18.6 million people in Germany are playing games on their smartphones, according to a new report from the German Games Industry Association (Game).

That figure marks a 400,000 increase to the number of mobile players from last year and maintains the platform’s position as the most popular in Germany.

Mobile gaming has been on a steady rise in Germany, increasing year-on-year. Smartphone gaming has almost two million players more than the 16.7 million console player base.

Games and in-app purchases sales on smartphones and tablets generated just under $1.7 billion (€1.5 billion) in 2018. Consoles trailed behind by $0.2 billion, sitting at around the $1.5 billion mark (€1.3 billion).

Increase in sales

Overall the games market in Germany saw an increase in sales of games and gaming hardware to just under $5 billion (€4.4 billion). Sales in 2017 were nearly $4.5 billion (€4 billion), which means year-on-year there was an increase of nine per cent, or $450 million (€400 million).

“For young and old, women and men alike - within just a few years, the smartphone has developed into the most popular games platform in Germany,” said game Managing Director Felix Falk.

“The high availability, the broad offerings of free games and the huge variety of titles have greatly expanded the market for game apps, which has driven the overall games market in the last several years.”