App Annie: Mobile and Portable Games Market Report for the 2nd quarter of 2014
App Annie, an analytical company, together with IDC, last night presented a traditional quarterly report on the market of games for mobile and portable platforms. We offer its Russian version.
Dynamics of the smartphone and tablet market (active devices, 2nd quarter 2013 and 2nd quarter 2014)
The global base of tablets and smartphones used by users amounted to 2.1 billion devices, 70% of these gadgets run on Android. The share of this OS among other mobile platforms increased by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter of 2014 compared to the 2nd quarter of 2013. The share of iOS decreased by 1.9%.
Shipments of digital and retail versions of games for portable consoles (Q2 2013 and Q2 2014)
The number of games sold for handheld consoles in the second quarter of this year turned out to be significantly lower than in the same quarter a year ago. Total sales fell by 27%. The global base of such active devices was below 200 million by the end of April-June.
The share of games in downloads and revenues of the App Store and Google Play (Q2 2013 and Q2 2014)
Games are still responsible for about 40% of downloads on both platforms. However, there is an interesting trend. The share of game downloads in relation to total downloads on iOS is falling, while on Google Play it is growing. This trend is also true in terms of revenue. The share of revenue from gaming applications in relation to total revenue on the App Store is slightly falling, while on Google Play it is growing.
Comparison of user costs for games by platform (App Store revenues in the 2nd quarter of 2014 were taken as 100%)
App Store gaming revenue increased by more than 70% from Q2 2013 to Q2 2014. A year ago, the revenue of games from Google Play was less than 50% of the amount that games on the App Store earned then, and now it is about 110%. But, it is quite expected that revenues from games for portable consoles have fallen, and very solidly — by 28%.
Dynamics of sales of games for mobile devices and portable consoles (by region, 4th quarter 2012 and 4th quarter 2013)
If we talk about the share of regional sales, then there are no radical changes. The Asia-Pacific region and the United States bring the most to the piggy bank of game developers. However, the first one showed solid growth on the App Store.
Top 5 grossing games on the App Store, Google Play and portable consoles (Q4 2013)
An asterisk marks the newcomers in the top
The highest-grossing games of the 2nd quarter, both on iOS and on Google Play, were Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga and Puzzle & Dragons. Pokemon X/Y shows the highest sales on portable consoles.
The results of the study
- User spending on games increased significantly from the 2nd quarter of 2013 to the 2nd quarter of 2014. Worldwide gaming revenue from the App Store has grown by 70%, while on Google Play it has more than doubled.
- The revenue gap between iOS and Google Play is particularly large in the United States. In the latter, the App Store earns 2.4 times more than the Play Store.
- The PlayStation Vita may be showing "signs of life" in the portable console market. Games for this console were among the top five grossing handheld games in both the first (Final Fantasy X/X2 HD) and second quarter (Freedom Wars) of this year.
A source: http://www.appannie.com
