PopCap Games has announced the results from a survey conducted by Information Solutions Group. The survey of adults in the U.S. and U.K. suggests that mobile phones are now the primary source of gaming (displacing PCs and consoles) with smartphone owners being the most avid mobile game consumers.
Mobile games are, along with social games, the hottest sector of the video game industry by far, stated Dennis Ryan, EVP of Worldwide Publishing at PopCap, which derives nearly a third of its overall revenues from sales of mobile mega-hits like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies. As more people purchase smartphones and the entire process of finding, purchasing and playing mobile games becomes as simple as browsing the internet, the mobile games market is going to accelerate even more.
84 percent of mobile phone gamers say they play games on their phones at least once a week, with the number increasing to 97 percent for avid mobile phone gamers. Also, 78 percent of mobile phone gamers indicated that playing mobile phone games had become a regular part of their weekly activities, with 59 percent indicating that they play such games on a daily basis.
The survey indicated that roughly one out of five users played one or more social networking games via their phone every day and over a third said they play a social networking game via their phone at least once a week. 23 percent of all mobile phone useage by mobile gamers is for games, not including phone calls.