The Strategist

App Annie, IDC note jump in mobile games downloads



05/28/2020 - 07:27



COVID-19 pandemic boosted demand for mobile games. According to analysts at App Annie and IDC, in March number of downloads jumped by 35% compared to January. Sometimes the figure rose to record 1.2 billion. The long-term trend continued in the first quarter as mobile games are increasingly overtaking PC and console games in terms of downloads and expenses.



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piqsels
In the first quarter of this year, user spending on mobile games was 2.8 times higher than spending on games on PC and Mac, and 3.1 times - on gaming consoles. These conclusions were reached by analysts at research companies App Annie and IDC, who released data on the video game market for the first quarter on Wednesday. “The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the launch of the new Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 game consoles, should stimulate further game growth in 2020 and later,” the study’s authors note.

The pandemic has already contributed to the growth in demand for games - for example, downloads of mobile games over the week of March 29 reached a record high of 1.2 billion downloads worldwide, and in March, users downloaded mobile games 35% more often than in January. Other researchers and developers also noted increased demand for games during the lockdown.

According to App Annie and IDC, mobile games accounted for 40% of all downloads in the iOS App Store and Google Play app stores and for nearly 70% of user spending in the first quarter.

At the same time, these expenses almost did not increase over the year - in the first quarter of last year they amounted to $ 16.3 billion, this year - $ 16.6 billion. Of this amount, users of iOS gadgets spent $ 9.9 billion, and users of Android - $ 6.7 billion. Analysts say that the most spending fall on multiplayer games in which users can team up and communicate.

The most popular game among iPhone and iPad users was Game For Peace, and among users of Android gadgets - Lineage 2. 

source: venturebeat.com