56+ Mobile Gaming Statistics (2024): Revenue, Market Share, Demographics

The global mobile gaming industry earned $92.2 billion in 2021, which represents 50% of the total gaming industry that year.

The fact that more and more people are spending their free time in front of their smartphones shows in mobile gaming statistics. Find out:

• Which mobile games and genres are the most popular, most profitable, and most downloaded
• Gaming demographics on how many people play mobile games, and how many of them are female gamers
• What trick do mobile game publishers use to monetize their mobile games

Did you know “geolocation AR” is the least profitable mobile game genre? Find out which one earns the most in the article below.

Mobile gaming revenue

Mobile game market share

Statistics about mobile games

Mobile gamers & demographics

Most downloaded mobile games

Top-grossing mobile games

Mobile games & demographics

Mobile game monetization

Important Mobile Gaming Statistics

• The global mobile revenue reached $92.2 billion in 2021, precisely $1 billion less than in 2021.
• RPG (role-play games) is the most profitable mobile gaming genre, earning $21.9 billion in 2020 and $18.3 billion in 2019.
• In 2020, China had 35% of the global mobile market revenue, with the USA having 20%.
• There were 773,674 mobile gaming apps on App Store and Google Play, with the latter having almost twice as many gaming apps.
• Subway Surfers leads the pack with 191 million downloads in 2021, while PUBG Mobile leads in revenue, earning $2.8 billion in 2021.
• There were 2.6 billion mobile gamers worldwide in 2021, with half of them coming from Asia.
• 75% of mobile gamers in the US are females, and 65% of those aged 10-65 play on Android.
• The hypercasual game genre makes 94.09% of its revenue from ads, whereas RPGs earn 80.94% of its earnings from in-game purchases.

Mobile Gaming Revenue

The global mobile gaming market earned around $92.2 billion in 2022.

That represents 52% of total global gaming revenue that year.

(Newzoo)

According to Data.ai, that percentage will increase to 61% in 2022.

(Games Industry)

Mobile gamers spent $110 billion worldwide in 2022.

Candy Crush, Honor of Kings, and Genshin Impact were among the highest-grossing mobile games.

Revenues from different video game segments in 2022:

The free-to-play mobile gaming market reached a revenue of $13.78 billion in 2021.

The revenue is estimated to reach $14.94 billion in 2023.

Growth of mobile gaming

The mobile gaming industry is growing by an average of 16.28% per year.

Mobile Game Genres by Revenue

RPG game genre creates the most money worldwide, bringing $25.5 billion in 2022.

The second genre is strategy games, with $12.1 billion in revenue in 2022.

US mobile gamers spent 14.8% more on arcade games in H1 2022 compared to H1 2021.

The second was the “tabletop” genre, with a mere 0.9% increase in revenue.

Otherwise, every other game genre saw a decline in revenue.

Mobile Game Market Share

With a $3.03 trillion market cap, Apple is the highest-grossing mobile gaming company.

Apple stepped into the mobile gaming business in March 2019 when it launched Apple Arcade, a mobile game subscription service. Granted, Apple is predominantly a hardware and software company, and most of its revenue comes from non-gaming sources.

Artifex Mundi was the highest-earning mobile gaming publisher on Android in September 2022, grossing $31.8 million.

iPhone’s highest-grossing mobile gaming publisher in June 2022 was Tencent Mobile Games, with $77.8 million in revenue.

Another Chinese publisher, NetEase Mobile Games, made it to the second spot, earning $56.26 million.

Mobile game market country share

China generated 35% of the global mobile gaming revenue in 2020.

Another huge gaming market, the USA, generated 20% of the revenue (even though there are only 207.7 million of American players compared to 2.6 billion worldwide).

Interestingly, the top 5 countries have contributed to 75% of all mobile gaming revenue.

China is also the first in mobile game gamers spending, being responsible for 38.5% of all mobile game revenue in 2022.

Here are the top 5 mobile gaming spending countries in 2022:

Android game market share

Mobile games for Android brought in $81.5 billion in revenue in 2021.

That’s 28.1% more compared to 2020.

How much do mobile games make?

The average earning for a mobile game with around 36,000 downloads is $549,630.

These are calculations from the BSG website, which represent the ideal average but don’t reflect real numbers. Some games do much worse, and some do much better.

