As part of its “Index” infographic series, mobile advertising provider Mobclix has published its latest one that details the performance of mobile gaming apps on the iOS platform.
Among the many nuggets of information, some stood out — including the fact that since in-app purchasing has become so popular, developers are focusing more attention on action and arcade games where in-app purchases are a natural fit as consumers look to “level up.” At this time last year, puzzles held the top spot, but a year later action has overtaken it as the top category in gaming.
One of the primary challenges facing mobile game developers and mobile app developers in general is discoverability. To combat the issue, many developers have begun looking at subcategories that are less populated and where there’s less competition. For example, this could be the reason why a category like “Word” that had a market share of 2 percent in 2010 has increased to 4 percent a year later. Here’s some other key findings:
- 80 percent of the top five free apps in the App Store are games, and 56 percent of the top 100 free apps in the App Store are games.
- Users with 10 or more gaming apps downloaded on their phones, spend an average of 87 minutes per day playing games.
- 62 percent of users spend the most time playing games on their smartphones, followed by 22 percent who play games on consoles.
- Multiplayer games have increased by 155 percent, accounting for 6 percent of gaming apps.
- The action category has the highest market share at 16 percent in April 2011, whereas in June 2010 puzzles had the highest market share at 11 percent.
- iPad gaming apps have the highest average eCPM at $1.75, followed by iPhone at $1.38 and then Android at $0.98.
- iPad gaming apps have the highest click-through rates (CTR), and are eight times higher than Android and three and half times higher than iPhone gaming apps.
