Though there's little doubt mobile is set to play a greater role in the growth of the games industry in the years to come, it doesn't do any harm to put a figure to the prevalence it already enjoys today.

Certainly not for Bejewelled and Plants vs. Zombies creator PopCap, which commissioned the Information Solutions Group to conduct a survey in January looking at the current state of play.

It's a survey that concluced that, in the UK, almost three quarters of mobile owners have used their handset to play a game at least one.

Smart money on mobile

That's a rate that compares favourably to the US, where the figure sits at 44 percent. As a whole, 55 percent of mobile consumers have taken on a game at some point on their device.

Unsurprisingly, smartphone owners are the most avid gamers of all, with 83 percent of those surveyed claiming they'd played a game within the past week.

"Mobile games are, along with social games, the hottest sector of the video game industry by far," said EVP of worldwide publishing at PopCap, Dennis Ryan.

"As more people purchase smartphones and the entire process of finding, purchasing and playing mobile games becomes as simple as browsing the internet, the mobile games market is going to accelerate even more."

On the up

It's an acceleration that means that, for mobile owners at least, phones are now the most popular device for gaming, beating out both consoles and PC.

44 percent of those questioned said they play most games on their phones, with 21 percent opting for consoles and 30 percent plumping for PC.

That's up from the 17 percent that named mobile as their most popular gaming device during a similar survey commissioned by PopCap back in 2009.