SNL Kagan has released a new study suggesting that mobile game publishers grossed nearly $540 million in top-line revenue in the U.S. in 2009, up at a 12% CAGR from $382 million in 2006.
SNL Kagan has also ranked the leading mobile game publishers by U.S. revenue from third-quarter 2005 to fourth-quarter 2009. In case you’re wondering, the top four publishers are EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu and Namco Bandai.
They’ve also found that while profitability varies by publisher, the overall margin for the industry is on the rise. According to SNL Kagan, the U.S. mobile game industry’s EBITDA margin has grown from negative 19% in Q3 2005 to an estimated 17% in Q4 2009. Unsurprisingly, publishers with libraries of classic game hits or those that develop popular games using their own intellectual property have the most financial success.
Finally, the company’s analyst John Fletcher noted that the landscape has changed dramatically in the past two years with app stores and smartphones representing a new and fast-growing frontier…
[Via: CellularNews]