Serving a rich mix of markets, especially in developing markets, free gaming portal BuzzCity can provide an interesting overview of how the mobile market is developing. 

It's just completed its sixth consumer survey, with users across 10 different countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It concludes that 90 percent of mobile users play games on their handsets.

Game for girls

While BuzzCity proclaims the typical gamer to be male and in his mid twenties, 29 percent of mobile gamers are female, with girls gamers on the rise in the US, Thailand and South Africa.

Mature gaming is also on the rise, with 12 percent of players in the US aged 40 or over, while it's 19 percent in South Africa.

In terms of frequency, 40 percent said they played daily and 46 percent played either weekly or fortnightly, with action and adventure the most popular genres at 41 percent, followed by sports and racing at 21 percent.

Advertising opportunity

"Mobile gaming has gone mainstream and there’s a clear need to address specific demographics," BuzzCity CEO KF Lai said of the results.

"Increasing mobile game traffic suggests a viable opportunity for ad supported games and advergames, particularly where branding is a key campaign objective.

"As users get more involved with the sophisticated plotlines of games, the level of consumer engagement increases, creating more branding opportunities for marketers."

You can see the full report here.