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South Korea, Japan and US now generate 75% of Google Play revenues, says App Annie

Google's OS ruling in Asia

South Korea, Japan and US now generate 75% of Google Play revenues, says App Annie

If you're looking to make money on iOS or Android then games are the way to go, according to App Annie's VP EMEA Oli Bernard.

According to figures revealed by the analytics firm at the Mobile Games Forum 2014 in London, games account for over 40 percent of all downloads on the App Store and Google Play.

More importantly, they generate over 70 percent and 80 percent of revenue on each platform respectively.

Freemium leads the way

The key driver for this growth on both platforms has been the rise of the in-app purchase.

Comparing year-on-year growth in terms of the number of free-to-play games released and overall revenues generated by mobile games from November 2012 to November 2013, there's been a near four-fold increase in the number of free games lead to a doubling of revenues.

That significant growth in the amount of money generated proved to be particularly good news for the big name free-to-play powers. 7 percent of all revenues generated on the App Store went to the top 5 publishers, meaning that the likes of King, Supercell and GungHo have been able to consolidate their position at the peak of the top grossing charts.

On Android there's been similar success for free-to-play developers, particularly those based in South Korea, China and Japan. Tinypiece, LINE and a number of other companies based in South East Asia dominated the top ten grossing companies, forcing the likes of King and EA into the rest of the pack

The growing forces of Asia, Brazil and Russia

The story of southeast Asian success was one of the other major themes in the rest of Bernard's talk.

The importance of the region in terms of Android revenue performance was underlined by the statistic that when combined with the US, South Korea and Japan generated 75 percent of global Google Play revenues - making a dedicated Asian marketing strategy for Android a pre-requisite for Android success.

But that was only one interesting aspect of App Annie's analysis in the region.

The Japanese iOS market, for example, is almost exclusively driven by iPhone revenues, with the iPad offering little in terms of overall revenue performance.

As for China, its potential as a potential new Apple powerhouse was underlined by the fact that it drove the third largest number of iOS downloads, even before the impact of the recently signed China Mobile deal.

And, if that wasn't enough of a juicy opportunity to get your marketing teeth into, the download share of developing economies on iOS and Android suggest that new markets are coming closer to fruition. The Russian app market has grown considerably, to the point that it is the fifth on iOS and Android.

And a number of other territories have seen marked growth in terms of downloads as well, with Turkey, Brazil and Mexico driving their way up the Android most downloaded chart.


Staff Writer

George Osborn (no, not that one) has been ensnared by PocketGamer.biz to write words for them on pain of death/in return for money. He works with the events team to produce pitch perfect editorial for Pocket Gamer's ever-expanding events schedule, as well as working on advice features and articles to help game developers make the most of mobile.