Mobile is seen as the gaming industry’s future and its growth over the recent years is proving that this is is the case. Industry intelligence service Sensor Tower recently released an industry report that shows how the mobile gaming sector has grown during the first half of 2021.
Sensor Tower estimates that that people all over the world have spent around 64.9 billion USD on mobile apps available at the App Store and Google Play Store. This shows a 24.8 percent increase from how much both mobile app stores made in the same period of last year.
It’s easy to see why mobile is starting to date the gaming industry. Many mobile gamers would always talk about how convenient it is to be able to play any game they want, including real money games on online gaming sites, with their mobile devices anytime and anywhere they are.
How Many People are Spending on Apps
When it comes to how much people are spending on mobile apps, it was reported that both Play Store and App Store saw an increase on a year-over-year basis. The App store’s revenue increased by 13.5 percent year-over-year and is totaled at 26 billion USD. Meanwhile, Google Play Store saw a 24.7 percent year-over-year increase which totals to 18.7 billion.
Overall, spending on gaming apps did increase for both app stores. However, Sensor Tower’s report also noted that there are an overall decrease in-game downloads on both platforms. The decline is primarily pointed towards the Apps Store as Google Play Store still saw an increase in game downloads of 3.9 percent. What this could mean is that people are spending more money on fewer games which could be considered as their forever games.
When it comes to the most downloaded games from both mobile app stores, titles like Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Garena Free Fire, Among Us, Roblox, and many more are part of the list. Also, based on the report, here are the top 10 mobile games that people spent money on from both the App Store and Google Play Store:
- Honor of Kings
- PUBG Mobile
- Genshin Impact
- Roblox
- Coin Master
- Pokemon GO
- Candy Crush Saga
- Garena Free Fire
- Rise of Kingdoms
- Uma Masume
How the Pandemic Played Quite a Role in the Industry’s Growth
While the mobile gaming sector has been steadily growing over the past years, it’s worth pointing out that there was a surge in mobile gameplay since the pandemic started. Reports show how around two-thirds of gamers are spending more time on mobile gaming when the pandemic began.
A report from a market research firm called the IDC and LoopMe about gaming during the new normal also found that about 6 percent of mobile gamers today have not played any games on their mobile devices before the pandemic started.
In the report, they said, “Largely due to pandemic effects, the worldwide base of gamers that played on a smartphone or slate tablet monthly jumped 12% in 2020 compared to 2019, to roughly 2.25 billion last year.”
Lewis Ward, the director of gaming and VR/AR research at IDC also talked about how countries that are hit hard by the virus seem to show more interest in mobile gaming.
Well, it’s easy to see why more people seem to have shown interest in mobile gaming since the pandemic started. Last year, many countries had to go through lockdowns and the majority had to stay at home. With that, many people found that they have more extra time in hand and many had to find something else or something new to do.
Fortunately, the internet is full of activities that didn’t require going outdoors and many resorted to playing online games including real money games. The charm that mobile gaming has is that it makes gaming less expensive and more accessible. Through smartphones and tablets, people no longer have to buy gaming consoles to enjoy quality games.