Data & Research

Digital Turbine’s Mobile App Habit Report highlights what gamers want to see before installing an app

Positive reviews, a good brand image and maintaining attention are all especially significant

Digital Turbine’s Mobile App Habit Report highlights what gamers want to see before installing an app

US-based mobile monetisation platform Digital Turbine has released its latest 2022 report and third iteration of The Mobile App Habit Report, looking at the behaviour of consumers and providing insight for advertisers and developers.

To collate data for this report, Digital Turbine partnered with GWI and surveyed mobile gamers in an age range of 18 to 64.

"As time spent on mobile devices continues to increase, consumers are more tied to their phones than ever," Digital Turbine said. "Many are filling their free moments gaming on their phones, but how has that time spent, in games and other apps, evolved?"

Trust and attention

Among the myriad topics explored in the report are motivations for installing a game, the times at which gamers play on mobile, other types of app that gamers have downloaded, practices for gaining positive reviews and more.

At 63 percent, puzzle games were found to be the top genre played by those surveyed in the report, with word games close behind at 52 percent, and strategy games came third at 36 percent. Exactly half of mobile gamers said that they would trust an app they had prior experience with, only marginally higher than the 48 percent who would trust an app based on its reputation and brand.

39 percent of participants trusted apps with positive App Store reviews, but 65 percent would not install an app in the first place if it had no reviews, or if they were largely negative. The same amount of people, 65 percent, would not install an app they would have to make an upfront payment for.

In terms of retention, Digital Turbine’s findings show that a big reason for deleting an app is boredom. Of those surveyed, 44 percent would delete an app that could not maintain their attention and that they were bored with.

Privacy issues, meanwhile, only accounted for 15 percent of deletions. Furthermore, 33 percent of mobile gamers were likely to agree to an ATT prompt.

The Mobile App Habit Report for 2022 can be found in full on Digital Turbine’s site. In the company’s recent App Install Marketing Survey, 61 percent of publishers were found to have adapted to Apple’s SKAdNetwork.


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