisco. DNA saw success with its first Facebook game, Casino City, which reached 2.4 million monthly active users at its peak in February 2011. While DNA’s recent titles have been less successful, Zynga seems to be particularly interested in its technology platform and approach to A/B split testing and feature iteration, which includes detailed tracking of test results and player behavoir across gender and age demographics as well as region and time of day. The deal is Zynga’s 14th acquisition in the last 12 months.

On May 11th, WebMediaBrands acquired Inside Network, a popular research provider and blog network for social and mobile app developers, in a cash and stock transaction valued at $14 million. Inside Network’s properties include the widely-read blogs Inside Facebook, Inside Social Games and Inside Mobile Apps; the Inside Social Apps conference; and the research products AppData, Inside Virtual Goods, and the Facebook Marketing Bible. The company’s six full-time employees in Palo Alto will join WebMediaBrands. During the last several years, WebMediaBrands has built up a strong portfolio of social media-focused news sites and conferences. With this acquisition, it will now arguably be the leader in the social media news market, especially when it comes to Facebook-specific news.

On May 9th, Zynga acq-hired Ricardo Quesada and Rolando Abarca, key contributors to the popular Cocos2D open source games engine for iOS. Cocos2D is widely used by small developers as well as larger players, such as Atari, ngmoco and Gamevil, in the development of mobile games for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Mac. Terms of the deal were not announced. Zynga is continuing to build out its presence in the mobile games space through a combination of recent hires and acquisitions including last month’s purchase of UK mobile developer Wonderland Software and the acquisition of mobile developer Floodgate Entertainment in March.

On May 6th, News Corp’s IGN Entertainment announced the acquisition of Hearst’s UGO Entertainment, expanding its reach over online videogame news. IGN will now operate its existing properties along with UGO.com, 1UP.com and UGO’s entire network of owned and affiliated properties. Together, the properties reach a global audience of more than 70 million monthly visitors. The acquisition comes as rumors continue to heat up that News Corp is preparing to spin off IGN as a separate company during the next few months. The business is growing rapidly and is expected to bring in $10 million in profit this year on revenue of $100 million.

On May 3rd, Electronic Arts announced the acquisition of Firemint, a leading mobile game developer based in Melbourne, Australia. Firemint is the developer behind popular games such as Flight Control and Real Racing for the iPhone and iPad. The 60 person company was founded in 1999 by CEO Robert Murray, and will now become part of EA Interactive, the division of Electronic Arts focused on digital business that includes EA Mobile, Pogo and social gaming outfits like Playfish. EA also simultaneously announced the acquisition of Mobile Post Production, a specialist in cross-platform development and porting of games for smartphones. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Games Investment Activity
Wooga, a leading German social games company, landed a $24 million round of funding led by Highland Capital Partners, Tenaya Capital and existing investors Balderton Capital and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. Founded in 2009, wooga launched its first free-to-play brain training game, Brain Buddies, when the team was just five people strong. Today, the company employs a team of 85 people in Berlin and is the third largest social games developer on Facebook with 30 million monthly active users. The team has created a number of popular social games, including Monster World, Diamond Dash and Bubble Island. The investment was announced on June 1st.

Austin-based games developer Portalarium raised a second round of financing from m8 Capital in the UK and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, bringing the total raised by the company to $3.6 million. Portalarium was launched by Richard Garriott, the well-known game developer who sold his two previous companies: Origin, sold to Electronic Arts in 1992 and Destination Games, sold to NCsoft in 2001. In the past year, the company released two games, Port Casino Poker and Port Casino Blackjack, which were created to quickly build out its backend technology and start interconnecting a player network across platforms and social networks. The funding comes just as the company is gearing up for the launch of a brand new and unique social media game. The investment was announced on June 1st.

Kabam, one of the leading developers of hardcore social games, raised $85 million in Series D financing led by Google Ventures and Pinnacle Ventures. The company has grown from 25 to over 400 employees in the past 16 months on the strong performance of its Facebook game lineup, Kingdoms of Camelot, Dragons of Atlantis, Glory of Rome and Global Warfare. Kabam’s user base of 7.2 million monthly active users is a fraction of Zynga’s 250 million, but Kabam’s users spend significantly more time and money playing its games than typical social games users. With the Series D investment, Kabam is expected to continue to expand its games portfolio, further international growth (particularly in Asia) and make additional acquisitions. The investment was announced on May 26th and comes just four months after the company raised $30 million in a Series C round in January 2011.

