Mobile Games: Who’s Playing

The NPD Group recently published a report entitled "Mobile Games: Who’s Playing" that surveyed more than 8,500 teens and adults to look at consumer demand for mobile games.

Clint Wheelock at NPD said, "The world of mobile gaming is like the Wild West. In this time of rapid growth, and with the industry in such a formative stage, it’s especially important for wireless operators and game publishers to understand the mindsets of mobile gamers, in order to best position themselves for long-term success."

Key highlights include:

• 27 percent of those with handsets that can download games play, including purchased downloads, free demos and pre-loaded games, compared to 20 percent last year
• main reason for playing is "to kill time or alleviate boredom"
  
• the average gaming session is 11 minutes
• teens between the ages of 13 and 17 (60 percent) are nearly three times as likely as adults (23 percent) to be mobile gamers
• mobile gamers are twice as likely to be African-American, Hispanic or Asian
• mobile gamers spend more on handsets (57 percent) and their monthly wireless bills are 22 percent higher than the average subscriber
• one-third of mobile gamers actually buy the games themselves. The remaining two-thirds are satisfied playing free or pre-loaded games.
  
• the dominant purchase model is single downloads, while monthly subscriptions barely show up on consumer’s radars

The press release doesn't mention how consumers discover games on the network to play or sample. This would be useful information for the industry to know as they try and convert the two-thirds who play free or pre-loaded games into paying customers....