Largest Gaming Companies in the World
The realm of gaming, both as an industry and as an entertainment medium, has grown exponentially over the last four decades of its existence. It’s no longer just a minor addition to computer hardware, but it is a dedicated art and form and a business entity in itself. Throughout the evolution of gaming, many budding groups and ventures came and went. However, some of the surviving ones, with even a few relatively recent and innovative ones, managed to rise to the top and become the largest gaming companies in the world.
Largest Gaming Companies Overview
- Microsoft – $2.2 Trillion
- Tencent – $533.8 Billion
- Sony – $126.4 Billion
- Sea (Garena) – $68.5 Billion
- Activision Blizzard – $63.1 Billion
Microsoft
This entry is a bit of a cheat because it includes the entire company as a corporate entity. Technically, it is a gaming company with the Xbox brand, native support for PC titles via Windows, and owning several game studios, the most recent of which was Activision Blizzard. With its current value today, it is almost impossible to overtake any company, even the rapidly growing Tencent. But who knows? The next several years might prove to be another revolutionary era in gaming technology as the CPU and GPU arms race rages on.
Tencent
If you want physical proof of just how lucrative mobile gaming has become, just look at Tencent. Not familiar with this Chinese company? Then you might be familiar with some of the games that they’ve distributed/published that you’re currently playing (on your phone), such as League of Legends, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and ArcheAge, among others. They’re also a major investor in many game development-related ventures, which also helps boost its growth. At this point, it is no longer any wonder why Konami was so willing to sully its traditional reputation just to get into the mobile market.
Sony
Another entry that’s technically a cheat, but it works out since Sony already built its reputation as a gaming-related company since the days of the Sega Saturn. In a weird, maybe-not-so-obvious twist, Sony has also recently tried to purchase more and more gaming studios to provide even more exclusive titles to its already pretty much exclusive lineup. Much like Microsoft with its current Xbox Series X and Seris S, Sony is also at the forefront of keeping its PlayStation brand technologically relevant in the face of the ongoing GPU and CPU development arms race.
Sea (Garena)
A Singapore-based game publisher of mostly F2P games catered to Southeast Asian countries. And you know what that means when they mean “free to play” nowadays. Yes, microtransactions. Though the parent company’s business model is significantly different from Tencent, it also built its current economic empire via popular eSports and eSports-like titles. Some of its most notable published titles include Black Shot, FIFA Online 3 and 4, as well as Call of Duty: Mobile.
Activision Blizzard
Oh hey, it’s the most controversial game company of early 2020 (until the pandemic came). It probably needs no introduction to western FPS and fantasy game fans, since even before the merger, titles such as Diablo, Warcraft, and Call of Duty series have already been a North American publishing staple. However, having recently absorbed into Microsoft’s bigger economic sphere, the company hopes to turn its back away from public criticism and intrigue, especially as more fuel has been fed into the drama fire quite recently.
