The folks at comScore have released new data on the mobile games market, which reveals that there's been a 13 percent decline in the number of mobile gamers in the past year, but that owners of smartphones are actually much heavier gamers. The 13 percent overall decline was driven by a 35 percent decline in mobile gaming among non-smartphone subscribers. This group represents about 80 percent of the market. That said, there's been a 60 percent increase in the number of gamers via smartphone (defined as people who have played games at least once a month).
"The inevitable ascent of the mobile gaming market depends not only on smartphone subscribers' higher propensity to play games on their mobile devices, but also their heavier gaming activity across nearly every dimension," comScore noted. "Smartphone subscribers (47.1 percent) are three times more likely than feature phone subscribers (15.7) to play games on their device at least once a month. They are more than five times as likely to play games almost every day and far surpass their feature phone counterparts across various methods of game play."
The report added, "Smartphone subscribers also install significantly more games on their devices with 27.3 percent having installed at least one game compared to just 5.6 percent of feature phone subscribers. A third of smartphone subscribers with games have more than five games installed on their phones, while less than one percent of feature phone subscribers have that many games installed."
Mark Donovan, comScore SVP Mobile and senior analyst, commented, "Although the number of mobile gamers has declined in the past year, there is reason for significant optimism about the future of this market. As the market transitions from feature phones to smartphones, the dynamics of gameplay are also shifting towards a higher quality experience. As a result, we can expect to see a profound increase in adoption of this activity, both in terms of audience size and overall engagement."
The changing market dynamics represent not only a good opportunity for developers (as the iPhone has demonstrated), but also for brand marketers. "Smartphones offer a more accessible and compelling mobile gaming experience that is enabling adoption of this behavior, even among consumers who have not traditionally been gamers," added Donovan. "Marketers and advertisers ought to be paying close attention to the opportunity this presents for reaching consumers in new and engaging ways in a cross-platform environment. The potential for highly creative marketing efforts is exciting."
