Mobile games continue breaking records and making billions in revenue, with more people than ever preferring gaming apps over consoles or computer games.
According to data presented by Mejores Apuestas, smartphones are the number one choice for gaming globally, with more than 70% of internet users who choose them to play video games in 2021.
Smartphone Gaming Usage Rate Higher than PC and Console Gaming Combined
Over the years, smartphones have completely changed the gaming industry. Today, gamers are guaranteed constant entertainment through their smartphones with cloud-based games and apps that work offline.
The recent Hootsuite; We Are Social Digital 2021 report showed two-thirds of internet users aged between 16 and 64 choose smartphones to play video games, more than PCs and consoles combined.
PC gaming, including laptops and desktop PCs, ranked as the second choice with a 40.1% usage rate. Statistics show that 28.5% of internet users prefer playing video games on consoles, nearly 10% more than tablets as the fourth most-favorite gaming device.
Handheld gaming devices like the Nintendo switch follow with a 14.6% usage rate. The survey showed media streaming devices and VR headsets were at the back of the list, with a 9.6% and 8.7% share among internet users, respectively.
Mobile Games Industry to Hit $110B in Revenue and 1.8 Billion Users in 2021
The surge in the use of smartphones for playing video games continues driving impressive growth of the entire mobile gaming industry. A recent Mejores Apuestas report showed that mobile games are expected to generate nearly $110bn in revenue in 2021, 15% more than a year ago. Over the next two years, this figure is forecast to grow by 25% to $138bn, and by 2025 the entire market is predicted to hit over $160bn value.
Statistics also show more than half a billion people have started playing mobile games since the pandemic struck, with the total number reaching 1.8 billion in 2021.
Mobile gamer demographics are also changing and evolving. What was true about gamers just a couple of years ago is much different now. Around 55% of mobile gamers in China and the United States, as the two leading markets, are aged between 18 and 34 years old. Millennials or people aged between 25 and 44 make around 24% of all users in these two mobile games markets.
By 2023, the total number of people playing mobile games is expected to jump over 2 billion globally.
