Back in February, investment bank Digi-Capital predicted that the mobile and online markets would comprise half of the entire videogame industry’s revenue in 2014, up from the existing 33 percent share.

The latest research from the NPD Group into consumer purchasing behaviour would appear to tally with Digi-Capital’s prediction, with digital downloads for mobile reportedly accounting for half of all videogame downloads.

The NPD Group’s study – which surveyed 8,214 gamers between February 15th and March 14th 2011 – revealed that even among online console players, digital downloads were most often purchased for mobile devices.

Fastest growing segment

According to Anita Frazier, an industry analyst at the NPD Group, "Mobile gaming represents one of the fastest growing segments of the digital games market, and potential for future growth remains strong as more consumers are using smartphones for games of all types, including the increasingly popular mobile game apps.

"It is important to keep in perspective that the full-game price points on mobile devices are generally lower than those for console and portables systems , so mobile's full game download unit share does not translate to a comparable level of consumer spend."

Of course, the survey doesn't seem to have differentiated between paid or free downloads, further emphasising the number of mobile downloads over their monetary value. 

The NPD Group’s report also delved into the issue of software cannibalisation by asking buyers of a mobile game in the previous quarter whether their overall spending habits on gaming had changed.

40 percent of these respondents reported that they were shelling out less on console and portable games, thus demonstrating the displacement effect mobile gaming is substantively having on the industry.

[source: NPD Group]