Tag: mobile game trends

Mobile gaming apps are still performing better than consoles

| October 12, 2015

Games applications are growing in popularity among players with both tablets and smartphones.

When it comes to video games, the mobile gaming apps sector appears to be continuing its path toward a powerful and growing lead over its competition, which has traditionally been from the console category.

Analysts are now predicting that mobile games will surpass consoles before the end of this year.

In fact, recent data has indicate that mobile gaming apps have already become an industry that is worth a tremendous $25 billion. Analysts see this revenue climbing to $40 billion by 2018. As the expectations of gamers for mobile gaming apps continue to rise, companies are often letting some of their older titles drop so that they will be able to focus their attention on new and cutting edge innovations in game applications.

There are certain companies that have been quite successful in their own mobile gaming apps.

Mobile Gaming AppsThose for which gamers currently have the highest expectations include Electronic Arts (EA), Tapinator, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive Software and Glu Mobile, among others. These mobile app developers have not only already put out some highly popular titles, but they also have some very promising titles in the pipes that will be released over future months and years.

This is causing a fascinating shift in the key companies within the video game industry and it is showing that many players are looking for a different experience from that of a console. After all, they are playing on their smartphones and tablets, which are devices that they already have, instead of having to purchase a console for hundreds of dollars. Moreover, they are purchasing games for a few dollars, or are playing them for free on their smartphones and tablets, whereas console games are notoriously expensive – particularly when it comes to the popular ones.

While console games are far from being irrelevant, the market for mobile gaming apps is ever expanding as smartphone penetration becomes ever greater in virtually every market around the world. The very nature of these applications has offered them a considerably greater reach among consumers across the globe.

Mobile games aren’t being played as much as they once were

| September 2, 2015

Flurry Analytics has reported that people simply aren’t as into the gaming apps they used to play.

Though smartphones are very near to reaching the saturation point, to the level that even babies who can barely talk are perfectly capable of swiping on a touchscreen, mobile games seem to have been sliding in their popularity.

This indicates that the way in which people are using their smartphones and tablets is continuing to evolve.

While mobile games do still remain quite popular and they may have been the driving force behind the popularity of apps back when smartphones were still somewhat of a novelty, it doesn’t appear as though people are spending quite as much of their time with mobile gaming as they previously were. The results of a study that was recently conducted by Flurry Analytics has shown that Americans are now spending only about 15 percent of their total smartphone or tablet usage time by playing with these apps.

When considering that the figure from last year had been 32 percent, that represents a serious plummet.

Mobile Games - Game on SmartphoneFlurry Analytics has explained this downward trend in the amount of time spent playing mobile gaming apps by saying that there has been a reduction in both the strong new hit games over the last year, and the fact that a large number of millennials spend time watching other people playing games through services such as Twitch, instead of actually being the players, themselves.

It was also pointed out by Flurry Analytics that there was a rise in the number of users who were willing to pay for in-app purchases within the games that they play, instead of spending the time waiting to receive the same or similar rewards. They’d rather spend money to speed things up than have to wait to earn the prizes, reducing the amount of playing time that is required to achieve the same goal.

The mobile games report from Flurry explained that “Gamers are buying their way into games versus grinding their way through them,” adding that “Gamers are spending more money than time to effectively beat games or secure better standings rather than working their way to the top. This explains the decline in time spent and the major rise in in-app purchases, as Apple saw a record $1.7 billion in AppStore sales in July.”