Google allegedly made $12B in profit from the Play Store in 2021

Google’s trial with Epic has revealed that the company may have made around $12 billion in operating profit from the Play Store in 2021. Which could put the company’s Play Store revenue from that year around $17 billion. This would be considerably more than the amount Google was previously thought to have made. Based on what Microsoft referenced in its Activision Blizzard acquisition fact sheet for investors, Google was thought to have made around $12.4 billion in revenue. However, it seems that number might not actually be the revenue but the operating profit.

Epic provided this information in its trial with Google on Tuesday. Alleging that Google had a 70% margin. That’s according to a report from The Financial Times (via TweakTown). It’s not clear yet if this figure is accurate or what accounts for that profit amount. Whether it’s all from games or a total from Play Store purchases across multiple content categories.

Play Store profit could be much higher than other top companies

If $12 billion in profit seems like a lot now, wait until that’s compared to estimates of profit from other top companies in gaming. Based on data provided by TweakTown, Google is by far the most profitable from gaming. Its $12 billion in operating profit from mobile games on the Play Store completely overshadows that of even companies like Nintendo and Sony. From the same year, Nintendo reportedly had revenues at $14.8 billion, with a profit of $5.2 billion. That’s a margin of 35%.

By comparison Sony had revenues of $24.6 billion but an operating profit of only $2.62 billion. That puts Sony’s margin at 11%. Well below Google’s alleged 70% margin. Activision meanwhile reportedly hit revenues of $7.8 billion and an operating profit of $3.5 billion.

Now again, Google’s profit may not be from just games. But Epic is clearly going to focus on this number during the trial. Since the whole reason Epic is in trial with Google in the first place is related to Google’s alleged blocking of app store competition on Android.