Mobile gaming revenue and statistics in 2021
The mobile gaming industry has already seen new trends emerge and numbers break records. What was true about the gaming industry a couple of years ago is vastly different today. So, what are numbers for the mobile gaming industry today?
There’s no doubt that the mobile gaming market is booming. Mobile companies around the world are beginning to model their marketing strategies, growth frameworks, and monetization efforts off of the mobile gaming industry. This makes perfect sense considering Newzoo estimates that by the end of 2020, mobile game revenue will hit $76.7B (10). Who wouldn’t want to be that lucrative?
Mobile gaming report, demographics, and industry statistics
Here are the top stats that show the mobile gaming industry’s success.
Today’s mobile gamer
Humans are gaming like never before.
1. There are 2.51 billion mobile gamers worldwide. (1)
2. By 2022, it is predicted that 45.9% of the population will be mobile gamers (2)
3. From February to March of 2020, the number of gamers globally increased by 42% (6)
I’m a gamer. You’re a gamer. We’re all gamers!
4. More than 50% of mobile gamers are older than 34 (3)
5. 63% of mobile gamers are women (3)
6. More than 50% of gamers play mobile games in the bathroom (3)
7. 85% of gamers do not identify as such (1)
Mobile gaming as a time waster. Saver?
8. 10% of time spent using mobile apps is dedicated to games (5)
9. On average, gamers play two to five mobile games a month (3)
10. Time spent playing mobile games was 62% higher in March than in January (6)
11. Users spend more than 43% of their “smartphone time” playing games (4)
The mobile gaming market’s top players: iOS and Android
Who’s at the top of the gaming pyramid?
12. 21% of Android and 25% of iOS apps downloaded are games (4)
13. 78% of gamers are Android users (4)
14. 33% of American mobile games are available for both Android and iOS (4)
15. Google Play revenue continues to increase at a greater level than iOS App Store revenue: 19.6% to 13.2% (7)
16. By 2022, it is predicted that Android games will be responsible for 56% of all mobile game revenue (8)
Mobile games and top charts
These games are crazy profitable
17. Classic Games like Card, Casino, Trivia, and Word have the highest day 1 user retention out of all mobile game genres (as high as 43%) (3)
18. Role-Playing, Multiplayer, and Strategy mobile games have the highest ARPPU at $25 (3)
19. The top-100 app developers in terms of revenue generated an average of $130 million in Q1 2019 (7)
20. 58.86% of people who play mobile games are casual gamers, with puzzle and arcade games closely behind (4)
21. Mobile games are the third most popular app type after social media and shopping (9)
22. The top ten games of 2019 collectively generated over 1.7B downloads (10)
23. More than half of mobile games revenue comes from only three genres: puzzle, strategy, and chance (3)
Mobile gaming dominates the gaming industry
It’s growing like a beanstalk
24. The mobile gaming market is predicted to be worth $56.6 billion by 2024 (11)
25. Mobile games will take up 59% of the global games industry by 2021 (3)
26. Worldwide, gamers spent $152.1B in 2019 - an increase of +9.6% from the prior year (12)
27. From 2018-2019, worldwide spending on App Store and Google Play games rose 12.8% (13)
28. Mobile gaming has a 10% year-over-year growth rate (5)
29. The share of mobile out of the total gaming revenue will grow from 18% in 2012 to 59% in 2021 (1)
30. 51% of global revenues is attributed to mobile games, as opposed to 25% to console and 24% to PC games (4)
The global mobile gaming market
What in the world is going on?
31. China has the largest population of mobile gamers, with a third of their population playing (4)
32. Chinese app revenue has grown by 140% since 2016 (7)
33. While the Asia-Pacific region will remain the most-lucrative for iOS, the highest level of growth will be Africa, at close to 300% (7)
34. China generates $21.02 billion from mobile gaming, which is about 61% of the Asian revenue (4)
35. China, the US, and Japan are the largest markets for mobile gaming (11)
The App Store was born in the US so gotta give credit where credit is due.
36. In 2020, the number of mobile gamers in the United States will grow to more than 213 million from 209 million in 2019 (3)
37. In 2019, North American gaming revenue was $10 billion (3)
38. For the first time since 2015, the U.S. was the largest gaming market by revenue globally with $36.9B in 2019 (12)
39. Average in-app spend in the US stood at $79 in 2018 – 36% up from 2017; $44 of this is on gaming (7)
40. Since 2014, five games generated more than $200 million in US iOS revenue (7)
Mobile games and monetization
A match made in gaming heaven
41. 76% of app revenue was generated through video ads, display ads, and native ads (7)
42. Rewarded video ads are considered to be the most successful type of ad unit taking up 75% of ad revenue (7)
43. 95% of app store revenue from gaming comes from in-app purchases (5)
44. 74c of every dollar spent in the app store was spent on mobile games (4)
45. 74% of mobile gamers in the United States would watch a video advertisement if they got in-app content in return (3)
Mobile games and advertising
Copying is a form of flattery, right?
46. Global mobile ad spending will reach $240 billion in 2020, up from $190 billion in 2019 (14)
47. It is predicted that spending on ads will increase to $250 billion by 2021 (7)
48. As the results of paid ads, mobile game downloads increased by 15% (4)
49. 36% of developers believe that video ads generate more revenue than any other form of in-app advertising (7)
50. It is predicted that total global digital ad spending will come to $517.51 billion by 2023 (7)
51. 82% of mobile gamers say they are more into free mobile games that include ads than paid games with no ads (3)
References
https://techjury.net/blog/mobile-gaming-demographics/#gref (1)
https://www.emarketer.com/content/mobile-gamers-more-receptive-to-ads (2)
https://www.blog.udonis.co/mobile-marketing/mobile-games/mobile-gaming-statistics (3)
https://techjury.net/blog/mobile-gaming-statistics/#gref (4)
https://kommandotech.com/statistics/mobile-gaming-statistics/ (5)
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-revenues/(7)
https://www.ironsrc.com/blog/mobile-gaming-trends/ (10)
https://newzoo.com/insights/trend-reports/newzoo-global-games-market-report-2019-light-version/ (12)
