Spending in mobile games driven by whales
The EEDAR, a research firm focused on the game industry, has released a new study concerning mobile games. The study highlights consumer spending on these games and aims to shed light on those spending money on mobile games. These games have proven to be very lucrative for the game industry over the past few years. Their addicting nature and incentives offered through in-game shops have encouraged consumers to spend significant amounts of money on mobile games in order to attain the best experience possible.
Whales tend to be young, male consumers
The study shows that the majority of spending in the mobile games sector comes from a very specific group of consumers, often called “whales” because they account for the top 5% of spending on these games. According to the study, 66% of these whales are young males that primarily play games on their consoles rather than their mobile devices. The study shows that these consumers spend an average of 26.5 hours every week playing games and an average of 11.8 hours playing mobile games specifically.
Spending is low among women and older consumers
Comparatively, those that pay for mobile games but do not fall into the whale category spend an average of 4.9 hours on mobile games per week, but primarily use their smartphones for all their gaming needs. The non-payer demographic is chiefly comprised of women, with this group spending an average of 4.1 hours on mobile games per week and an average of 7.2 hours on general gaming every week.
Study does not account for children’s role in mobile games.
While the study does show that male consumers tend to spend more on mobile games, it does not account for the fact that children typically make use of their parent’s mobile devices to play games. These children are also responsible for mobile spending in the game sector, but typically do so by accident or without their parent’s permission.
Mobile games account for massive time sink for most consumers
Mobile games a very popular with a consumers all over the world, but a new study shows that these consumers are spending a large portion of their time on these simple application. The study comes from Flurry Analytics and shows that the majority of mobile consumers spend their time either engaged in mobile games or social networking. Mobile games are, however, the most popular way for these consumers to spend their time, eclipsing social networking.
Study shows that people spend a lot of their time on gaming
The study from Flurry Analytics shows that 43% of consumers spend their time on mobile games, while 26% of consumers make use of social networking applications. News and productivity applications account for only 2% of the time that consumers spend on their mobile device. Mobile games are exceedingly popular among iOS users, where these game applications tend to be less expensive than those found on the Android platform. While many games for both the iOS and Android platforms can be obtained for free, the study shows that consumers appear to favor the former over the latter.
Reports highlights the prevalence of mobile games
Flurry Analytics’ study corroborates data found from a similar study conducted by Arbitron last month. The Arbitron study showed the smartphone users spend an average of 594 minutes on mobile games every month. The study suggests that 80% of mobile consumers participate in gaming with their mobile device in some way. Another study conducted by Flurry Analytics in October 2012 also shows that tablet users tend to play more mobile games than smartphone users by a margin of 67% to 39%.
Games are attractive due to their accommodating nature
The allure of mobile games is largely due to their convenience. Most of these games are designed to be very accommodating for all types of gamers. The fact that these games can be played anywhere and at any time is also part of what makes them so attractive. Free games, in particular, tend to have the highest attraction to consumers as they do not need to be purchased before they can be enjoyed.
