EA's latest purchase Golf Clash earned an estimated $133M in the U.S. over the past year

Player spending on mobile sports games rose by 16 percent in the United States over to past 12 months. 

That's according to the latest estimates from market intelligence company Sensor Tower, which found that U.S. mobile sports game spending between June 2020 and May 2021 rose to $648.8 million. For comparison, players spent $559.1 million from June 2019 to May 2020.

Notably, those estimates indicate that Golf Clash was the biggest earning mobile sports title in the U.S. with approximately $132.8 million in revenue.

The real-time multiplayer golf title is developed by UK studio Playdemic, which was this week purchased by EA for a cool $1.4 billion. The U.S. publisher said Playdemic's portfolio, including Golf Clash, would be a significant addition to its "mobile growth engine."

Sensor Tower indicated the other two top grossing sports titles were 8 Ball Pool from Miniclip and Fishing Clash from Ten Square Games. 

Although player spending appears to be on the rise, it seems like fewer mobile owners have actually been downloading sports titles. For instance, Sensor Tower estimates that downloads have fallen by 16.3 percent year-on-year to 129.3 million.

The company also noted that while sports titles have seen strong growth over the past year, the genre itself is only the 10th most lucrative in terms of U.S. player spending.

"[That makes the sports genre] relatively small compared to some other categories, but it’s one that is generating increased attention and M&A activity," added the company. 

"Take-Two recently acquired Top Eleven developer Nordeus for up to $378 million, while MTG purchased F1 Clash studio Hutch Games for up to $375 million in 2020. EA, meanwhile, noted in its recent earnings call that it plans to grow its mobile sports business by 50 percent this year, making this genre one to watch."