Data.ai names Tencent as top mobile publisher by consumer spend

While mobile app publishers continue to adopt mixed monetization strategies to maximize their revenue, in-app purchases became the primary choice for the majority of last year’s top 50 publishers, new data from data.ai revealed.

According to the app analytics company, the average time spent on mobile reached 5 hours a day in 2022, of which 70% was driven by entertainment titles like TikTok. 

The company, which has also announced its 2023 Top Publisher Awards, said that 42 of the top 50 publishers achieved successful monetization mainly through in-app purchases last year, while the remaining 8 publishers predominantly relied on a subscription strategy to monetize their titles.  

For the sixth consecutive year, PUBG-maker Tencent became the No.1 publisher in the list. It was followed by another Chinese tech giant ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, which saw $3.3 billion in consumer spend last year.

Other entertainment app makers that saw a remarkable growth include Match Group (#6), Disney (#8), Bumble (#39), and Kakao piccoma Corp (#37).

Despite a decrease in consumer spending on gaming, there are also some game publishers that experienced a significant growth last year. For example, Take-Two Interactive, which completed the acquisition of Zynga for $12.7 billion this May, made a leap of 49 positions largely thanks to successful Zynga titles like Zynga Poker.

Meanwhile, mobile game publishers that experienced a double digit growth also include Royal Match-maker Dream Games (#42) and Evony-maker Top Games (#46), 

Below you can see data.ai’s list of the top 50 publishers worldwide by consumer spend. You can also check out this complete list to find out the winners in other categories.