Frank N. Magid Associates and OpenFeint today released a study examining how Americans spend money on virtual goods. The study, titled Magid Media Futures 2010 Wireless and Consumers, reveals that Americans bought $168 million worth of mobile virtual goods in 2009. Nearly half of all smartphone users are playing mobile games and 16 percent of those are spending an average of $41 per year on in-game virtual goods.
“The market for virtual goods has already exploded in web-based games like Zynga’s Farmville, and we’re just now starting to see this trend in the mobile space,” said Steve Lin, VP Operations of Aurora Feint. “In just the last few months we ve seen amazing interest from our game developers in building mobile social games with virtual goods. Our internal numbers reflect the study in that free-to-play models will be the dominant pricing structure in the future.”
The study also says that 55 percent of smartphone gamers are interested in buying virtual goods, and the demographic skews heavily towards males between 18 and 34 years of age. Smartphone gamers downlaod 14 gamers per year, four of which are paid, and they are likely to read reviews and rely on word of mouth.
“Everybody knows free-to-play social gaming models on PC platforms have been making a killing but mobile virtual goods aren t as well understood,” said Mike Vorhaus, President, Magid Advisors. “With almost 20 percent of smartphone gamers already making purchases, there s a lot of room for the market to keep taking off as smartphones continue to increase in popularity.”
The second part of the study will be released this Summer.
