Mobile gaming has out-performed PC/Mac, handhelds and consoles when it comes to player spending for the fourth year in a row, according to a report.
Market data company App Annie teamed up with intelligence firm IDC to investigate consumer spending across the games industry for 2017.
The report found that direct spending on mobile games topped the combined spending total on home console, PC/Mac and handheld console games by more than one-third.
The mobile industry’s strong performance continued in 2017 thanks by and large to its rapid growth in key markets such as China, Japan and South Korea.
While all regions experienced growth the Asia-Pacific territories accounted for 60 per cent of mobile game spending in 2017.
Continuing to grow
App Annie’s report also found that the growing trend of PvP gaming has had a hugely influential impact on financial performance.
Last year marked the first time that the top spots for Android and iOS were filled solely by PvP games. Tencent’s hit MOBA Honour of Kings and NetEase’s RPG Fantasy Westward Journey took the top spots on iOS while Netmarble’s own RPG Lineage 2 Revolution and NCSOFT’s Lineage M did so for Android.
With PvP battle royale games the latest hit titles to emerge on the app store, a genre that includes PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield and PUBG: Army Attack, Knives Out, Rules of Survival and the soon-to-launch Fortnite Mobile, App Annie claimed that the mobile games industry looks set to continue to remain on top.
