This article is part of an ongoing series of data-driven articles from PocketGamer.biz and App Annie highlighting trends in the global mobile games sector using App Annie’s app market data.
In this week’s column, we’re considering App Annie and IDC's Gaming Spotlight: 2021 Review report.
Mobile gaming - the biggest
As has been the case since 2014, mobile gaming's status as the single largest gaming sector by revenue continues to outpace console and PC gaming.
Indeed, by 2017, mobile gaming was larger than PC and console gaming combined.
And this trend is just accelerating.
It's predicted mobile gaming will account for $120 billion of revenue in 2021 compared to $41 billion for PC gaming and $39 billion for console gaming.
In terms of geographical growth, the APAC region remains the biggest for mobile gaming at over 50 per cent, but this is slowly declining as relative growth in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey speeds up.
Mobile game revenues in the US and Germany also experienced strong growth in Q1 2021, with North America's proportional global sales up four per cent.
COVID-19 changes continue
Of course, this sort of growth is significant as it confirms that the changes to behaviour that were triggered by lockdowns in many countries during 2020 due to COVID-19 haven't been temporary.
Globally, users downloaded 30 per cent more mobile games per week in Q1 2021 than in Q4 2019, clocking in at over one billion games per week.
Similarly, during Q1 2021, mobile gamers spent $1.7 billion per week, up 40 per cent from pre-pandemic levels.
You can download the full report (email registration required) via the App Annie website.
