Revenue from games for portable consoles in the 4th quarter of 2012 was more than revenue from gaming applications for iOS, App Annie c IDC reports in its latest report.
However, if the App Store results for October-December of last year are combined with the results of sales of games on Google Play, then the situation will change. “Mobile” revenue will be more “portable”.
The figures were unexpected, because it is believed that the difference is much greater. But here you need to remember a few important points.
Firstly, the main share of revenue from portable consoles came from Nintendo, whose sales were not greatly affected by the advent of smartphones and tablets. The specificity of the projects for the platform and the promotion of its leading franchises played a role here.
Secondly, the 4th quarter is traditionally the most productive in terms of revenue from console games. As a rule, 60% of their sales fall at this time.
Thirdly, mobile game revenue from advertising was excluded by App Annie “for the purity of the experiment.”
And fourthly, unfortunately, it is not possible to calculate the ROI, but it is clearly higher for mobile games.
Out of curiosity, it is also worth noting the following: the distribution of user costs for console games between the three leading regions (North America, Western Europe and the Far East) is approximately equal. At the same time, games from Google Play are spent the most in the Far East (60% of the gaming revenue of the entire market), and iOS games in North America (slightly less than 40% of revenue).
Even at the end of the 4th quarter of 2012, App Annie presented the box office top mobile and portable games, which looks very interesting.
The general conclusions of the analytical company are as follows:
- The total revenue of games for the App Store and Google Play is more than from portable games
- Nintendo and Apple are very close in terms of total user spending on games
The full report can be downloaded here.