The Information Solutions Group survey, which was commissioned by PopCap Games, showed that 52 percent of the 2500 respondents from the UK and United States have played video games on mobile phones (in the United States, 44 percent had played a mobile phone game at least once); one-third of the U.S. respondents said they’d played games on the mobile phones in the previous month; and 24.6 percent had done so in the previous week.
Gamers also are increasing the amount of time they’re spending on their mobile devices; more than 63 percent of smart phone owners said their amount of playing time had increased, while 78 percent said they played weekly, and 59 percent played daily. When comparing smart phone owners to feature phone users, the difference was stark: 81 percent of smart phone users had played a mobile game in the past week, 92 percent said they play games at least once a week, 45 percent play a mobile game daily. For all mobile gamers, 23 percent of their time on the mobile phone (with the exception of calls) is taken up with gaming.
Forty-three percent of mobile gamers also upgraded from a free version to a paid version in the past year, and 27 percent paid for additional content in a free game. Here again, smart phone users engaged more with mobile games than feature phone users, purchasing 5.4 games versus 2.9 games.
