Mobile gaming surpassed both home game consoles and combined PC and Mac gaming with the highest consumer spend among gaming platforms in 2014, and in 2015, the segment widened that lead another 5 percent, according to a study from app analytics provider App Annie and market research firm International Data Corp (IDC).
The "Gaming Spotlight, 2015 Review," released in March, indicated mobile gaming grew to over 40 percent of total consumer spend on games last year, up from about 35 percent in 2014.
In addition, more than 80 percent of combined Apple iOS (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Play (NASDAQ: GOOG) consumer app spending in 2015 was derived from games.
"Games continued to have the majority share of worldwide consumer spending on both Google Play and the iOS App Store, with each store seeing incremental year-over-year gains in gaming-related share of consumer spending," App Annie and IDC wrote in their report.
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Games made up a larger share of Google Play's consumer spending compared to iOS. In terms of amount spent on games, consumers spent more on iOS than Google Play.
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The Asia-Pacific region saw the greatest growth in share of game consumer spending worldwide on iOS and Google Play app stores, handheld gaming and combined PC and Mac gaming.
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The top revenue-generating titles on mobile were more stable year over year than those on handheld game consoles.
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Mobile gaming experienced the smallest consumer spending per device among all platforms. Conversely, it also possessed the largest user base, connecting with both core and casual gamers consistently.
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Source: App Annie and IDC |
Mobile gaming remains profitable, but how can game developers create titles that will stand out to both core and casual gamers?
Jon Chew, user acquisition specialist at mobile game publisher Bandai Namco, tells Chartboost that "things will get super competitive" in the mobile gaming space in 2016 and beyond.
However, mobile game developers that explore crossover titles may be able to create more value for gamers.
And ultimately, this may lead to increased revenues for mobile game developers as well.
"To survive, we'll probably see a lot of crossovers between games as a way of staying competitive in the charts while creating more value for players," Chew said. "At the end of the day, 2016's best games are going to have high quality and likely have some kind of pre-existing fan base attached to them."
For more:
- see the report
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