There's a pretty big trend in the way content is delivered to various demographics in the world of hardcore, mobile, social and casual gaming. A lot of times we've been fed various notions about who plays what and how, but a new series of gaming statistics literally breaks down various playing trends in the world of gaming.
Daze Info has a nice gathering of statistics from various sources, getting things off positive by citing Newzoo's research estimates that put the continued growth of gaming at an annual revenue of $86.1 billion by 2016, if the growth maintains a rate of 6.7% per year.
Console gaming still controls the gaming domain all the way around, with a market share value of 32.4%. Computer gaming only has a share of 5.8% – and you members of the Glorious PC Master Race shouldn't feel bad because despite core PC gaming having such small market share it combines with the MMO category and helps make up for the $25 billion that the PC gaming market is worth – where-as the smartphone market makes up for 16.2% of the gaming market share and tablets account for 11%. The other categories included MMOs, social and handheld.
However, the reign of the prestigious console gaming kings may be coming to an end, as far as the research report from Immobi is concerned.
According to their market data, there is a common annual growth rate in the smartphone and tablet market of 47.6%, which will eventually see those categories superseding the console market. This is supposedly fueled by statistics detailing that the tablet and smartphone market will surpass the core market by 2015.
The above stat coincides with all the smartphone and tablet gaming make up for a large quantity of pastime consumption that happens around the world.
In fact, 61% of all mobile gamers in America are female, which is why puzzle games rule out in America with 45% of the market adoption, but things like strategy and RPG games are just under 25% of the market share. This is opposite for countries like Korea and China, where majority of the mobile gamers are male gamers, and we see a much higher trend in RPG and action-adventure games, with those kind of games grabbing 43% of the market in China and Korea.
The stats also reveal that majority of mobile gamers in America are also aged specifically between 45 and 54, and 15 through 18. The stats also tie-in to the fact that majority of Americans are playing from home, 65% in fact, so the kids 15 through 18 are playing when they should be doing homework, while many adult gamers are also putting in an average of 31.4 minutes a day from the comfort of home, as well.
Americans are juxtaposed with their Asian counterparts at this section, as 112% Chinese gamers are likely to play while commuting to work or school, while only 46% of South Korean gamers are likely to play while commuting. Majority of Korean gamers actually put their time in at cyber cafes, also known as PC Bangs. This is a very commonly known thing, and was even part of a serious uproar over the Diablo III debacle that cost quite a few PC cafes in Korea some hefty coins due to the always-on DRM.
The stats clearly show a rise in mobile gaming; it's something no one is dying given the penetration rate of mobile devices in common day society.
However, the constant jump to the conclusion that the tie-in of mobile devices killing console gaming still seems rather absurd. Many of the games are of very low quality, and developers who make high quality titles like Infinity Blade aren't the ones dominating the market, not by a long shot.
In fact, a lot of developers have left the mobile space due to poor sales. This is in result of many mobile gamers not really being interested in the game per se, but simply looking for something fun to play, no matter the quality.
The stats even go as far as to reinforce this, where it was revealed only one-third of American mobile gamers have discovered the games they play through social media or game sites. Only one-third of Chinese gamers visit gaming sites or game-related social media to find their games. While the research report tries to downplay this aspect of the data, it's imperative to note that there's still no surefire way for the average mobile user to find high-quality titles.
Previously, many gamers mentioned that they only download games that are in the top app sections of respective app stores. Meaning, games only get visibility because people see it easily, but not because the game is better or higher-quality than the competition... with Flappy Bird being prime proof of that phenomenon.
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