What to expect from the mobile games market next year,” App Annie, an analytical company, shared in a recent report.
The report itself is called 5 Things You Need to Know for a Successful 2020 on Mobile. It is dedicated to the mobile market as a whole. However, of the five trends, three are directly related to gaming. Let’s talk about them. But first let’s focus on the main figures from the report. There aren’t many of them.
Basic figures
- in the first nine months of 2019, user spending in mobile increased by 20%;
- the third quarter of 2019 was a record for spending users in mobile, they left $23 billion in the App Store and Google Play;
- in 2020, user spending will continue to grow, total revenue is expected to be around $105 billion;
- most of them — $75 billion — will be spent on games;
- subscriptions are the main driver of revenue growth;
- Next year, $240 billion will be spent on mobile advertising ($50 billion more than this year).
Dynamics of spending on mobile games and applicationsGaming trends
Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass will give the market new innovative games and become a new source of income for publishers
App Annie analysts believe in the future of gaming subscriptions.
Their optimism is not unfounded. 95% of the top-selling non-gaming apps in the USA offer subscriptions. It seems logical to analysts that this monetization model can successfully move into the gaming segment.
However, experts themselves hint that the starting figures of Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass cannot be called impressive. But App Annie is still confident that subscriptions will play an important role in gaming.
Games will be the first to benefit from the spread of 5G
Hardcore multiplayer games have become increasingly popular on the mobile market in recent years. In September, three of the ten most downloaded games of the month belonged to this niche (Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile and Garena Free Fire). Moreover, among the top ten, it was in them that the players spent the most time.
Data transmission with minimal delay is the most critical for this audience. For this reason, App Annie believes that it is these titles that will primarily benefit from the widespread distribution of new generation networks.
The most downloaded games of October and the most downloaded games ranked by the amount of time spent in themAutobattlers have a lot to grow
In the spring, the autobattler niche gained wide popularity. Originally created in the Dota 2 mod format, the genre has already acquired three major mobile projects in the summer — Dota Underlords (Valve), Auto Chess: Origin (Dragonest Game/Drodo) and Chess Rush (Tencent).
Now the hype around the format has subsided. However, App Annie experts believe that the genre has a future. They say that in 2020, it can still attract the attention of a wide range of players in the case of “optimization”.
Analysts also pay attention that those games that borrow mechanics from several genres become hits on the market.
Dynamics of the time spent in the three top autobattlersAlso on the topic:
App Annie: the main thing on the mobile games market for the 2nd quarter of 2019