Building on the recent results by Ampulum’s recent mobile gamer survey, the company looked at mobile gameplay habits and monetization. Interestingly, Android users were heavier mobile gamers than Apple users; gamers using Android were twice as likely as Apple gamers to spend over an hour per day playing mobile games.

“The OS difference carried over to number of games as well,” noted ‘Steve’ from Ampulum. “13 percent of Android gamers reported playing six or more mobile games in an average day, vs. almost none of those using Apple devices. Apple users were more than twice as likely to play only a single game per day. The Android gamers in our survey were clearly more committed to their mobile gaming hobby.”

Those who were in their 20s were the heaviest mobile gamers, for both number of games played as well as time spent playing games. Those in their 30s were the most likely to play a single game 5-15 minutes per day, perhaps showing increased commitments from work and children during that age.

“Our next target was monetization data,” said ‘Steve. “We asked gamers what fraction of their favorite mobile games were paid apps vs. freemium, and how much money they spent on mobile in-game purchases. We did not observe any significant differences in monetization stats by player age, but the OS data revealed a familiar story: Android users don’t monetize as well as Apple users. Gamers using Android were less likely to have paid apps among their favorites, and spent less money on in-game purchases. At first glance, it looked like the same gloomy picture for Android that we’ve seen described elsewhere.”

However, the study notes that the Android-Apple monetization gap has all but disappeared. The difficulty at current is that making the first purchase is harder in Android since most of those phones do not require a credit card up front, though this should correct itself in time.

“With the increasing competitiveness of the mobile gaming market, developers need all the information they can get to help them reach the top of the charts. We hope the data provided here helps you to understand your target audience better, and reach them more effectively. Happy gaming!” concluded the report.

Source: Ampulum.com