Mobile Gaming Statistics 2021
Mobile gaming has fast become the largest gaming market in the world with industry revenue expected to hit $76.7 Billion by the end of 2020 and 2.2 million mobile gamers worldwide. It’s become so popular that 72.3% of mobile users in the US are also mobile phone gamers. To put this into perspective when compared with the wider video game market, by 2022 the global game market is set to reach $196 Billion, and the mobile gaming market will account for $95.4 Billion of that alone. While mobile gaming is popular across the board, female gamers are more likely to favor mobile platforms than males, which is reflected in the most popular gaming genres for these genders as well.
Sources: NewZoo, Limelight, Hubspot, Techjury, IAB (Trends)
No. Of Gamers
There are now
There are now 2.2 billion mobile gamers worldwide. 203 million of them are in the US. 56% of them play more than 10+ times a week
The United States makes up
United States was the top country for mobile game session shares, taking up 20% of the share, followed by India with 13% of shares
The mobile gaming industry’s revenue is expected to hit
The mobile gaming industry’s revenue is expected to hit $76.7 billion worldwide by the end of 2020
72.3% of mobile users in the U.S. are mobile phone gamers
Overview
Mobile gaming has seen impressive and continual growth over the last decade with more and more gamers turning their hand to mobile games as figures now indicate more than 2.2 million mobile gamers worldwide. The largest portion of this is centered in the US with 20% of mobile game session shares coming from there. More than that, a whopping 72.3% of mobile users in the US are mobile gamers too.
Sources: Hubspot, Techcrunch, IAB (Trends)
- By the end of 2020 online games revenue is projected to reach $18,219 million
- The average age of mobile gamers is 36 years old for women and 32 years old for men
- Players of hyper-causal games watch twice as many ads than players of other mobile game genres
- In the USA, the ratio of male and female mobile gamers is 55% women, 45% men
- 58% of all Candy Crush Saga gamers are female
- As many of 60% of female mobile gamers play every day
- More than 50% of gamers play mobile games in the bathroom
- On average, hyper-casual mobile gamers download 10 times more games than other players
- Users spend three and a half hours using mobile devices each day. 11% of that time is spent on mobile gaming
- Users spend 90% of their smartphone usage on apps and games
- More than 50% of mobile gamers are older than 34
- 56% of 2.3 billion global mobile gamers play games more than 10 times a week
- There were 209 million mobile game players in the USA in 2019. By the end of 2020 that number will grow beyond 213 million
- Asia is currently the biggest gaming marketplace with more than $41 billion in revenue
- By 2021 the mobile gaming market is projected to reach $180 billion
- The hyper-casual game market is worth more than $2 billion, attracting more than 100 million new mobile players
- The revenue of mobile gaming app is expected to increase by 44% in 2020 from 41.5 billion U.S. dollars revenue in 2016. (VentureBeat, 2016)
- Apple App Store had a gross mobile games revenue of 8 billion U.S. dollars in Q3 of 2017 compared to Google Play’s 4.5 billion gross mobile games revenue in the same measured quarter and year. (eMarketer, 2017)
- Netflix sits at the first place among the list of iOS games and Apps with the most revenues and downloads. (Newzoo, 2018)
- Pandora Music sits at the second place among the iOS games and Apps with the most downloads and revenues in the United States. (Newzoo, 2018)
Monetization
The mobile gaming market has seen considerable growth in recent years and is expected to reach a revenue of $76.7 Billion by the end of 2020 thanks to the 2.2 million mobile gamers worldwide. A lot of this revenue is made from freemium mobile games that encourage in-app purchases or video ads that provide rewards.
Sources: Techjury, Hubspot
- Average Revenue Per Paying User is highest in the RPG, multiplayer, and strategy genres with gamers spending up to $25
- 74% of mobile gamers in the USA would watch a video advertisement if they get in-app content in return
- By the end of 2020, worldwide app install ad spent will increase by 65% and reach $64 billion
- 82% of mobile games say they are more into free mobile games that include ads than paid-for games with zero advertising
- In 2019, almost half of mobile gamers spent money on games
- Women are much more likely to make an in-app purchase than men
- In 2019, North American gaming revenue was $10 billion
- 8.9% of the mobile downlad and in-app revenues in 2016 was covered by video downloads. (eMarketer, 2015)
- In 2016, mobile gamers in the United States playing Game of War – Fire Age spent an average of 336 U.S. dollars on in-game purchases. (Slice Intelligence, 2017)
- Mobile gamers in the U.S. who play Mobile Strike spent an average of 309 U.S. dollars on in-game purchases. (Slice Intelligence, 2017)
- 58% of games on Google Play use Ads as a monetization model as of December 2016. (Appfigures, 2016)
- 11% of mobile gamers worldwide prefer making in-app purchases for their games. (Gamasutra, 2016)
- 18% of the world’s mobile gamers said they would prefer to pay up front for their games. (Gamasutra, 2016)
- In 2016, in-game mobile gaming revenue is estimated to grow by 8.5% more from 1.82 billion U.S. dollars revenue made in the previous year. (eMarketer, 2015)
- 45.8% of digital revenues in 2016 is from E-book downloads. (eMarketer, 2015)
- Games cover 31.7% of the digital revenues in 2016. (eMarketer, 2015)
- The top grossing iPhone mobile gaming app in the U.S. as of April 2018 is Fortnite, generating a daily revenue of 1.92 million U.S. dollars. (Think Gaming, 2018)
- 19% of freemium mobile gamers claimed to have made 2 in-app purchase as of February 2016. (VentureBeat, 2016)
- 54% of mobile gamers around the world stated that they’d rather watch video ads if this leads to in-game rewards. (Gamasutra, 2016)
Mobile Game Publishers
When looking at which platforms game developers were developing games for in 2020, mobile took second place after PC with 39% of developers working on games for mobile platforms. This is despite asking which platforms gamers tend to favor with 61% of US gamers saying they preferred using the Smartphone to game followed by 52% on console and 49% on PC gaming.
