The Earnings of Online Mobile Game Developers in 2015 Exceeded 10 Billion Rubles

The volume of the Russian online games market in 2015 totaled 51.9 billion rubles, which exceeds the previous year by 2%. According to Mail.Ru Group experts, the main growth occurred in the mobile games segment: +20% year over year.

Most online gamers still spend time playing massively multiplayer online games (MMO). For the third year in a row, share MMO remains roughly unchanged (55-56%). MMO games market in 2015 amounted to 29 billion rubles; it is 4% higher than in 2014.

Mobile games continue eating into the social games market share. Mobile games now amount to one fifth of the market (in 2014, it was 17%), and social games make up less than a quarter, 24%, while a year ago their share reached 27%. In monetary terms, the mobile games segment rose by 20% in 2015, reaching 10.6 billion rubles.

"2015 was not an easy year for the industry: several players left the market and, as a result, the share of social games fell. The situation in the MMO segment is more stable, with a number of interesting launches taking place recently, including Armored Warfare: Armata Project, Skyforge, Black Desert, Heroes the Storm, Destiny. The most encouraging trend is demonstrated by mobile games, which, in their volume, have almost equaled the social ones," commented Vasily Maguryan, Head of IT-Territory Studio at Mail.Ru Group.

Based on Mail.Ru Group’s annual audited report, the company's revenue from MMO games rose by 6.3% in 2015; in the second half of 2015, the revenue grew by 10.9% year over year. In addition to MMO games, the company is actively developing the mobile area: the end of 2015 to the beginning of 2016 saw the launch of Evolution: Heroes of Utopia and Juggernaut Wars. In June 2016, the company announced the launch of a new experimental game development department that would take on developing and launching online and offline games for the Russian and Western markets.