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King just presented a stat-filled report on the state of the mobile gaming industry in Europe, and here we discuss some of its revealing figures with the company's global president, together with some other recent industry topics and issues.
"Hi, Gamereactor friends. Today I was supposed to be in Barcelona, but I'm here at the office, as you can see.
It's been a bunch of trips, I couldn't make it personally, so that's why I'm thankful that you guys over at King made this possible remotely.
And I'm here joined by Todd, who's the Global President at King, and you guys introduced a very interesting data-filled report, which is called Mobile Matters, which is all about the impact of mobile gaming in the industry."
"So I'm curious to learn more about this report. I've taken a look.
So which would you say is the main takeaway from the whole report about mobile impact?
Sure. OK. Hi, David. Thanks for the opportunity to meet you today.
So we've commissioned a new report called Mobile Matters. It's about the impact of video games in Europe."
"And as you say, it's filled with all sorts of research. It's actually a first of its kind report.
We were trying to find information on the size and shape of the video games industry on mobile specifically for Europe, where we're based, where we've founded, where we're still headquartered today.
But we didn't find a lot that was packaged up in this way."
"So we commissioned our own report, and now we're here to share it with you and your audience.
What we found was, I would say, three things that were particularly interesting.
The first was an amazing scale of the mobile video games industry.
So I'll give you a couple of stats. What we found was that in 2025, more than 300 million people in Europe alone played mobile games."
"And that's more than 60 percent of the adult population. So an incredible scale.
The second thing we found was that there's a tremendous economic impact as well as a cultural and social impact, a tremendous economic impact.
So in terms of revenue, European studios, of which we counted more than a thousand who are dedicated to mobile, more than 100 here in Barcelona where I am today as well, are contributing or generating more than seven and a half billion euros in revenue."
"And the way in which economic impact is often measured by the European Commission, for example, is called gross value add.
And that measures wages, that measures taxes, that measures kind of fees and spend that's rotating around.
So contribution to the European economy. And what our report shows is that that's also an enormous number, nearly 5.9 billion euros a year and growing at several percent a year."
"So there's the scale, there's the economic contribution.
And then I think the other thing to take away from this report is that, as the title suggests, mobile really matters.
So from basically zero 20 years ago, mobile games is now producing more than half of the revenue, more than half of the revenue in the entire video games industry."
"And so if you add all of those things up together and you give that kind of European focus from the very first mobile game that I played, and maybe that many others played, Snake was created in Europe.
Angry Birds, one of the first big games that blew up on mobile, also created in Europe.
We've had other big hit games like Clash of Clans, let's say, coming from Europe and our own Candy Crush Saga and the rest of our portfolio."
"All of these have a global reach, all coming from studios created in Europe.
So that's a kind of summary of what the report shows, that mobile really does matter.
You mentioned a bunch of stats I'm interested in.
So you said 300 million people is more than 61 percent of the audience."
"But I'm interested in, you know, mobile is always very mainstream, right?
So which would you say is the key or the data you have to penetrate the hardcore gaming space more with mobile gaming?
You know, all players that have been playing video games like traditional video games all their lives on consoles and PC.
How would you, how are you trying to, you know, capture them to join mobile gaming as well?
Or is this something natural that happens as it's mainstream, basically?
Yeah, I should think, I would think about it more as an expansion, right?
So in the kind of, let's say, sort of stereotypical video gamer in the minds of most people would be somebody playing console, playing PC games."
"If you ask somebody what is a gamer, that's pretty much what comes to mind.
But what we see is that mobile games have been able to massively expand the audience, massively expand the number of people who are playing games, even if they wouldn't describe themselves as gamers.
And that's because mobile fits into these sort of slots in the day where it's harder for other formats of games to reach."
"So we design our games to fit into these, you know, three minute moments in the day.
When we talk to players, we talk to thousands of players a year, of course.
They tell us typically that when they're playing games, it sort of fits the pattern.
Something like, well, I'm commuting to work. I've got a few minutes."
"I'm taking a break from something at home. I've got a few minutes.
I'm waiting outside the school to pick up my kids. I've got a few minutes.
And we want to try and design our games to fit into those few minutes the best that we can.
And that matches perfectly. The design then matches perfectly with the accessibility."
"So most people in Europe would say walking around with a phone in their pocket or in their bag.
And that means that unlike, you know, a bigger device that you might need to have at home, you can play mobile games.
You can play games in general in spaces that previously would have been difficult for games to reach.
And that, I think, kind of adds up to these gigantic figures in the report."
"The 300 million that you mentioned for us is a kind of representation of a huge opportunity.
So long story short, I see this really as a vector for expansion of the audience.
And I love games. I've been making games since I was very young.
I've been playing games probably like you, David, since I was very young."
"So I see this as great news, basically, that we've been able to find a format, develop designs and fit into those spaces in the day.
So that more people can access, can enjoy the great fun that comes with playing games.