According to their more realistic calculations, a game with …

• Less than 50,000 users
• $1 per every 4th user

… can expect around $12,500 in revenue, which is a lot less.

(BSG)

Mobile Games Statistics

How many mobile games are there?

Google Play and App Store combined had 698,627 available mobile games in Q3 2022.

In Q3 2022, Google Play had 490,267 mobile games, and the App Store had 208,360. The latter is much lower than in Q2 2022, indicating Apple must’ve thoroughly cleaned its mobile game library.

Both stores can share the same game titles, so this isn’t the actual number of mobile games on the market.

Types of mobile games

There are numerous types and subgenres of mobile games, but the most popular ones are:

• Action
• Adventure
• Arcade
• Battle Royale
• Casual
• Card
• Role-Playing 
• MOBA – Multiplayer Online Battle Arena
• Puzzle
• Brain games
• Pretend play
• Education
• Board
• Racing
• Casino
• Strategy
• Sports
• Trivia
• Word

(AppSamurai)

MMORPGs like World of Warcraft aren’t that popular on mobile.

Most downloaded mobile games

Subway Surfers was the most downloaded mobile game of 2021, generating 191 million downloads.

Interestingly, this game was released in May 2012 and is still topping the charts.

Even in Q4 2022, Subway Surfers was still the most downloaded mobile game, with 59 million installs.

(GameDev Reports)

Globally, people installed 4.7 billion mobile games in April 2022 alone.

India was the country with the most downloads, generating 783 million installs. The US was the second, with 394.8 million installs.

Overall Downloads

1. Subway Surfers (26.6 million downloads)
2. Garena Free Fire (25.2 million downloads)
3. Ludo King
4. Roblox
5. Fill The Fridge
6. Candy Crush Saga
7. Bridge Race
8. Merge Master
9. PUGB Mobile
10. DOP 4

App Store Downloads

1. Subway Surfers
2. Good Pizza, Great Pizza
3. Fill The Fridge
4. PUBG Mobile
5. Roblox
6. Wordle
7. Fishdom
8. Honor of kings
9. 8 Ball Pool
10. Genshin Impact

Google Play Downloads

1. Garena Free Fire
2. Subway Surfers
3. Ludo King
4. Merge Master
5. Roblox
6. DOP 4
7. Candy Crush Saga
8. Bridge Race
9. Race Master 3D
10. My Talking Tom 2

(SensorTower)

App Store’s most popular category in Q3 2022 is gaming apps, with a 12.68% share.

Business apps are second, with a 10.35% share.

Top-Grossing Mobile Games

The highest-grossing mobile games of 2021 were PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings, each earning $2.8 billion worldwide.

Playrix and Playtica were the mobile game publishers whose games appeared on top charts the most times.

Six times, to be precise. Games from publishers King and Supercell appeared 4 times, whereas games from Lilith Games appeared 3 times.

Top mobile games by monthly active users

PUBG Mobile had an average of 511.6 million monthly active users in April 2022.

That makes it the top mobile game in the number of monthly active mobile gamers.

Mobile Gamers & Demographics

How many people play mobile games?

There were more than 2.6 billion mobile gamers in the world in 2021.

Most of them, 1.3 billion, come from Asia.

Percentage of players by gaming platform

At 57%, smartphones are overall the most popular gaming platform in the US.

46% of gamers play on a console, whereas 42% use PCs.

Mobile game demographics

Around 49% of Android mobile gamers are females, according to Google Play stats.

Interestingly, 75% of American mobile gamers are females, according to eMarketer.

(Google, eMarketer 2)

64% of American gamers aged 35-44 play games on smartphones.

American mobile users aged 18-24 were the most committed mobile gamers in Q2 2020, with 62% of them playing once or several times per day.

65% of 10-to-65-year-old women in the US play Android mobile games.

Around 43% of them play more than 5 times per week, compared to 38% of men.

• 60% of women players say they feel good when playing mobile games.
• 58% feel the same when playing a new game, compared to 70% of men.
• On the other hand, 60% of female mobile gamers think that only 30% (or less) of mobile games are geared toward women.

(Google, Newzoo)

How long does an average mobile gamer play?

African players spend an average of 26 minutes playing casual mobile games.

That makes them the most dedicated mobile players in the world.

But playing too much can be a problem, see gaming addiction statistics.

