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Action game installs grow 49% in Q4 of 2022 according to new data

According to recently released data, amongst other changes in the mobile market, installs of games categorised as ‘action’ grew by 49%

Action game installs grow 49% in Q4 of 2022 according to new data

As we step properly into a new year, data firms begin studying data from the previous year, isolating trends in order to get a better grasp of what we may see continue on the road ahead.

One such number cruncher is mobile marketing firm, Adjust, who reached out to us with a number of new data-points to unravel.

Compared to Q3 2022, installs of all gaming apps increased by 11% in Q4 2022. The top three growing genres of mobile games being action games, which grew 49%, music, which grew by 43% and arcade, which grew by 42%.

Adjust also noted that overall, installs in Q4 2022 were down compared to the same quarter of 2021, however they were still much higher than Q4 2020. They also note the average session lengths for games increased, with hypercasual for example jumping from 13.41 minutes to 15.83. Furthermore they noted that sessions increased from Q3 2022 as well, with an increase of 11% for adventure games.

Free time during the Holiday

A big factor in these numbers would, of course, be the Holiday season. Christmas and other festivities including New Year will have given people more free time, time they choose to spend playing games on their phones. Although comparisons to 2021 do indicate the ongoing post-covid slump many analysts have noted, it’s also important to recognise that this is still up from 2020. Accordingly, it follows the idea that this is the end of a ‘boom period’ for mobile gaming, where maintaining or growing success will not come as much from outside circumstances.

It also adds to the fact that Christmas is an important period, not for sales as it has been previously, but for allowing users more free time to play. Additionally, seasonal events in many games likely contributed to this increase. Action games’ 49% increase can likely be attributed to how many games easily fall under that broad category (World of Tanks, Fortnite etc.) which also had strong battle-pass and seasonal event mechanics.

World of Tanks, for example hosted their ‘holiday ops’ event in their mobile spin-off, World of Tanks: Blitz which utilised guest appearances from hollywood stars Mila Jovovich and Arnold Schwarzenegger.


Staff Writer

Iwan is a Cardiff-based freelance writer, who joined the Pocket Gamer Biz site fresh-faced from University before moving to the Pocketgamer.com editorial team in November of 2023.