More than one billion mobile games were downloaded every week in Q1 2021, according to new data from App Annie.
The Gaming Spotlight 2021 report (in partnership with IDC), found that people around the world were installing mobile titles at a 30 per cent higher rate per week when compared to pre-pandemic levels.
It also stated that consumer spending on iOS and Google Play games across the same period equalled approximately $1.7 billion per week, representing an increase of 40 per cent.
Going forward, spending on mobile is set to widen its lead over PC by 2.9 times, while console is expected to be even larger at more than three times over.
The Asian-Pacific regions still make up around 50 per cent of the total spend on the platform, although it was those in the Americas and Europe that witnessed the biggest growth. Players in Germany and the US were attributed as key sectors here.
Joy of games
"The smartphone platform has brought the joy of gaming to global users at an unprecedented rate," said App Annie general manager of gaming Junde Yu.
"This is one of the biggest and yet strongest growth verticals in the app industry. Cross-platform functionality will drive acceleration - allowing for a console-quality experience to be in the pocket of every smartphone owner."
Additional stats showed that the appetite for the hypercasual market is still rising considerably, beating out all other subgenres for the biggest market share growth by downloads. Following this was kids in second, then simulation and racing in third and fourth, respectively.
Roblox, Lineage M, Lords Mobile and PUBG Mobile leveraged cross-platform play to bring in some of the highest revenue for the three-month period. The full ranking can be seen below:
A recent report from GlobalData estimated that the mobile games industry will be worth an estimated $230 billion by the year 2030.
Last week, a lawsuit was brought again Roblox from The National Music Publishers' Association for allegedly using songs in the game without permission.
