Mobile Gaming Statistics (2024)

Mobile games have become the most demanded gaming platform in recent years, surpassing PC and console games. As the players see that the graphics and story quality they find in PC and console games are also accessible on their phones, and very successful productions have been released in almost every genre, mobile games have started to become the first choice.

Since the earliest known mobile game, a variant of Tetris on the Hagenuk MT-2000 in 1994, the emergence of different genres and different highly successful games in those genres have led to a continued increase in mobile gaming statistics as well. Time spent in mobile games, global and country-based downloads, in-game revenues and top charts have expanded over time, and although there are occasional decreases, the increase in all these data continues.

If you want to take a closer look at the developments in the mobile game world on the basis of statistics, here are the latest mobile gaming statistics…

Consumer Spending and Download Stats on Mobile Games (2023)

• In 2023, global spending on mobile games experienced its second consecutive annual decrease, dropping to $107.3 billion. The 2% year-over-year decrease in consumer spending in 2023 marks an improvement from the 5% decline witnessed between 2021 and 2022.

• In 2023, several markets, including the US, the UK, and South Korea, exhibited signs of recovery, showing either stabilized or increased year-over-year growth.
• In 2023, mobile game downloads experienced a historic decline, plummeting to 88 billion for the first time.

• 32% of gamers plan to decrease spending on mobile games in 2024.
• In 2023, dealmaking activity in the video games industry hit $86 billion, with a total of 960 deals announced.
• The year-over-year decrease in mobile gaming sessions in 2022 was 17%, with a bottoming out period from September to December. Sessions, however, are rebounding, with January 2023 data 11% higher than Q4 2022. (Adjust)
• Sessions were on average shorter globally in 2022, lasting 30.33 minutes as opposed to 31.5 minutes in 2021. Asia Pacific had the longest sessions on average, at around 34 minutes.

Country-Based Mobile Gaming Statistics

• In 2023, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region further cemented its dominance in the global mobile gaming market, accounting for an impressive 64% of the total revenue.
• In 2023, China emerged as the undisputed frontrunner, securing approximately 31% of the global revenue share. Following at a considerable distance was the United States, with a 17% share, trailed by Japan, South Korea, and Germany.
• At least one mobile game is presently played by 81% of Turkish adults. 
• MENA-3 countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt) saw $1.79 billion in games revenue and reached 67.4 million gamers in 2022. In 2026, the region is expected to reach 87.3 million gamers and $2.76 billion revenues. 
• Consumers in the US, UK, and Singapore prefer to play games on their mobile devices by a combined margin of 62%.

Genre-Based Mobile Gaming Statistics

• The leading subgenres by consumer expenditure in 2023 closely resembled those of 2022, including 4X March Battle (Strategy), MMORPG, Team Battle (RPG), and Slots (Casino).
• During the last quarter of 2022, downloads of hypercasual games from the Play Store and the App Store fell by 24% year over year to 2.7 billion. They received 12.3 billion downloads overall for the year, which is a 10% decrease from 13.7 billion in 2021.
• Paid competitive gaming (PCG) has been designated as the gaming industry’s fastest-growing section, expanding six times more quickly than the overall market. The market is anticipated to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.9% from 2021 to 2024, reaching $16 billion. (PocketGamer)
• With an average of $10.3 spent by users per device on the iOS app store in 2022, Japan took the top spot. South Korea came in at $7.1 and Singapore came in at $8.1 after that. Consumers in South Korea outspent those in Japan and Australia on Google Play, spending an average of $11.2 per device in South Korea, $9.8 in Japan, and $5.3 in Australia. (Data.ai)

Top Grossing Mobile Games

Top Grossing Mobile Games on the App Store and Google Play (2024)

In 2023, the highest-grossing mobile game was Honor of Kings, with $1.58 billion revenues across the App Store and Google Play.