OK, another figure that is in the report, it's 63,000 employees in Europe making mobile games.
So let me ask you about employment and about, of course, we're living sad times of layoffs everywhere in the industry."
"So how would you say this part of the industry, mobile gaming and the studios you mentioned, are supporting this?
Are they new opportunities for people being laid off from traditional gaming studios?
Or how are you tackling this challenge of scaling up and down and restructuring in these difficult times?
So, I mean, one of the reasons why I'm in Barcelona, why we've had a studio in Barcelona now since 2012, is that Barcelona is one of these amazing hubs combining creativity and technology."
"There's amazing energy here. You get that just walking around the district where our office is.
And what has developed here is an ecosystem of games companies and also companies that work with and work around the games industry.
So what's happened, you can probably tell I'm from the UK, the same has happened in London.
When we started our studio in London, when we started our studio in Barcelona, there weren't that many other companies making games like we make."
"What's changed now, coming forward 14 years, 15 years, is that there are many other companies who've invested time, developed talent.
Also, we've been able to attract talent in to combine with the sort of the local amazing talent that we find in Barcelona and in Spain.
Because Barcelona is a wonderful place to live. Great sunny day outside again today."
"So all of that, what I'm trying to get at is that there's this ecosystem of different companies where different people, different ideas, capital can kind of rotate and move between different games.
That's great for players, right? It makes the games better. In the end, nothing matters apart from making the best possible games.
And if we zoom out again, that's one of the reasons why we commissioned this report."
"Because from our point of view, building and developing and nurturing this ecosystem of companies making games and serving those companies is a really good thing for European competitiveness.
You're developing these tremendous creative skills, developing technical skills, recycling a lot of that energy, capital ideas into other sectors as well.
And so if we look at it from that point of view, European competitiveness, mobile games is really contributing massively to the kind of economic and cultural health of the region."
"That leads me to the next question. You mentioned the UK. Of course, you were based in Sweden as well and are as well. And I'm based in Spain as well.
And so in the report, I can see some of the data is extracted from Sweden, the UK and Spain.
So what can you tell me about the differences between these markets, if there is something very specific that you would like to mention?
And also your own structure at King being, as I said, present in these countries?
Sure. So the way that King is organized, we've got five studios in Europe. We have a studio here in Barcelona, a long standing studio."
"We have a studio in Stockholm, in London, in Berlin and in Malmö, which is a kind of games making hub in the south of Sweden.
Now, the way that we've organized to try to get the right people on the right projects is that you have teams that are spread across those different locations.
And in Barcelona specifically, that means we've got a real mix of skill sets. So we have a number of our game teams and games makers based here."
"The most recent game that we released, Candy Crush Solitaire Saga, was much of the leadership team.
Much of the development team is actually here in Barcelona. I was just talking to one of the leads just before this interview.
We also have a number of our marketing teams here. We have parts of our shared technology team.
We run 13 live games. We serve more than 200 million players a month. So that shared technology foundation is incredibly important to us."
"And also many other skills, HR, legal, finance. We have a real mixture of skill sets here.
So that's roughly the structure of King today. I guess what we have found, what we've tried to do is to build the company around where can we find, on the player side, where can we go to reach players? That's the reason why over more than 20 years, the company has evolved to focus more and more on mobile."
"And internally, we try to find where can we find great talent? Where can we participate in? Where can we contribute to those ecosystems?
So one of the things that we found in the report, we do have some country specific data in there.
But these aren't really kind of competitions. It just helps us to kind of slice what's the different shape and size of the industry in those different areas."
"So in Barcelona, when I'm talking to you, we're on the top floor of our office.
If I were to pick up the laptop and walk you around and we looked out the window together and we saw the whole city.
In Barcelona alone, I was amazed to learn there are 120 different mobile game studios just in Barcelona.
And in Catalonia, it's providing more than half of all of the mobile games revenue coming into Spain."
"So again, just more reasons why we have been here for a long time, why we're fully invested in being in Barcelona.
Great place for us to be.
Let me ask you about free to play. Of course, it's a core to mobile gaming. It's been for many, many years, but it also poses its own challenges.
You need to be keeping your game up to date and providing new content. And also financially, it's got its risks."
"And this is something that can be seen from the report as well.
So, yeah, which would you say is the key to approach free to play as of now in the current environment for mobile gaming studios?
So the way I mean, in the context of the report, trying to broaden access to games and how many European companies have been able to do that.
Free to play is one of the key aspects that makes that possible."
"So you don't need to spend any money up front to play the game.
What you're spending is essentially whatever your data cost is.
So, you know, tiny amounts of money, maybe for mobile data or whatever share you allocate from your Wi-Fi spend in a month to download a game.
You can get a new game on your phone in 30 seconds and 60 seconds."
"Then you can start playing the game.
So you don't need to commit money up front before you play and you find out whether you enjoy it or not.
We've got people who've been playing our games also for many, many years who have never spent any money in the game.
