App Annie, together with IDC, presented a new study of the gaming market based on the results of the first quarter. The revenue growth that began during the pandemic continued. During the reporting period, gamers spent an average of $1.7 billion on mobile games per week.Mobile market data
In the first quarter, users worldwide downloaded mobile games on average over 1 billion times a week — an increase of 30% compared to pre-pandemic figures (Q1 2019).
- In the first quarter, users around the world spent an average of $1.7 billion a week on mobile games — an increase of 40% compared to pre-pandemic figures.
- Downloads and revenue of mobile games before and after the pandemic
According to analysts, by the end of 2021, the revenue of the global mobile games market will amount to $120 billion — 2.9 times more than the PC market ($41 billion) and 3.1 times more than the console market ($39 billion).
- In the first quarter, the United States and Germany became the leaders in terms of spending on mobile games in North America and Western Europe.
- At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region took the first place in this indicator among all regions — it accounts for almost half of the world’s spending on mobile titles.Spending on games from 2014 to 2021
The share of downloads of games for casual audiences has grown the most during the pandemic.
- Among them are hyper—casual titles (an increase of 6.7 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2019), games for children (+1 percentage point), simulators (+0.6 percentage points) and racing (+0.3 percentage points).Among the highest—grossing genres of the first quarter are social casinos (the highest—grossing game is Cash Frenzy), casual simulators (Roblox), simulators for the core audience (Disney: Twisted Wonderland), hybrid casinos (Coin Master) and shooters for the core audience (Call of Duty: Mobile).
- Other data from the report
The average daily online Steam in the first quarter was 7.4 million people — an increase of 46% compared to the first quarter of 2019.
- At the same time, the peak daily online on the site reached 26.85 million users — an increase of 60%. This is even higher than the results during last year’s lockdowns, which indicates the continued growth of interest in PC gaming.Cyberpunk 2077 was among the top five highest-grossing Steam games in the first quarter.
- The first four places are occupied by CS:GO, Dota 2, GTA V and PUBG. The highest-grossing mobile titles were Roblox, Genshin Impact, Coin Master, Pokémon GO and Honor of Kings.All these games (except Cybepunk 2077) are united by the presence of online functions.
- Analysts believe that this indicates the users’ need for gaming communication. Today, PvP modes, social functions and crossplay are a prerequisite for success for new projects.The highest-grossing games in the first quarter by platform
The time that users spend watching live broadcasts and communicating with other players has also increased.
- As a result, Twitch took the eighth place in the list of the highest-grossing non-gaming mobile applications according to the results of the first quarter, and Discord rose by 200 positions and took the 50th place.