The survey, prepared for PopCap, says that there are over 125 million people playing mobile games in the UK and US, and the time spent playing on these devices outweighs that of traditional consoles by some margin.
46% of all time spent playing videogames is on a mobile device.
The biggest share is phones (at 33%) and consoles were down at just 18%, showing that the market has moved significantly over the last few years.
“Mobile games continue to vie with social games as the hottest sector of the video game industry and that trend shows no sign of waning,” stated Dennis Ryan, VP of Worldwide Publishing at PopCap.
“Smartphone adoption continues apace and tablet adoption has added considerable fuel to the fire.”
36% of mobile gamers now own a tablet device like Apple’s iPad, and 74% of those didn’t play mobile games before getting one.
jayjay119
The trouble with surveys like this is that the people asked are never made clear. If they’re doing this survay in the middle of a high street in an age where virtually everybody has a smart phone with access to 49p downloads of games like Angry Birds then it’s gonna be pretty easy to come up with this answer. I have Sonic 1 and Sonic 4 apps on my iphone but I havent played either for a good 6 months. What are the classing as gamers here? Seems to me the titles of Harcore and Casual Gamer have never been more relevant.
mcduff2012
I can’t say playing games on my phone has ever appealed to me I will always use a console for gaming.
wirralsman
100% of PS3 gamers who also own an Xbox 360 and have played Uncharted 3 chose to play that game on Playstation, showing that the market has swung greatly in favour of Sony’s console.
fs
Look at the games that are released on console and then compare them to the games that are released on mobile. You realise that not only are console games longer, they are usually better quality, this makes them more expensive – this is parrellell with the comparison between phones and consoles. What i’m saying is, 98% of us and uk have mobile phones, and i’d say maybe 45% own atleast one console, these numbers, as well as price would make it fairly obvious to me that there is more mobile gamers out there. Ofcourse there is crossover, etc you own a ps3 and and iphone.. but the guys who own a phone not a console (the other 53%) will play a game casually on the phone. To compare games on phones and consoles is silly, because its a compeltely different market. Hope this makes sense, i’m rushing.
stonyk
respect to SixthAxis for heading the report “Survey says:” instead of the daily mail who would have dropped that bit and claimed “Gamers Play On Mobile More Than Consoles” as fact. This survey (like all surveys) is pointless. As someone else pointed out they asked people who owned a mobile device. It doesn’t really show if they mean “number of gamers we ask play more on mobiles than console” or “of all the time our gamers play they play more on mobile”. They say 22% of mobile gamers play for more than 3 hours a week. I wonder what % of console gamers play 3 hours or more a week (I play > 3 hours mobile a week on my commute and would have said so on the survey, but I also play > 6 hours a week console which the survey doesn’t take into account. Therefore I am a statistic that plays equally on mobile and console in their eyes.
I asked 2 people what they thought of mobile gaming and they said “Rubbish – no point to ’em”. They were my mum and dad. News headline: “All gamers think mobile games are rubbish”.
Rant over.
Tuffcub
Obvious survey is obvious?
I dont have time to spend hours on my PS3 every day but I do have 45 mins of boring commute which is now less boring thanks to mobile gaming. I use my Vita way more than I use my PS3, havent played a game on that for two weeks.
jimmy-google
I’m in the same position, my Vita gets far more play time than anything else now, my wife is slowly getting tempted by one now as well.
Even at home I have to sacrifice using the main TV some times and the Vita is always available to use, even if it’s just using the remote play feature.
Tuffcub
Also this in no way takes in to effect what gamers would PREFER to play on, rather what oppurtunties they have. If I could play on my PS3 on my commute, I would. But I cant. So mobile gaming it is.
As i said, obvious suvey is obvious.
Taylor Made
Did someone say portable ps3 *cough cough* vita, there is no excuse for you to pull out your phone & get fraustrated :)
Tuffcub
BY mobile gaming i mean my Vita :)
bigbaldwolf
I used to play on my mobile when I commute but now I have the Vita. It gets more attention than my xbox at the moment and I’m very happy with it. Mobile games can be good but they never last very long before you realise they’re all freemium :o
Tuffcub
Just picked up Gravity Rush (first impressions are very good) so thats my commute sorted for a while.
Tuffcub
I think most interesting part of the survey about mobile gamers is this
– The average age of a mobile gamer is 39.5 years.
– Those who limit their mobile game play to a tablet are older with an average age of 44.7 years.
So perhaps we can change the headline to “If you own an iPad you’re half dead”?
:D
JesseDeya
Actually I think the most interesting part was this:
– The average dollar amount spent on mobile gaming declined from $29.21 in 2010 to $21.24 in 2011.
So if you own an iPad you’re half dead and a tight arse!
Seriously though, show me a console gamer that spends less than $60 per year on games. That’s ONE game! I’d love to know what the console gamer’s average is :)
Forrest_01
Clearly never surveyed me! I never play mobile games apart from draw something & i am never mobile when doing that! :P
Seriously though, my split would be something like 99% console 1% mobile.
Deathbrin
Umm seriously as a smartphone addict on my current phone i’ve only played Minesweeper till i got all but one cheevo and that’s about it. Mobile gaming doesn’t excite me. But then i’m not considered a gamer for the survey?