Decline in US mobile gamers but future looks bright
A new report from comScore forecasts a bright future for the US mobile gaming market, despite a 13% decline in the number of mobile gamers during the past year.
The research firm said the decline was driven by a 35% fall in mobile gaming among feature phone (ie non-smartphone) subscribers, who represent approximately 80% of the market, which contrasted with the sizeable 60% increase in the number of gamers via smartphone.
Mark Donovan, comScore SVP mobile and senior analyst, said: “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.”
| Feb-09 | Feb-10 | Percent Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 58,603 | 50,932 | -13% |
| Non-Smartphone | 45,236 | 29,538 | -35% |
| Smartphone | 13,368 | 21,395 | 60% |
Smartphone subscribers (47.1%) are three times more likely than feature phone subscribers (15.7%) to play games on their device at least once a month.
They are also 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, said comScore.
In separate research, comScore recently revealed that the UK smartphone market has grown 70% over the past year to more than 11 million subscribers.
The study found that smartphone adoption in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy has grown 32% year on year to 51.6 million subscribers.