The firm's trend report found that the number of mobile gamers in the US in 2011 experienced a year-on-year increase of 35 percent.
This total was split 69 million on smartphone, 21 million on tablet, 18 million on iPod touch, and the remainder on feature phones.
In comparison, Europe saw a growth of 15 percent to 70 million mobile gamers, at least in the seven most populous countries.
Men were the dominant gender but only slightly, taking the lead with 55 percent in the US and 52 percent in Europe.
Cash in
Newzoo's research estimated that 13 percent of the all time spent playing games in 2011 was spent on mobile games.
It reckoned this was 130 million hours a day, while nine percent of the total money spent on games was on mobile - $5.8 billion.
The majority of that figure is spent on free-to-play games accounting for 90 percent of mobile game spending in the US and 79 percent in Europe.
Though paid games still see success at launch, Newzoo suggests that these types of games drop out of the charts in the first month whereas free-to-play models provides a more continuous and higher revenue stream.
Go core
It also suggests there's an opportunity for core games to be offered to the 62 percent of core gamers in the US playing mobile games.
Newzoo has pitched the idea of combining core genres with the games-as-a-service model coining the idea of 'mid-core' games citing Xyrality's Lords & Knights, which has proved popular with German audiences.
"The recent launch of the new iPad did not bring us the edgeless display and other innovations we were hoping for, but the two main upgrades, processing power and resolution, dramatically improve the immersive experience of core games on that platform," said Newzoo CEO Peter Warman.
"The intuitive interface forces developers to offer more casual gameplay, ensuring the games cater to a far broader audience, including the young moms and dads who used to play core games on their PC, Xbox, or PlayStation.
"Immersive experience and casual gameplay combined is what 'mid-core' gaming is about."
You can download the full report here.
