Gaming Market Set to Hit $222 Billion This Year

data.ai (formerly App Annie) and IDC, released the Gaming Spotlight 2022 report. It reveals that mobile gaming represents 61% of the overall gaming market, which is set to hit $222 billion in 2022.

The report reveals that mobile gaming is set to surpass $136 billion in 2022 — growing 1.7x faster than the gaming market overall. Globally, users downloaded 45% more mobile games per week in 1Q21 from pre-pandemic levels, clocking in at over 1.1 billion games per week. In 1Q22, consumers spent over $1.6 billion per week on mobile games on iOS and Google Play, up 30% from pre-pandemic levels.

Asia Pacific region saw the biggest growth in market share for global consumer spending. China led the growth while North America and Western Europe made up half of the mobile game spending. The report shows that mobile genre preferences are more varied, with 8 distinct subgenres being represented among the top 10 games.

Core Games with real-time online features such as PvP (player-versus-player) or cross-platform play are among the most popular genres across the gaming spectrum like PUBG Mobile 4x March-Battle Strategy games emerged as the most monetizable genre while Open World RPG saw the biggest rise in consumer spend market share.

Nearly 50% of top mobile games by consumer spending in the United States skew females while Gen X & Baby Boomers saw steady growth in mobile game spending. Gaming-focused platforms such as Twitch, Omlet Arcade, and BOOYAH Live saw accelerated growth in engagement by prioritizing community-building features that encourage real-time connection and interactions between game streamers and the audience.

"Mobile is democratizing the space and is now the primary driver of growth for digital games consumption. We are seeing greater diversity across gaming genres allowing publishers to serve new gamers across generations and genders," said Lexi Sydow, Head of Market Insights at data.ai.

"From a mobile in-game advertising standpoint, our US gamer survey results from late last year suggested that studios and publishers should emphasize rewarded videos and playables and that contextual data about gamers will grow more important over time as Apple, