The bar graph illustrates the global sales revenue, measured in billions of dollars, generated by four distinct categories of digital games—Mobile Phone Games, Online Games, Console Games, and Handheld Games—between the years 2000 and 2006.
Overall, handheld games consistently dominated the market throughout the period, although online and mobile games experienced remarkable growth.Conversely, console games, after an initial strong showing, saw a general decline in sales over the period, while both mobile and online games, starting from negligible figures, demonstrated a steep upward trend over the seven years.
Regarding the traditional gaming segments, handheld games initially led with nearly $12 billion in 2000, almost doubling console sales at $6 billion, and peaked at almost $14 billion in 2002. Despite minor dips in 2003 and 2004, they recovered strongly to over $16 billion by 2006, maintaining their top position. Conversely, console game sales fluctuated between $4 billion and $6 billion for most of the period, eventually concluding at approximately $4 billion in 2006, a notable decline from its starting point.
Conversely, the exponential growth witnessed in both the mobile phone and online gaming sectors. Both categories started from negligible figures in 2000. Mobile phone game revenue subsequently surged to around $2 billion in 2003, reaching over $6 billion by 2005, and finally hitting approximately $7 billion in 2006. Online games exhibited an even more dramatic increase, growing from just over $1 billion in 2001 to around $4 billion by 2004, before experiencing a remarkable jump to nearly $10 billion by 2006. This propelled them to significantly narrow the disparity with the established handheld segment.