Mobile Gaming Statistics 2022

Last Updated:

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

Number of Mobile Gamers in the Millions 2021

PUBG had the highest IAP revenue worldwide, spending

$ 0 Billion U.S dollars
in the first 9 months of 2021

From January to September 2021, PUBG Mobile had the highest IAP revenue worldwide with players spending $1.18 Billion U.S dollars in the first 9 months of 2021

Statista, 2021

Mobile gaming dominates global gaming revenue with

$ 0 Billion
in 2021's annual revenue

With mobile gaming expected to reach $79 Billion in annual revenue, which accounts for 52% of the global gaming market.

Statista, 2021

There are more than

0 Million
mobile gamers worldwide

As of 2021, there are 2659.5 Million mobile gamers worldwide. 1293 Million of them are in Asia, covering 48% of the global audiences.

Statista, 2021

Gamers regularly use smartphones with

0 %
of gamers choosing smartphones over consoles and desktops

Smartphones are the most popular choice for gaming platform, 54% of gamers use smartphones and the second most popular platform is game consoles at 35%

Statista, 2022

The mobile gaming industry’s revenue is expected to hit

$ 0 Billion
worldwide by the end of 2024

The mobile gaming industry’s revenue is expected to hit $116.4 Billion worldwide by the end of 2024

Statista, 2021

During the COVID-19 pandemic, New Gamers spent

0 Hours per Week
on gaming apps

During the COVID-19 pandemic, new gamers spent 13.1 hours per week on mobile games, whilst existing gamers only spent 10.9 hours per week on them.

Statista, 2021

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)

2022 Update

In 2021, companion apps were popular in 2020 and took a decline towards 2021. Later that year, the Xbox companion app was ranked first with roughly 5.71 million downloads worldwide, whilst PC gaming service Steam generated 4.27 million downloads in the same period.

2022 Update

The number of mobile game downloads worldwide from the Apple Store was 2.3 billion whilst Google Play had 11.8 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

2022 Update

As of April 2021, Subway Surfers had the most daily active users with 28.1 million users. Candy Crush Saga came in second with 21.32 million users. Clash of Clans came in third with 17 million users.

2020 Update
Statista, 2020
2020 Update
MediaKix, 2020
2020 Update
MediaKix, 2020
2020 Update
Statista, 2020
2020 Update
Qantic Fiundary, 2020
2020 Update
MediaKix, 2020
2020 Update
MediaKix, 2020
2020 Update
VentureBeat, 2020
2020 Update
eMarketer, 2020
2020 Update
eMarketer, 2020
2020 Update
Mediakix, 2020
2020 Update
Mediakix, 2020
2020 Update
Statista, 2020
2020 Update
Statista, 2020
2020 Update
MediaKix, 2020
2020 Update
Venturebeat 2020
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update

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

2022 Update

As of July 2021, the most effective digital advertising formats for mobile apps user acquisition to app developers worldwide is video full screen with 44% of respondents agreeing.

2022 Update

According to mobile publishers, the most popular monetization method for mobile games is video ads at 82% and display ads coming in second at 71%.

2020 Update
GameAnalytics, 2020
2020 Update
eMarketer, 2020
2020 Update
AppsFlyer, 2020
2020 Update
eMarketer, 2020
2020 Update
Newzoo, 2020
2020 Update
VentureBeat, 2020
2020 Update
Statista, 2020
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update

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

2022 Update

SayGames Ltd was the leading mobile gaming app publisher by downloads in the Google Play store in October 2021, accomplishing 83.65 million downloads.

2022 Update

King (GG) was the leading mobile gaming app publisher in the Google Play store in July 2021 by revenue, producing 124.15 million U.S dollars.

2020 Update
GameAnalytics, 2020
2020 Update
GameAnalytics, 2020
2020 Update
GameAnalytics, 2020
2020 Update
GameAnalytics, 2020
2020 Update
GameAnalytics, 2020
2020 Update
Sensor Tower, 2020
2020 Update
Sensor Tower, 2020
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update

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

2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update
2018 Update

More Device Platforms Statistics