Bumper revenues via its App Store have placed Apple among the largest gaming firms globally — despite the fact it does not make its own games, an analyst told CNBC.
"I think what's often lost is we've got hundreds of thousands of apps in the (Apple) App Store, but 82 percent of revenues is in gaming, it's all about the gaming vertical," Neil Campling, co-head of global thematic group at Mirabaud Securities, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Tuesday. A vertical market is one that focuses on a niche, specific industry rather than one that caters to a broad group of customers. Campling suggested that Apple was receiving large revenues from gaming through its App Store which was effectively making it a huge player in this particular market.
He added: "Gaming is now the biggest vertical within media. It's a $130 billion industry alone, growing double digit every single year for a 10-year basis. And Apple has become one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, but it makes no games."
According to data from market research firm App Annie, gaming apps account for about half of the top 10 most popular apps on Apple's App Store.
While people playing games on their phone might not consider themselves to be gamers, research shows that the mobile gaming industry threatens to overtake traditional gaming.
Data released by App Annie and IDC at the start of the year showed that consumer spending on mobile gaming in 2017 was 2.3 times as high as spending on computer gaming and 3.6 times as high as spending on consoles.
If Apple were to be considered as a gaming company, that would see it compete with huge players like Sony, Microsoft and China's Tencent.
The market value of Apple is coming close to $1 trillion. It topped $940 billion on Monday as the first day of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off.
That day, Apple unveiled the new version of its operating system, iOS 12, which the company said would make iPhones and iPads perform better.