Peak Games, the largest and fastest-growing social gaming company in Turkey, Middle East and North Africa, raised $5 million in Series A financing led by German venture firm Earlybird Venture Capital. The company has 10 million monthly active users through a mixture of original IP, including Okey, the most popular game in Turkey, Okey Plus and Ikon Kiz (FabGirl), and licensed games such as Komsu Ciftlik. Part of Peak Games’ success has been driven by how the company reaches underserved markets with localized and culturally-specific games that employ strong engagement and monetization strategies. The investment was announced on May 25th.

Finnish social games developer Supercell raised $12 million in a funding round led by Accel Partners. Klaas Kersting, founder of German browser-game giant Gameforge also invested in the round, as did London Venture Partners, one of Supercell’s previous investors. Supercell is developing titles for gamers who want online browser-based games that are bigger in scope than the most social games, but less involved than massively-multiplayer games. The company’s first game, Gunshine.net, came out of closed beta in May and grew rapidly from 30K to 350K monthly active users during the month. The company is led by Ilkka Paananen, who previously founded Finnish mobile games developer Sumea and sold the company to Digital Chocolate in 2004. The investment was announced on May 25th and represents Accel’s second financing this year of a Finnish games company. In March, Accel co-led a $42 million round in Finnish mobile developer Rovio.

CrowdStar, a leading social games developer, closed a $23 million round led by Intel Capital and Time Warner with participation from China’s The9 and NVInvestments. CrowdStar is the fifth largest social games developer on Facebook with 29 million monthly active users. Its most popular games include It Girl, Happy Aquarium and Happy Pets. The company currently has over 100 employees and will use the funding to double headcount this year as well as grow through acq-hires in the mobile and social gaming spaces. CrowdStar has never before taken in institutional funding and previously funded all of its growth through operating profits. The investment was announced on May 23rd.
Canadian mobile games publisher Fuse Powered raised $2 million from BlackBerry Partners Fund and NFQ Ventures. Fuse is a mobile game publishing company formed in 2009, with a focus on maximizing customer value and game discovery through the use of propriety tools and real-time analytics software. Fuse offers analytics tools to support its mobile development partners, such as a real-time game performance dashboard and data-driven business plans. The company will use the investment to expand staffing, technology infrastructure, partnership support and business development. The investment was announced on May 19th.

London-based online games publisher We R Interactive raised $5 million in funding from private investors including Paul Fitzsimons, ex-media sector partner at Apax Partners and Elio Leoni-Sceti, former CEO of EMI Music. The company’s debut game, I AM PLAYR, is a point-of-view soccer game that allows users to experience life through the eyes of a professional soccer player. It fuses live action video, interactive story-telling and first-person perspective game play to create an original narrative, where the storyline is dictated by the user’s decisions and actions both on and off the field. The investment was announced on May 13th.

Social games developer Funzio closed a $20 million Series A round led by IDG Ventures and China-focused investment firm IDG Capital Partners. The company launched its first game, Crime City, in September 2010, which quickly became one of the top Facebook games of the year with 7 million monthly active users. Building on the success of Crime City, Funzio plans to use the funding to triple its team this year and scale its business so that it can launch games faster and develop them in parallel. The investment was announced on May 10th.

Row Sham Bow, an Orlando-based game development studio creating games for social networks, raised $3 million in funding from early-stage venture capital firm Intersouth Partners. The company was established by Philip Holt, who was previously VP, President and GM of EA’s Tiburon studio and SVP of Product Development for THQ, and Nick Gonzalez, who also spent time at EA’s Tiburon studio. The investment was announced on May 9th.

Cerca Trova Advisors
Cerca Trova is an investment banking and strategic advisory firm focused on opportunities in technology, mobile and digital media including gaming and interactive entertainment. We provide M&A advisory, capital raising and strategy consulting services to companies at all stages of development. Our principals are experienced M&A practitioners and industry insiders with deep domain expertise and decades of experience working with both established and growing companies and a clear understanding of the issues and challenges that they face. Cerca Trova has offices in San Francisco, Helsinki and Beijing. www.cercatrovaadvisors.com

Niko Partners Estimates China’s Online Game Revenue at $5.8 Billion for 2011

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Niko Partners, a research firm, has today released their annual review and five-year market forecast of the video game industry in China.
  • China’s Online Games Industry sees  
    21.4% growth-rate in 2011

  • Niko Partners estimates market size in China as $5.8 billion for 2011.

  • The market was $4.8 billion last year.
  • 2009 was the first year to see games on social networking sites in China, generating $80 million in revenues by Niko’s estimate.
  • By 2010, the amount of revenue generated from these social networking games had reached $500 million.
  • Niko Partners forecasts continued growth through 2015.

For additional information on Niko’s 2011 China’s Games Industry Annual Review and Five-Year Forecast Report, including a table of contents, please visit: http://www.nikopartners.com/researchstore.