Recently, there has been news circulating about Microsoft’s internal documents being leaked online. These documents were reportedly used in a lawsuit with the US Federal Trade Commission. According to Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst, one particular table in the documents caught his attention. This table listed the top 10 companies by estimated gaming revenue for the year 2021. The leaked information has sparked debates and discussions among avid gamers and industry experts alike.

In calculating the companies’ gaming revenue, Microsoft relied on data from the companies themselves, analyst estimates, and its own analysis. 

Here are the top 10 companies by estimated gaming revenue for the year 2021, according to Microsoft’s:

  1. Tencent – $32.8 billion
  2. Sony – $25 billion
  3. Google – $17.5 bln
  4. Microsoft – $16 billion
  5. Apple – $15.5 billion
  6. Nintendo – $15.1 billion
  7. NetEase – $9.9 billion
  8. Activision Blizzard – $8.1 billion
  9. Electronic Arts – $6.5 billion
  10. Valve – $6.5 billion

It should be noted that Microsoft’s estimates are at odds with information from the reports of a number of companies. For example, Nintendo’s report shows revenue for the fiscal year (April 2021-March 2022) of ¥1.69 trillion, or $13 billion at the exchange rate at the time. And Electronic Arts (EA) reported revenue of $6.9 billion for the same period. 

Perhaps Microsoft took into account the revenue for the calendar year 2021. Then the data for the same EA is similar. In one of the reports, EA indicated that it earned $6.5 billion in January-December 2021. But even in this case, the data, for example, for Activision Blizzard, do not correspond to reality – the company reported that it earned $6.5 billion in January-December 2021.

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