The global mobile games market is expected to witness substantial growth over the forecast period owing to a projected shift of gamers from consoles and pre-installed computer games toward games on smartphones and tablets. The growing popularity of online games on mobile platforms is expected to gain prominence at the expense of online gaming on computers.
Increased proliferation of smartphones and tablets has made access to the internet simpler, thereby creating a vast opportunity for application and game developers in the mobile games market. The basic revenue model that mobile games and application developers follow is earnings through game purchases, in game purchases, and advertisements. The low monetization rate of players is expected to be a challenge faced by mobile game developers over the forecast period, as only a marginal percentage of gamers are expected to pay for full-versions of games.
The mobile games market can be segmented on the basis of the devices and operating system. Based on devices, the market can be bifurcated into smartphones and tablets. Android, iOS, and Windows are the three major OS platforms on which mobile games are developed. Although Android OS accounts for a significant volume of game downloads, iOS is expected to generate higher revenue owing to the paid nature of applications and games.
The U.S., Brazil, and Mexico are expected to emerge as lucrative markets for online mobile games in terms of growth potential as well as monetization. The Asia Pacific regional market is expected to witness a surge in gamers over the forecast period Europe and Middle East regional markets are also expected to witness high growth potential.
Key players in the mobile games market include Tencent, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Nintendo, Ubisoft, Zynga, and TakeTwo Interactive.