Tag: mobile games revenue

Global spending on smartphone apps is about to increase more than it has before.

According to analysts at SuperData Research, by the end of this year, mobile gaming revenues will reach $21.1 billion, which means that compared to 2013’s $17.7 billion mobile games revenue, this will work out to a 19% increase since last year.

Asia mobile users are the major reason behind the growth in this market.

The lead researcher and SuperData founder, Joost van Dreunen, said in the report that “Much of this growth is due to Asia.” Van Dreunen added that Asia “accounts for over half of the worldwide mobile market and its booming smartphone industry as devices become more affordable and ubiquitous in the region.” What has been discovered is that while Western consumers tend to focus on mobile games spending on a per-player basis, the contribution Asian nations like China, South Korea and Japan are making are far bigger.

Based on what was found by SuperData, by the end of the year, Asia’s revenue for mobile gaming will climb to $11.3 billion. This amount includes revenue that results from in-game ads and in-app purchases. Furthermore, the intelligence firm anticipates that by 2016 the global gaming revenue will be at $28.2 billion once more smartphone consumers come online in Russia, India and china.

In the West, mobile gaming spending is growing, but slower than the global average.

The report noted that although spending is increasing in the west, as it is estimated to grow by 16% from last year to 2014, it is growing at a rate that is slower compared to the average worldwide.

That said, Western gamers do spend a lot of money on mobile games. The research from SuperData has shown that the average mobile player who pays for games in the US and the UK, spends much more than other mobile gamers in just about everywhere else in the world. However, the reason why this is believed to be the case is that both the UK and US mobile technology markets are well established and consumers have had a long time to become accustomed to how mobile games operate.

Nevertheless, in every region the mobile games market is growing. Therefore, if in the next few years, revenue does reach almost $30 billion, the companies who establish a presence in the mobile gaming space now are likely to be glad that they did.

Mobile gaming is more than just a fad

The game industry is beginning to evolve as it puts more focus on the mobile sector. The mobile games market has been heavily saturated for some time, but large publishers and development studios that had initially been averse to the concept of mobile gaming are beginning to enter into the market with their own products. As mobile gaming continues to grow in popularity, the practices that have become common in the mobile gaming business are also becoming common in the overall game industry.

The game industry has been focusing more heavily on the mobile sector for good reason. Mobile games represent one of the most lucrative aspects of gaming today, with some 247 separate game companies earning more than $1 million in mobile revenue in the U.S. alone. Google, which provides access to a wide range of mobile gaming applications, has seen more than 300 million downloads for the mobile games it supports, with the developers of these games bringing in a collective $600 million. These may be astonishing numbers, but Google is widely considered within the game industry to be the least lucrative market for mobile gaming applications.

Many people enjoy mobile games because they are simple in nature and can be played anywhere and at any time. They offer on-demand entertainment that people have come to expect thanks to their growing reliance on mobile technology. Moreover, people have shown that they are willing to spend money on these games, whether it is the price for purchasing the game or buying in-game items, digital currencies, and bonuses that make gameplay more enjoyable.

Microtransactions, a term that represents in-game purchases, have become somewhat infamous among consumers. Some people claim that mobile games are nothing more than cash grabs, using microtransactions to take advantage of people that are willing to spend their money. These microtransactions are becoming a more integral part of traditional gaming, with developers and publishers introducing in-game purchases in order to cater to a more mobile-centric audience.  As mobile games continue to gain prominence, they may end up determining the course of the game industry’s future, which may cause a serious division between consumers and game developers that have an interest in microtransactions.