For Q1 2022, mobile games accounted for the lion’s share of consumer spending on the App Store and Google Play.

According to Data.ai, games accounted for 73 per cent of consumer spend on Google Play and 60 per cent on the App Store.

Overall, mobile games spending reached $22 billion for the quarter, up 42 per cent from pre-pandemic spending in Q1 2020. This marks the largest quarter Q1 ever and further highlights how new mobile games spending habits have solidified post-pandemic.

The US, China (where Google Play is unavailable), and Japan are the largest global markets for consumer spending across the App Store and Google Play. The fastest growing markets over the previous quarter are Taiwan, Turkey, and South Korea for Google Play, and China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong for the App Store.

Data.ai predicts that the APAC region will see the strongest growth on iOS devices this year, with a 10 per cent quarter-over-quarter growth in Q1 2022.

Biggest Q1 ever

Concerning downloads, average weekly mobile game instals have increased 45 per cent since Q1 2019. Mobile games accounted for 44 per cent of all downloads on Google Play and 28 per cent of downloads on the App Store.

Consumers are expected to download 14 billion games by the end of the quarter, with Google Play downloads expected to grow 15 per cent year-over-year.

The most downloaded game for the quarter was Free Fire from Garena, leading on from 2021 where it was the most downloaded game for the year. Free Fire and Free Fire Max were both banned in India last month which may put a damper on the growth of the game throughout the rest of the year.

Roblox had the highest active user base for the period, however, Genshin Impact was the highest grossing for the quarter.