We have come a long way from Pong and Asteroids. Ages ago, you needed a machine the size of a closet to power a 2D game with three vertical lines and a dot. Now you can get amazing visuals in the palm of your hand.

Our article on mobile gaming statistics will show you just how powerful and lucrative the mobile gaming industry has become, what its market looks like, what its users prefer, and how it influences our lives.

10 Key Mobile Gaming Statistics for 2023

  • Games using in-app subscriptions are the most profitable.

  • The Covid Pandemic increased mobile game downloads by 550%.

  • Mobile gaming had $93.2 billion in revenue in 2021.

  • Subway Surfer is the most popular mobile game of all time.

  • Three-quarters of all mobile game users prefer ads to paying for a game.

  • Americans spend 9.8 hours on mobile games every week.

  • Mobile games beat console and PC games, taking 60% of the total gaming market share in 2022.

  • Among Us had 248 million active players at its peak, in July, 2021.

  • Tencent, owners of PUBG Mobile, made $28 billion in 2021.

  • There were twice as many games, compared to regular apps, on Google Play in 2020.

Mobile Gaming and Its Users

Let's start off with some facts and numbers on mobile gaming users, how they choose their games, and how these games influence them.

Men seem to be more addicted to mobile gaming than women.

According to a study on 1125 university students in Bangladesh, 15.4% of male students are severely addicted to mobile games (13.4% if we include both genders).

Furthermore, these gamer statistics show that it's actually the older students, those older than 25, that are more at risk of mobile gaming addiction.

(Cambridge University Press)

In the US, people spend roughly 9.8 hours per week on mobile games.

While Asia is easily in the lead when it comes to the number of mobile gamers, North America alone has 228.7 million active mobile gamers, far from an insignificant number.

Furthermore, according to the data, 71% of US women use their phones or tablets for gaming.

(Global News Wire)

67% of regular mobile game users spend less than $10 a month on buying new mobile games.

However, one of the core reasons the mobile gaming market is so strong is that 48% of regular mobile gamers spend money on in-app purchases. These purchases provide them with new content, extra customization, and make their games easier.

Finally, of this segment of users, 60% spend, on average, $20 per month on in-app purchases.

(Deloitte)

Most (37%) new mobile games are discovered by people browsing the App store.

However, the four points of discovery are very close, ranging between 36% and 33%. These are:

  • Ads on social media

  • Recommendations from friends and family

  • Ads in mobile games

  • Youtube videos

Only 25% of users find mobile games through a web search, and only 24% find them through gaming websites.

(Matchmade)

48% of players decide to try a game if it's in a genre they like.

User-based mobile game statistics also show that 42% of people try a new game because they liked how it looked in a gameplay video, while for 39%, a recommendation was enough.

Note that this data point is about people trying out a new game, while the previous point was about people simply learning about a new game.

(Matchmade)

77% of TikTok Gamers recommend games

According to a joint survey done by NewZoo and TikTok For Business, 77% of TikTok-using mobile gamers recommend games to friends, compared to 43% of Non-TikTok users.

Furthermore, 76% state they are passionate about gaming, compared to 54% of Non-TikTok users, 70% claim its a key part of their social lives, compared to 48% of the second category, and 65% of TikTok gamers state they often talk about games on social media, while only 38% of Non-TikTok users say the same.

(NewZoo)

In the US, the 45+ age group is the fastest-growing demographic in terms of mobile game spending.

This piece of mobile game demographics data might be surprising.

However, Gen Z is still in the lead, with 47% of the player bases of the most popular mobile games skewing towards this generation. In comparison, 31% of said player bases are made up of Gen X and Baby Boomer age brackets.

(Data.AI)

75% of users prefer seeing ads in their games instead of paying for content.

However, these mobile gaming statistics also show that people prefer privacy above all and that they, in the US especially, loathe ad tracking.

(Data.AI)

90% of TikTok Mobile gamers watch gaming content.

The most popular gaming content is made up of gameplay content, walkthroughs, as well as videos centring the advancement of gaming skills, and gaming tips and tricks.

(NewZoo)

Key Trends in Mobile Gaming

What does the future have in store for mobile gaming, and what can we learn about the giants of mobile gaming?

Big companies like Amazon and Netflix are tapping into mobile gaming.

A new trend in mobile gaming is the influx of powerful companies, including Apple, Meta, and Google, into the mobile gaming industry.

In fact, Netflix has already begun with the launch of its Netflix games brand in late 2021.

(Pocket Gamer.biz)

Hypercasual games had over 10 billion installs on the App store and Google play.

Mobile game statistics show that these games had an insane increase of 45% in 2020 compared to 2019. They continued this trend in 2021, accruing more than 80 million installs in just the first two weeks.

(SensorTower)

AAA mobile games are on the rise.

It was only a matter of time before the big gaming companies were going to make their move within the mobile gaming market.

