“The era of marketing singularly to the 18 – 34 hardcore male gamer is officially over,” proclaims a recent blog post from Flurry, a smart phone application analytics and monetization platform.
As the growth in iOS and Android mobile devices surges, there’s a “tectonic shift in the landscape of video gaming, a medium that continues to reach the most powerful spenders in the economy,” Peter Farago of Flurry writes. “Not only are these emerging platforms attracting droves of existing gamers, but also spawning a new and highly engaged audience: the mass-market mobile casual gamer.”
Farago calls this a “watershed moment,” given the sheer size of the video game industry. The post cites NPD Group figures, which asserted in January that video game revenue exceeded $15 billion. While mass-market-friendly gaming apps on mobile devices are eating into the hardcore gaming market, iOS is leading the way.
The average age of the traditional gamer is 34, while the average age of the mobile social gamer is 28, according to Flurry.
While 60 percent of traditional gamers are male, just 47 percent of mobile social gamers are male. The mathematical conclusion is, of course, that the majority of mobile social gamers – 53 percent of them, to be exact – are female.
“Among mobile social gaming, there is also greater density in the 18 – 49 year old bracket, which indicates that iOS and Android devices are attracting users during their earning years versus, in particular, their teenage years, where they likely cannot afford more expensive mobile devices,” Farago writes.
He also highlights recent reports that find that the installed base of iOS and Android devices is larger than the combined platforms of Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Also, the audience that plays mobile social games exceeds that of any U.S. primetime TV show, “the best of which can top 20 million viewers on days airing new episodes.”
Of all worldwide mobile social gamers, 64 percent of the 63,727 gamers Flurry analyzed were in North America, while 30 percent were in Europe and 4 percent were in Asia.
The average male mobile social gamer is 27.4 years old, while the average female mobile social gamer is 28.9 years old, according to Flurry’s analysis.
Worldwide, 30 percent of mobile social gamers are 18-25 years old, while 26 percent are 35-44, 22 percent are 26-34, 17 percent are 13-17, 3 percent are 45-54, and 2 percent are 55-65.
“Studying the U.S. mobile social gamer, we note that she earns over 50% more than the average American, is more than twice as likely to have earned a college bachelor’s degree, and is more likely to be white or Asian,” Farago writes.
He adds: “The Mobile Social Gamer segment is highly engaged, younger, made up of more females, more educated and more affluent. In terms of usage behavior, they use social games far more often than they watch prime-time television shows, and using for 25 minutes per day, are heavy users of this interactive content. Mobile social gamers are the new mass-market powerhouse.”
Source:
http://blog.flurry.com/bid/57219/Mobile-Social-Gamers-The-New-Mass-Market-Powerhouse
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