So what free to play model offers is this mass democratization, an incredible breadth of access."
"Anybody can play these games, right?
So long as you've got a phone.
Where the monetization comes from, then, is that we try to make the games in such a way that you can both play for free forever.
So Candy Crush Saga now has more than 23,000 levels."
"We have hundreds of thousands of people at the end of the game who've never spent any money, right?
Incredibly skilled players.
If you want to, then what we offer is three types of things to buy.
We offer extra energy if you want to play some more."
"We offer extra help inside of the levels, boosters or power ups, you might call them.
And we offer extra moves.
One of the main constraints in our games is you have to pass completely possible within a certain number of moves.
And obviously giving the option to purchase extra moves enables players to pass through levels."
"And there are two ways in which you can buy things in our games.
One is what's called IAP, in-app purchase, where you buy directly.
The second is to watch ads.
And we have many players who choose to watch ads."
"They don't spend money directly with us.
Again, this is a massive democratizing force.
And it's one of the reasons why mobile games, mobile free to play games, have this enormous global reach.
A huge share of our audience is in markets where the cost of a console, the cost of a PC, is very, very big relative to purchasing power."
"So again, our mission as a company is to make the world playful.
We try to do that by making games which are available on mobile, mass access.
Making games which are designed so that they are easy to play, even if they can be hard to master.
And by working with a free to play model so that we can massively democratize access to what we think are tremendous quality experiences."
"Okay. And finally, let me ask you about the corporate structure.
Of course, you were part of Activision.
Now, 2.5 years ago, you started being part of Microsoft.
Is there any specific changes in these two and a half years that you would like to mention?
What do you think personally of the recent changes we've seen in the Xbox direction?
Sure. So, I mean, I've been a King now for more than 13 years."
"We've been through many different...
Live through it all.
When I joined, we were a private company.
Then we went public. We did our own IPO."
"Then we were acquired by Activision in 2016.
And as you say, a couple of years ago, acquired by Microsoft.
Yep. Yep.
Excuse me."
"No problem. No problem.
With the new Xbox leadership with Asha [Sharma] coming in, super exciting for us.
We had a great first couple of years before Asha joined.
And, you know, we're continuing to contribute the best we can to the kind of Xbox group."
"What King offers uniquely or very unusually, massive scale, 200 million players a month is a huge addition to Xbox's reach.
We have the expertise, the kind of mobile mastery that we've developed over many, many years.
Again, you know, not unique, but unusual that we have so much institutional knowledge.
And the third is this kind of tremendous potential in our IP, in our talent, in our technology, and in the shape and size of the industry."
"So, mobile is more than 50 percent of global games revenue.
You can imagine then that as the primary mobile player, as the only mobile first player in the group, there's a lot that we try to contribute.
I'll just touch on one other thing, which is that we, as I mentioned, I've been at the company for a long time through various different phases."
"But it's more the same, the different overall of that period.
One of the things, one of the reasons why I and many other people as well at King have stayed for a very long time, why more and more people coming back to work at King is that the foundations have been the same.
So, we are left to get on with the thing that we know best, which is making the best mobile games on the planet."
"And we do that by doing three things.
The first is by building a company around the idea that however good the games are today, they can be better tomorrow.
So, we're hungry for that next thing.
King's very much a kind of problem-seeking company."
"Yeah, we try to celebrate a success today, but really, most of the time, like, what's next?
What are we going to do next to make it better?
The second thing is it's a very democratic company, a very kind of flat structure.
We try to remove and reduce barriers to people getting things done."
"We try to delegate problems to the people closest to the knowledge on how to solve them.
And that creates this kind of opportunity to get the best ideas.
And the third is that we try to focus in on a difficult-to-achieve, but very simple singular goal, which is making the best possible games, making the best quality."
"We're totally obsessed with quality.
And those things are foundations for the company that have lasted a very long time, and I believe will last for a very long time in the future.
So, long story short, yes, we've changed ownership."
"Yes, some things are different on the top level.
But in practice, the company continues to evolve on this firm foundation of stable values, stable practices, stable philosophy.
And you, as a gamer, are excited about Xbox New Direction, I guess?
Yeah, I mean, look, we're here to make the best games we can."
"There's a lot that we are learning, a lot that we can learn still from Microsoft.
It's a 50-plus-year-old company operating at massive scale.
So there's a lot for us to learn about long-term thinking, about patience, about investment, about how do you develop talent.
We think we're pretty good on those things, but there's always more to learn, right?
It's problem-seeking. What's the next thing to do?
Problem-seeking."
"And what we try to do is we do our best every day to deliver what we are good at doing as part of that wider group.
Make the best games we possibly can, make them for mobile, and be part of that enormous and growing sector that our report helps to lay out in Europe with an impact that's global.
Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time, Todd."
"I'm looking forward to learning more from the report and also to meeting you guys in person in Barcelona next time.
Thanks so much. Appreciate the opportunity. Cheers, David.
Cheers."
