How often do you walk into a room to unexpectedly find someone asleep with a mobile device in his or her hand? This is becoming an increasingly common sight in many households, especially where you have game enthusiasts.
With almost 60% of the world’s mobile gamers in the U.S. and the Pacific region, this is a pretty likely scenario in many households with young people fascinated by mobile gaming.
Gone are the days when you would visit video game arcades or set up a high-priced wired video game system at home. Today, mobile gaming has overtaken other forms of gaming thanks to its convenience in terms of the nifty devices as well as the wide variety of gaming options, online availability, monetization, and much more.
Game Diversity and Revenue Generation
In recent years, the numbers point to a steep incline in mobile gaming for these very reasons. With mobile device production growing rapidly in recent years, more people have developed a love for gaming and game development, particularly in the U.S. and Pacific region. Also, game diversity has played its part and helped people discover what suits them best.
The idea of strategy-based mobile games took root and is a key area in gaming, with massive investment. This growing trend with numerous areas to discover has accounted for a significant part in the bourgeoning numbers.
The Role of A.R., V.R. and Ai in Mobile Gaming
Indeed, mobile gaming has emerged as a new medium of revenue generation with a growing economy. Starting with software development, there are now companies that exclusively focus on building mobile games. People who used to build software for various other purposes have found a new area to specialize in. And with various technologies advancing and influencing the game development sphere, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, it seems there is a great deal ahead, and there is no turning back.
Each of these technologies has been fused with mobile gaming as an extension of its own existence. Perhaps none of these were ever meant to cater to the gaming industry, but being digital platforms on their own has meant that they have been integrated for useful purposes that now influence a multitude of industries, including medicine, aeronautics, defense, and a lot more.
By way of innovation, gaming has become part of some of these industries, be it for training or entertainment. For example, some games are now built to implant the idea of battlefield scenarios, and high-level decision-making elements, as part of the game theory, are part and parcel.
This is easier said than done, and as you can well imagine, there is an immense amount of time and thought put into these games that are presented to investors with a range of graphical representations that point to their future success. Quite obviously, the trends and numbers have investors keyed-up and ready to put their money into promising games.
More and more ideators and game development investors understand the scenario, and they are as important to the mobile development ecosystem as are the game developers. Looking at the numbers that point to the monetary worth of this industry helps us understand what we can expect in the near future of mobile gaming.
Mobile Gaming Outlook Projected for 2025
Earlier, according to Statista, it had been predicted that the total revenue in the Strategy Games segment would reach US$24,392m in 2021. However, since we’re in the final quarter of 2021, the annual growth rate (CAGR 2021-2025) seems geared toward a predicted 9.51%.
Based on this, we’re looking at a projected market volume of US$35,082m by 2025. This is most encouraging for investors, game developers, and gamers too. Moreover, industries tied to mobile gaming, such as the advertising industry, will be keen to invest more in in-app game advertisements.
It was also estimated that in-app purchase (IAP) revenue in the Strategy Games segment would reach US$15,435m in 2021.
The numbers get even more encouraging when we talk about paid app revenue in the Strategy Games segment, which is really where significant interest is. In 2021, the projected revenue of US$91m has been fairly accurate.
The projected numbers for beyond 2021 are given below:
| Year | Revenue in millions (USD) |
|---|---|
2017 | 12,546 |
2018 | 13,437 |
2019 | 15,526 |
2020 | 20,262 |
2021 | 24,392 |
2022 | 27,833 |
2023 | 30,701 |
2024 | 33,090 |
2025 | 35,082 |
There is no doubt that mobile gaming has boomed in a very short time. In a period spanning less than three decades following the first time a mobile game was available in the market, the global gaming landscape has been revolutionized.
Apart from it functioning as a pastime for millions of addicted gamers, the mobile gaming content market is set to exceed 121 billion by 2022, up from 104 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. These peak figures are expected as mobile adoption, and smartphone usage continues.
While the numbers are certainly encouraging, and there is no shortage of investors to take mobile gaming forward on a large scale, game developers are keen to develop new ideas. Dozens of concepts come forward daily, and each one is scrutinized and put through all sorts of measurements that determine its chances of market success. We get the feeling that these conceptualization tests will only become more specialized for accuracy in the near future with the goal of ensuring market success.
