According to a new report out this week, the findings of which were shared with MMW today, eighty-five percent of social casino gamers now play on smartphones, while PC has fallen to its lowest market share at 49 percent.
Additionally, 27 percent of gamers exclusively play on a mobile device, and the share of the social casino audience that only plays on PC has dropped from 15 percent in 2016 to 6 percent in 2017.
Those are the findings from “Social Casino Consumer Insights,” an analysis of the category released by SuperData Research, a provider of marketing intelligence for the playable-media and digital-games industry.
The popularity of slot games has also fueled the growth of smartphone and tablet usage among social casino players: 74 percent of smartphone users and 72 percent of tablet users play slots. Player preferences have shifted away from apps that contain a wide range of casino games to games that are simple and quick to start. As a result, developers are adapting to consumer demand and focusing on single-genre apps like slots or poker.
According to SuperData, users who previously played on desktop only have become more comfortable playing on other devices, or have left PC social casino games entirely.
Although developers are creating more mobile social casino games, the PC market is still large for casino-style games. Seventy-nine percent of PC gamers prefer casino-style games, compared to 77 percent who prefer slots, according to the report, compared to spring 2016, when 70 percent of PC gamers preferred slots and 67 percent preferred casino-style games.
“There is still a market for core social casino gamers on PCs” said Carter Rogers, Research Manager at SuperData. “Since most casino-style games are large-scale and contain aspects from several genres, game developers are able to harness PC’s extra screen real estate and create visually interesting casino lobbies.”
