As more teens and children get their hands on smartphones, the largest gamer demographic is getting younger.
Recent research published in the 2014 Deconstructing Mobile & Tablet Gaming Report has shown that mobile gaming has become highly prevalent in modern life, and over the last year, there has been a considerable drop in the average age of gamers in this category.
The report was created by EEDAR and showed that there are 142 million mobile gamers in North America.
The mobile gaming study also showed that this figure has increased by 111 over the last year. The average amount of money spent on mobile games over the last year was $32.65. In total, this generated an estimated $4.6 billion in revenue. The leading 6 percent of the spenders in this category are responsible for generating about half of all of that revenue. It should also be noted that almost half of all players of mobile games do not pay for that experience.
The average age of the players in the mobile gaming environment is currently 27.7 years old.
That represents a dramatic drop from the average age in 2013, which was seven years older. Among the primary reasons for this is that it is rapidly becoming more commonplace for adolescents, and even children, to own their own smartphones. This is the case because the cost of lower end devices is falling, making it more affordable for families to be able to equip their youngest members with mobile devices.
In the EEDAR report, the results of the examination of the market showed that casual mobile gamers are most likely to be on the younger side – with an average age of 26 years old – and are most likely to be female (70 percent). Among the core gamers over smartphones and tablets, however, the average age is slightly older than that – at 30 years old – and the players have a greater likelihood of being male (58 percent).
The survey was conducted with the participation of 3,500 active mobile gamers. Each of those individuals had taken part in mobile gaming within the three months prior to the study, using either their smartphones or tablet devices.
Considering the penetration of smartphones, it isn’t entirely shocking that 44 percent of gamers use that device to play.
According to the Entertainment Software Association report “2014 Sales, Demographic, and Usage Data: Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Gaming Industry,” mobile gaming is rapidly on the rise as 44 percent of all gamers are using their smartphones as their device of choice.
This has been presenting considerable challenges as mobile devices are run exclusively on batteries.
Unlike video game consoles, in which the primary component is plugged into a wall socket in order to provide power – even if the controllers are wireless – mobile gaming relies exclusively on devices that are run on smartphone batteries. When considering that Big Fish Games has predicted that the market for smartphone and tablet based gaming is expected to double by 2016, that’s a lot of drain in the built in power bank.
This trend has made the portable phone charger an essential tool for the mobile gaming industry.
Beside smartphones, tablets are also becoming extremely important mobile gaming devices. This is picking up as penetration of those devices starts to pick up, though it remains nowhere near that of smartphones, for the moment. New data cited by Big Fish Games has suggested that these will be among the most important gaming devices in terms of popularity, as revenue from those games will have grown 400 percent by 2016. The larger screens and better hardware have made those gadgets specifically appealing to gamers.
Even gamers who are loyal to PC and consoles are playing tablet and smartphone games. Among American households that have a dedicated PC or a gaming console, 53 percent play games on smartphones, too.
While smartphone battery technology is improving, it is not doing so nearly fast enough to keep up with the power demands on those devices, particularly as mobile gaming continues to pick up. Those apps cause a notable drain and can lead the device to run out of juice before it is convenient for the user to recharge it. For this – among other reasons – high quality external battery charger power banks from companies such as Mogix have become a vital tool for gamers, regardless of their mobile device of choice.