Females are more dedicated mobile gamers than males, averaging higher playtime in almost all genres.

Except in the hardcore genre, where males play an average of 17.4 minutes per day, compared to 15.4 minutes on the female side.

Interestingly, users aged 50+ spend the most time playing mobile games.

Their average is 7.7 minutes per day.

Mobile Game Monetization

Mobile game monetization statistics

Mobile gaming apps earn money using these 6 methods:

• Selling games for a price (paid games)

• Games with a subscription model (battle or season passes) – the latter helped some games to significantly boost their revenue, for example:

• Offering premium upgrades in otherwise free mobile games (freemium apps) – this includes an “ad removal” monetization mechanic, with 90% of users willing to pay to get rid of the ads (SensorTower 3).

• In-game advertisement

• In-game purchases (microtransactions)

• Licensing and selling merch

(Starloop Studios)

The in-game advertisement market was worth $137.26 billion in 2020.

If the growth of mobile gaming popularity continues, it’s expected to rise up to $221.5 billion by 2027.

(Business Wire)

79% of mobile game developers say a mix of ads and microtransactions is the best way to monetize gaming apps.

Specifically, 53% think rewarded videos (ads that you have to watch in order to receive a reward) are the main drivers for in-game purchases.

(Facebook)

82% of mobile gaming app publishers say video ads are the most popular way to monetize gaming apps.

(Statista 10)

Around 33% of mobile game publishers that use ads and in-app purchases believe playable ads are their most successful format.

Playable ads allow users to play a game within an ad before downloading it.

(Facebook)

Hypercasual mobile games receive a whopping 94.09% of earnings from ad revenue and only 5.91% from in-game purchases.

On the other hand, role-playing (RPG) games get most of their revenue from in-game micro-transactions (80.94%) compared to 19.06% from ads.

The average amount that American mobile gamers spend on in-game purchases is $61 per year.

(Statista 14)

Around 31.1% (out of 2,005 respondents) of parents from the Sell Cell survey in 2020 allowed their kids to make in-game purchases.

40.3% of parents that allow, don’t let their kids spend more than $10 per month.

23% say their limit is $50 per month, whereas 8.2% let their kids spend even more than $100.

• Nonetheless, 67.1% of parents were worried their kids are spending too much on in-game purchases.
• Shockingly, 40.8% of kids made a purchase without parental knowledge, and an extra 9.5% of parents were unsure about the purchase.
• Strangely, 60.6% of parents didn’t bother asking for a refund if their kid made an accidental purchase.

(sellcell)

Mobile game downloads from app referrals in App Store have increased by 12% from 2018 to 2020.

Here’s the table of what referrals result in most downloads:

62% of the App Store’s revenue in 2021 came from game purchases.

(Games Industry 3)

Read more:

• Minecraft Statistics: Sales, Revenue, Demographics, Player Stats
• How many people use Discord
• Technology Addiction Statistics

Conclusion

These were the most interesting mobile game stats. This industry can be very profitable if the game succeeds. The freemium app model can generate large sums of money, so it’s no surprise a lot of gaming app publishers want their piece of the market.

What is your view on mobile gaming? Do you think the metaverse will come to the mobile too?

Please let us know in the comments below.

Sources: Newzoo, Newzoo 2, Newzoo 3, Newzoo 4, Newzoo 5, Newzoo 6, Newzoo 7, Games Industry, Games Industry 2, Games Industry 3, Statista, Statista 2, Statista 3, Statista 4, Statista 5, Statista 6, Statista 7, Statista 8, Statista 9, Statista 10, Statista 11, Statista 12, Statista 14, Statista 15, INN, eMarketer, eMarketer 2, AppSamurai, Forbes, SensorTower, SensorTower 2, SensorTower 3, SensorTower 4, XFire, Theesa, Google, adjoe, Starloop Studios, Businesswire, Facebook, BSG, Apptica, sellcell

Newzoo 8, The Games Market in 2022: The Year in Numbers. Published Dec 21, 2022. Accessed Feb 22, 2023.

Games Industry 4, Data.ai: Global mobile game revenue dipped 5% to $110bn in 2022. Published Jan 11, 2023. Accessed Feb 22, 2023.

GameDev Reports, Sensor Tower: Mobile Market Downloads in Q4 2022 Report. Published Feb 17, 2023. Accessed Feb 22, 2023.