Author: Adam ClarePage 157 of 262

Mobile games are growing both in popularity and in marketshare (yes those two things are separate) and it looks like that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The mobile gaming world is growing at such a quick rate that it’s killing Sony and Nintendo’s handheld market.

Richard Firminger, managing director of EMEA territories at metrics firm Flurry Analytics, told a GDC Europe audience today that revenue that is coming from the iOS and Android is killing off the handheld video game market, where dedicated portable game systems like Nintendo’s 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Vita currently compete.

However, it’s worth noting that marketing is more important than ever in the new moblie gaming space, also from the article linked above:

Given the circumstances, an understanding of the target demographic is vital. Firminger explained issues like male and female spending habits (“Women are thrifty. Men binge.”) and how “generation X pays while generation Y plays.” According to Firminger, these are elements that should be taken into consideration when pursuing a new project.

This growth isn’t new or shocking, back in the spring it was found that free to play business models make sense:

• Mobile gaming will represent a $7.5 billion worldwide market by 2015E, tripling from $2.7 billion today.
• Asia currently the largest market for mobile gaming, with revenues forecasted to total $3.2 billion by 2015E.
• Freemium accounts for 55% of all mobile game revenues, compared to 6% ad revenue.
• Between 3.5% and 10% of a mobile Free-to-Play game audience will convert to paying users.
• Most users spend between $8 and $15 per month.

here’s the complete report:

Similarly, here’s an infographic (when will these lose popularity?) on the mobile gaming business:

Click it to read it.

Click to enlarge

Infographic found here.

For me, the key fact is that 64% of mobile users play games daily – a higher percentage than social media, news and music.

To help gain a rudimentary understanding on what games are doing well and those that aren’t quite so successful I’ve found that App Annie is a good starting place. The site tracks both Android and iOS apps.