WWE Sees Big Video Game Revenue Jump Thanks To Mobile Gaming

While WWE’s console and PC gaming has been struggling a bit lately, its mobile gaming has seen the company’s video game revenue double over the last years. Sportico reports that since 2013, the company has doubled its video game revenuw thanks in large part to its mobile division, where it has seen 140 million installs of its game and 500,000 active daily users.

The report notes that according to the mobile insight company App Annie, WWE’s IPs are outperforming the NFL, NBA and MLB in mobile gaming. The company has several mobile games including fighting games (WWE Mayhem, WWE Undefeated), puzzle-style games like WWE Champions, card games in WWE Supercard, PVP games and more.

“We’re so fortunate that our characters and storytelling lends itself really well to the mobile gaming space,” said Sarah Cummins, WWE’s SVP of consumer products. “When you couple that with content and storytelling it creates a really powerful mechanism for us to bring some really fantastic products to the market.” Cummins also led the WWE’s consumer product team last year, charged with making up all of the lost revenue from venue merchandise sales through e-commerce.

The company previously had been making their own mobile games until they saw competitors using third-party operators, and decided to go that route. Cummins noted that the company’s weekly programming has been big for its mobile growth, allowing for regular marketing. “We are not a tech company. You’ll never hear the WWE tell you that,” she said. “We are a content company and we live and die by the intellectual property that we create and the characters that we build and then the stories that we tell. So moving to that licensing strategy has really helped to ignite the business.”