The highest—grossing mobile genres of the USA and Canada - puzzles, social casinos and strategies
They accounted for 56% of the $9.37 billion that was spent by North American gamers in 2018.
This is reported by EEDAR in the final report for 2018.
Revenue distribution by genre in North America (iOS and Google Play)
Puzzles according to the EEDAR version are match games, hidens, various quizzes.
Social casinos (in the original Skill & Chance) are slots, poker, as well as dice and table projects. As for strategies, this includes collectible card games, tower defense, combat builders and General Strategy (it is not entirely clear from the report what is meant by this subgenre, travians and games in the spirit of Clash of Clans analysts attributed to Combat City Builder).
Classification of genres EEDAR (green marked casual games, yellow — midcore, red — hardcore)
But next year, strategies in the Top 3 highest-grossing genres may be missing.
This is the only segment that in 2018, compared to the results of 2017, did not grow, but fell. And very significantly — by $450 million. But the genre of shooters showed excellent dynamics.
Annual revenue dynamics by genre (how much a particular genre began to earn more/less in 2018 compared to 2017)
EEDAR calls the key changes in the market the “loss of ground underfoot” by some of the main players in the mobile market.
The most striking example is Machine Zone, whose strategic titles have lost publishing support, and with it, places at the top of the top. The second trend is the appearance on the market of strong (at the King level) shooters in terms of cash, where Fortnite is now playing one of the central violins. Analysts also highlight the revenue growth of the subgenre of collectible combat RPGs, which include Pokémon Go, and the strengthening of the position of Roblox, which is built on user content.
If we talk about the market regardless of genres, then its growth in North America is slowing down. The annual growth in 2018 was less than 20%. The market is maturing.
Dynamics of mobile gaming revenue in the USA and Canada (2014-2018)
This is also supported by approximately one order of the number of gamers among the main age groups.
Number of players in different age groups
Moreover, the mobile preferences of the majority can also be called well-established.
The most popular genre among all age groups is puzzles. The key difference between the groups is how much they spend per week on their hobbies (it is expected that it is highest in the group of 25-44 years) and the range of genres (the youngest and oldest audiences have a smaller range, the average age groups — it is wider).
The free version of the report can be found at the link.
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