The largest mobile markets in Europe: figures and facts

The analytics company comScore presented a wealth of interesting numbers and facts regarding the five largest mobile markets in Europe (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy).

This information was shared by a representative of the company's European division, Hesham Al-Jehani, during his presentation at the Mobile Games Forum 2013 in London.

According to him, in July 2012, the share of smartphones in this region surpassed 50% for the first time, and by October, this figure had risen to 55% (or 132 million devices). Among the platforms, Android leads with 47% (and continues its active growth), iOS has stabilized at 21%, Symbian has fallen to 17%, RIM’s share has also decreased to 8%, and Windows Phone has 5% (showing slow but steady growth).

Al-Jehani also noted the rapid development of the tablet market. By October 2012, there were about 27 million tablets in the EU5, with 60% belonging to the iPad family.

According to comScore's estimates, about 72 million users in the mentioned five countries play at least once a month, and 18 million play daily (which is 34% higher than the previous year’s figure). However, the analyst noted the surprisingly low number of installed games. 34% of gamers have 6 or more games installed on their devices, while 27% have one or two games. The number of users paying for games amounted to 5.5 million (a 14% increase compared to last year). The top three genres are casinos, strategies, and cards. iOS device owners prefer to game on their gadgets more (with 53% of the total engaging in gaming), whereas among Android fans, this number is 40%.