Source: Statista, GDC
- Out of all casual genres, puzzle games perform best when it comes to stickiness (up to 20%)
- Most mobile game genres have an average session length of 4.30 minutes
- Casino and card mobile games have the longest average session of all mobile genres (up to 22 minutes)
- Casual mobile games have an average of 35% day 1 retention
- Classic games like card, casino, word and trivia have the highest day 1 user retention of all mobile game genres
- PUBG was one of the top-earning mobile games in Q3 2019 with almost half a billion dollars
- Candy Crush Saga publisher King made more than $450 million in Q3 of 2019
- Voodoo was the top publisher worldwide in iPad gaming app with the most downloads, having 4.9 million downloads in January 2018. (Priori Data, 2018)
- Ketchapp had 4.35 million downloads, making its way to the second place among the leading iPad gaming app publisher with the most number of downloads globally in January 2018. (Priori Data, 2018)
- King was the top publisher worldwide with the most revenue as of January 2018, with a revenue of 41.52 million U.S. dollars. (Priori Data, 2018)
- King generated 48% more revenue compared to how much Tencent Mobile Games made as of January 2018. (Priori Data, 2018)
- Ketchapp was the leading iPhone gaming app publisher worldwide, having 24.07 million downloads in January 2018. (Priori Data, 2018)
- Ketchapp won the title as the leading iPhone gaming app publisher worldwide with an estimate of having 20,000 more downloads than Voodoo in January 2018. (Priori Data, 2018)
- Tencent Mobiles Games was the top iPhone gaming app publisher with the most revenue around the world by having generated 236.47 million U.S. dollars revenue in January 2018.
- NetEase Games took the second place among the leading iPhone gaming app publishers with the most revenue worldwide as it generated 99.98 million U.S. dollars of revenue in January 2018. (Priori Data, 2018)
- King made a worldwide revenue of 87.56 million U.S. dollars, making its way as the top mobile gaming app publisher in the Google Play Store with the most revenue in January 2018. (Priori Data, 2018)
- Supercell generated 44.19 million U.S. dollars in January 2018, taking the second place among the top mobile gaming app publishers with the most revenue in January 2018, followed by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc, with 338.94 million. (Priori Data, 2018)
- ELECTRONIC ARTS was the top publisher with the most number of downloads in January of 2018, with 25.02 million downloads. (Priori Data, 2018)
- Outfit7 made its way to the second place in the leading mobile gaming app publishers in the Google Play Store with the most number of downloads in January 2018, having 24.31 million downloads globally. (Priori Data, 2018)
- 73.1% of game developers see competition as the largest threat to their mobile games business as of Fall 2017. (mobyaffiliates, 2017)
Children & Mobile Gaming
With more children owning smartphones than ever before, mobile gaming relies heavily on a younger market to keep it thriving. In fact, 69% of the mobile game industry is generated by premium children’s games. And, 63% of children in the United States claimed that they play games on a mobile device.
Sources: NPD Group, SuperData Research
- It is estimated that 60% of children in the U.S. play games on a console. (NPD Group, 2015)
- 63% of children in the United States claimed that they play games on a mobile device. (NPD Group, 2015)
- Kid’s mobile gaming revenue in the U.S. is expected to generate 5% more revenue in 2017 from 478 million U.S. dollars revenue made in 2016. (SuperData Research, 2015)
- 69% of the mobile game industry revenue generated by premium children’s games in the United States is from upfront purchases. (SuperData Research, 2015)
- 30% of the mobile game industry revenue generated by premium children’s games in the U.S. is from in-app purchases. (SuperData Research, 2015)
- Children’s’ free-to-play (F2P) mobile games was estimated to generate 7.8% more revenue in 2017 from 317 million U.S. dollars revenue made in 2016. (SuperData Research, 2015)