Striking stats on mobile gamers: digital entertainment in the hands of mobile games

These days more than 3 billion people around the world are playing on their mobile phones. But who receives the enormous profits of mobile games? Recall the days when you were busy playing Snake, the Nokia Snake game, on old Nokia phones. The success of this simple work known as the Nokia Snake game was such that 350 million mobile phones hosted this game. A success that no one imagined for its Finnish maker.

Today, smartphones or tablets connect you to an ocean of mobile games in which the risk of drowning is very high. Games that are often made available to users for free or at a very low price. But what profit do free mobile and computer games have for their makers? Publishers of the world's best games for phones earn considerable revenue from in-app purchases in foreign games. Something on the order of 45 percent of video game revenue in 2022 is allocated to these same in-app payments in online mobile games.

Turnover of the mobile games industry

The game-making industry in the world is worth more than 300 billion dollars. Based on statistics from the Newzoo institute, the value of the video game industry in 2021 was predicted to reach 174 billion dollars. This figure for 2022 increased to more than double. At present we know that the game industry in 2023 is worth more than 300 billion dollars. Studies show that mobile game gamers last year devoted about 16 hours a week to playing, 8 hours a week to watching game streams, and 6 hours a week to being present and interacting with gaming communities.

Perhaps the spread of the coronavirus caused many people around the world to turn to digital entertainment and games and brought huge revenue to the gaming industry and to Iranian and foreign game-making companies. Of course do not forget that the value of this industry is not allocated only to offline mobile games and high-graphics online mobile games. The role of the best console games in history and web-based games for computer and Android and iPhone should not be forgotten.

Statistics on the number of female gamers in mobile games

Research by the Newzoo institute presents interesting results about women and the number of girl gamers in the world. In what follows we turn to the most interesting of them:

• Women and girls constitute 49 percent of users of Android and iPhone mobile games.
• 65 percent of women and girl gamers in the Americas region are between 10 and 65 years of age.

43 percent of women gamers play online and offline games on their mobile phones more than five times a week.

Even so, women still have a smaller presence than men in the community of mobile gamers. In the continuation of these statistics it has been shown that:

• 60 percent of women gamers feel that fewer than one third of mobile games are suitable for their group.
• 25 percent of men who play on mobile will continue the game only if they know the opposing player is also a man.
• Only 27.8 percent of the game industry is made up of women or other genders.
• 57 percent of men introduce themselves as professional gamers, whereas only 29 percent of women make such a claim.
• 70 percent of men feel good after buying and downloading a new game, while only 58 percent of women have this feeling.
• Of the 100 games that are the most popular Google Play games, more than 44 percent of the games' icons and avatars have a male character.

Given that girl gamers constitute nearly half of the mobile gamer population and that installing the best girls' games such as Travel Frog and Animal Crossing: New Horizons has rapidly gained popularity, these statistics show that mobile games suitable for women and girls can have high potential.

The Chinese company Tencent

The multinational company Tencent Games has, over the past few years, powerfully expanded its game-making industry empire around the world. At present Tencent is one of the largest publishers of mobile video games. In 2021 this company ranked first in highest revenue and third in most downloads among publishers of the best iPhone games. This Chinese holding through 2022 as well, with 77.8 million dollars in revenue from Tencent company games, still holds first place in the game industry in the world.

The game studio Supersonic Studios

The game company Supersonic Studios, with more than 5.81 million downloads, has become the most popular and best publisher of Google Play mobile games in the United States region. The game company VOODOO, which has experienced more than 4.82 million downloads of games for Android, is in the next place.

The number of mobile game gamers

There are about 3 billion mobile gamers around the world, whose number is 5.3 percent more than last year. More than 50 percent of these newcomers to the world of mobile gaming live in the Asia-Pacific region. The growth of esports fans and the increase in the number of game-stream viewers in different genres are among the factors affecting the increase in the number of mobile game gamers compared with last year.

In-app purchases in mobile games

Based on available statistics in the first half of 2022, about 41.2 billion dollars is spent on in-app purchases in foreign mobile games. About 15.6 billion dollars of game sales was obtained in the Google Play store. Tencent games such as Honor of Kings and the mobile game PUBG Mobile, each with about one billion dollars in revenue, are at the top of the world's highest-earning games for mobile.

The cost of mobile games for children

One of the statistical institutes in the United States conducted studies in 2020 that present interesting results on young gamers' income and spending. The results showed that almost half of parents do not allow their children to make in-app purchases in mobile games without their permission. In addition, more than 40 percent of these parents limit their child's purchases so they cannot spend more than 10 dollars a month on games for iPhone and games for Android. Even so, 23 percent of parents allowed their children to spend up to 100 dollars a month on buying and installing the world's best mobile games and in-app payments in games.

Advertising in mobile games

White Paper publication reports show that on average the number of mobile game advertisers or mobile marketing in 2020 increased by something on the order of 8 percent compared with 2019. More precise examinations show that most of these online advertisements were present in Android games. Of course the role of the spread of the coronavirus in this trend should not be overlooked. The in-game advertising market on iPhone and Android is projected to grow by 7. 8 percent.

Earning revenue from mobile games

Removing ads in mobile games is usually done in the form of in-app purchases. Sensor Tower research indicates the popularity of this revenue method among developers of online games. The method of removing ads in Google Play games is observed more in casual games, which use in-app advertising more than other genres to earn revenue from games. 90 percent of the best casual games have the option to remove in-game ads.

Other popular methods for earning revenue in mobile games include:

• season pass (season pass)
• time-based subscription (subscription)
• in-app purchases with real money
• selling NFTs in mobile games

Conclusion

Let us end this report with a few forecasts. Statistics suggested that global mobile game market revenue would reach 189 billion dollars by 2021. Also in 2021, the number of mobile-gamer players worldwide reached 2.8 billion, which had increased from 2.7 billion in 2020.

These statistics and probabilities and their notable results show that the mobile video game industry is in a good state and one should be hopeful about its future. The world's large digital game publishers every year prepare detailed plans for the game-making segment for Android and iPhone. These statistics and plans show us that we should wait more than ever for the emergence of profitability in the industry of games for mobile phones, and it is not a bad idea to implement outlooks for mobile games in Iran.