There are currently 1,968 companies trying to make a living from mobile games, according to research from the Multimedia Research Consultancy, and published on the Games On Deck website.

That figure includes developers, publishers, aggregators/distributors and portals. Of those, 78 entered the market in 2007, the lowest number of startups since 1999.

However, the total is still the highest ever number of firms in this space. For a sign of how quickly the industry has grown, in 1997 there were just six mobile games companies.

Of those 1,968 companies, MRC estimates that 57 per cent are mobile games startups, while 43 per cent moved into the industry from other areas, such as console, PC or handheld games, or other businesses.

It's all interesting stuff, although a different question entirely is how many of those companies are actually making decent money from mobile games right now...