Top 10 Biggest Video Game Companies in the World

Posted on 15/05/2021

(As reported by ICTNews) – The Video Game industry set a new sales record last year, being now worth over 130 billion USD in the latest year.

According to statistics, the top video game brands in 2021 are nearly identical to those in the previous years. It’s easy for us to frequently come across several brands that are well-known in the gaming world. With the explosive growth of the entertainment industry, the following companies are expected to reach even higher revenue milestones in the next few years.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 largest video game companies in the world in 2021 by the achieved gaming revenue last year. Only the gaming revenue is being taken into account for this ranking. Revenue that a company may have generated from other branches of business is irrelevant here.

1. Sony

Gaming Revenue: 25 billion USD

Founded in: 1946

Based in: Tokyo, Japan

The most profitable game sold in 2020: Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part 2, PlayStation 5

Sony continually maintains its position as the world’s largest video game company in 2021. The Japanese tech giant now makes most of its gaming revenue, which totaled $25 billion last year, with the PlayStation 5 which came out in 2020 and became the world’s most popular next-gen video game console.

In the last year, Sony released various unique titles for its operating system, including The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

2. Tencent

Gaming Revenue: 23,8 billion USD

Founded in: 1998

Based in: Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

The most profitable game sold in 2020: Honor of Kings, League of Legends, PUPG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile

If you discount all video game console-making companies and concentrate solely on video game creators, then Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent is by far the world’s largest video game company in 2021 with impressive gaming revenue of 23.79 billion USD. Tencent primarily focuses on online and mobile smartphone games, such as the company’s mobile flagship game Honor of Kings. But through the many video game studios, the corporation owns all over the world, Tencent has also become a big player on the video game big screen. Tencent most notably owns Riot Games, the American video game studio that created League of Legends, a popular multiplayer battle arena game enjoyed by millions of players all around the world, even professionally.

Tencent also owns shares in several other video game companies, such as in American video game giants Epic Games (40%) and Activision Blizzard (5%), South Korean Krafton Game Union (11.5%), or French video game company Ubisoft (5%).

3. Nintendo

Gaming Revenue: 12,1 billion USD

Founded in: 1889

Based in: Kyoto, Japan

The most profitable game sold in 2020: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Switch console

Despite dropping to third place in this ranking of the Top 10 biggest video game companies in 2021, last year was still a very successful year for Japanese video game company Nintendo, helping the company to remain the world’s biggest purely video game developer.

Nintendo’s revenue success, 12.1 billion USD in 2020, is largely driven not only by continued sales of the Nintendo Switch console but also by Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the game which is on the path to becoming the best-selling game for the Switch console ever.

4. Microsoft

Gaming Revenue: 11,6 billion USD

Founded in: 1975

Based in: Redmond, Washington, USA

The most profitable game sold in 2020: Animal Crossing: Flight Simulator 2020 and Xbox Series X/WORLD console

The world’s largest software company is also the world’s fourth-largest video game company. Microsoft made around 11.6 billion USD with Xbox Game Studios, the company’s gaming branch. The gaming revenue was primarily generated by Microsoft’s new next-gen Xbox Series X/S sales of course, but Microsoft additionally develops video games itself or owns studios that do. A good example of this is Mojang.

The Swedish video game studio, which is owned by Microsoft, is known for creating Minecraft, which has recently become the most popular video game in history.

5. Activision Blizzard

Gaming Revenue: 8,1 billion USD

Founded in: 2008 (by the merger of Activision & Blizzard Entertainment)

Based in: Santa Monica, California, USA

The most profitable game sold in 2020: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Activision Blizzard comes fifth in the top 10 biggest video companies ranking of 2020. Founded in 2008 by the merger of American video game companies Activision and Blizzard Entertainment, Activision Blizzard generated $8.1 billion last year. The California-based video game studio can, as always, rely on its by far most historic game series Call of Duty which performed satisfyingly well with its newest installation Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Additionally, the company’s World of Warcraft series also saw a rise in sales.

6. Electronic Arts