Mobile App Market: Popularity, Cost and monetization

Distimo conducted a study of the mobile gaming applications market for the period from June 2010 to June 2011 on major sites, including Apple App Store for iPad and iPhone, BlackBerry App World, GetJar, Google Android Market, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

The average price of the game decreased by 28% compared to last year (June 2010 – $ 2.01, June 2011 – $ 1.44), and the revenue from the most successful freemium games in the Apple App Store for iPhone increased tenfold. The share of games among the most popular apps is higher than the share of games among all apps in all stores. This shows what potential the development of gaming applications for smartphones has.

Virtual currency in games is one of the main reasons for the popularity and successful monetization of applications. In the Apple App Store for iPhone in June, 35% of the 300 most popular free games use virtual currency. A year ago, the revenue from free games was only 8% of the revenue from games in Top Grossing. In June 2011, revenue from free games was already 52%. In the first six months of 2011, the share of free games using virtual currency increased from 24% to 35%.

The “Games” category turned out to be the most popular: in June, 56% of the 300 free apps downloaded were games. And for the 300 most popular paid apps, this figure is even higher – 72%. Total revenue from games in the top Apple App Store for iPhone increased by 79% over the year.

However, despite the popularity of games, the growth rates of other applications are higher in most stores. The number of games is growing faster only in the Apple App Store for iPhone, in the Apple App Store for iPad and in GetJar.