According to a Wall Street Journal analysis with which Apple somewhat disagrees, its gaming-related operating profit of $8.5 billion for a 12-month period was more than those of Sony, Activision, Nintendo, and Microsoft taken together.
During the Epic trial deliberations, Apple’s lawyers disputed such analyses of mobile gaming profits saying they are inflated by a large margin.
Even if the external consultants’ observations are off the mark, though, Apple is obviously still doing very well in gaming revenue, just like Android’s Play Store has its top 10 grossing apps be almost exclusively games.
According to Sensor Tower, gamers added $45 billion to the App Store revenue numbers in fiscal 2020, with the US and China accounting for more than half of that. Apple takes up to 30% from game subscriptions and in-app purchases, and its total cut for the year was reported to be $13.5 billion.
Of course, there are expenses that need to be deducted, but given the above numbers it’s easy to imagine why the WSJ claims that Apple’s billions made from mobile games are easily surpassing Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox franchises taken together, and then some.