Analyst firm Sensor Tower, which tracks revenue within the mobile industry, reported that of the $58.6 billion in total revenues in 2017, $48.3 billion came from mobile games. SuperData similarly estimated the global video game market in 2017 was around $108.4 billion, driven heavily by free-to-play mobile and computer games. Of the remaining, 29% ( US$33.3 billion) came from consoles hardware and games, and 28% ( $32.3 billion) from personal computer games. This growth was primarily driven by mobile gaming, as 43% ( $50.4 billion) of those revenues came from this sector, a growth of 23.3% from 2016. Releases scoring higher than 90/100 in 2017 GameĪccording to analyst firm Newzoo, the video game industry had $116.6 billion in global revenues, a 10% growth from 2016. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities. Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. ^ a b Certain award presentations combine these categories.Top-rated games Major awards Category/Organizationġ8th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards 2.2 Highest-grossing free-to-play games.Considerable debate was held over the use of loot boxes in video games and whether they constituted gambling, coming to a head with the release of Star Wars Battlefront II. The highest-grossing game of the year was the mobile game Honor of Kings, known as Arena of Valor internationally. One of the most influential games of 2017 was PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which was released in early access for personal computers in March 2017 and by the end of the year had sold 30 million units, breaking several concurrent player count records and established the battle royale genre. Top-rated games in 2017 included The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5, Divinity: Original Sin II, and Horizon Zero Dawn.
Microsoft also released the higher-powered Xbox One X targeted for 4K resolutions and virtual reality support. The Nintendo Switch console was released in 2017, which sold more than 14 million units by the end of 2017, exceeding the underperforming Wii U lifetime sales, and helped to revitalize Nintendo, alongside the "retro" Super NES Classic Edition console, the refreshed New Nintendo 2DS XL handheld, and a strategy for mobile gaming. Overview of the events of 2017 in video gamesĢ017 saw the release of numerous video games as well as other developments in the video game industry.