Their rise is most clearly shown by the success Genshin Impact and Call of Duty mobile had in 2021 and 2022, and things will only going to trend upwards from there.

(PocketGamer.biz)

Subway surfer is the most downloaded mobile game so far, with 3 billion downloads.

Released in 2012 by Sybo Games and Kiloo Games, this endless runner game finally crossed the 2.5 billion mark in 2019, in May.

(Game Developer.com)

Mobile gaming has been a primary driving force in making online gaming more popular than offline gaming.

This gain in market share was most likely caused by the increased prevalence and usage of mobile gaming, which is predominantly online.

(Global News Wire)

Subway Surfer, PUBG Mobile, and Pokemon Go are (still) the most popular mobile games

Now, besides Subway Surfer (which we have already mentioned), the most popular mobile games currently on the market are:

  • PUBG Mobile - 1,270 million users

  • Pokemon Go - 1,000 million users

  • Mobile Legends: Bang Bang - 1,000 million

  • Garena Free Fire - 1,000 million

  • Candy Crush - 500 million

  • Clash of Clans - 500 million

(VentureBeat, PCQuest, Statista, GuruGamer)

Games make up the majority of the apps released on both the App store and on Google Play.

In fact, mobile games are big drivers behind market growth for the mobile app markets. For example, in 2020, there were 225 thousand apps in the “Games” category on Google Play. Education was the second most popular category, and it contained 136 thousand apps.

Similarly, games were at the top in the App Store as well, with 65 thousand apps in this category. Second place was Utilities, with 49 thousand.

(SensorTower)

The mobile gaming market generated $93.2 billion in revenue in 2021.

Furthermore, NewZoo forecasts that mobile gaming revenue will reach $116 billion by 2024. Furthermore, of the $93.2 billion made in 2021, Chinese game developers are responsible for $18 billion.

(NewZoo)

Among Us had a quarter of a billion players at its peak.

If there is one game that marked the Covid Pandemic, it's Among Us. Gaining insane popularity during lockdown, it swept the world by storm, and it's still going strong.

Namely, this mobile game had 248 million active monthly players in July of 2021. Even with its drop in Q4 a year later, at its lowest it still had more than 75 million in December of 2022.

(ActivePlayer)

The Mobile Gaming Market and Industry

Finally, let's finish this article off with a section on the markets and the industry in general.

Almost all mobile gaming genres saw a drop in revenue growth in early 2022, in the US.

In fact, compared to the previous year, the only two categories that saw a rise in revenue were the Arcade genre, with an increase of 14.8% ($176 million), and Tabletop games, with an increase of 0.9% ($388.8 million).

The biggest drops in revenue were observed by Racing games, at 28.8%, Geolocation AR games, at 26%, and Shooter games at 24.5%.

(SensorTower)

Inflation and privacy issues represented challenging conditions that led to a drop in US mobile gaming revenue.

Note that this does not mean the mobile gaming industry is suffering. It simply means it's not seeing the explosive boom it had in 2020 and 2021. In fact, another large factor in this lowered growth is most likely due to the cessation of social distancing restrictions caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

(SensorTower)

The mobile industry is stronger than the PC and console industries.

In fact, the mobile gaming market share took on 60% of the entirety of the gaming market in 2022. One factor that influenced this level of growth is the rising number of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers playing and spending money on mobile games.

It should also be noted that just in the first quarter of 2022, mobile gamers have been spending $1.6 billion per week on these games. This is a substantial 30% increase when compared to spending that occurred before the Pandemic.

(Mashable)

Covid 19 had a positive impact on the mobile gaming industry.

While the Pandemic has severely disrupted the global economy, Covid had a very positive impact on the mobile gaming industry. In fact, the first quarter of 2020 saw a record-breaking number of mobile game downloads, with more than 13 billion installs (compared to just two billion in Q3 in 2019).

(Games Industry Biz)

Tencent is the strongest mobile gaming company.

The China-based creators of PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings generated $28 billion in revenue in 2021, more than a quarter of all mobile gaming sales in the world at the time.

Next is Netease, also based in China, which made $10 billion in the same period. Their most famous game is “Westward Journey”. However, they have also joined with Activision Blizzard and have published mobile versions of Starcraft, Diablo, and World of Warcraft.

Finally, Garena, based in Singapore, is famous for its Free Fire game and made $4.320 billion in 2021.

(History Computer)

The most profitable mobile games use in-app subscriptions.

In fact, most of the top mobile games use this system. In 2020, 8 of the 15 highest-grossing games used in-app subscriptions. This is especially true for Casino and Strategy games. Games using this system also have the highest retention rates.

(SensorTower)

Conclusion

Mobile gaming is a powerful industry that will only continue to grow. The numbers speak for themselves, as does the interest the big Tech and Media giants have shown.

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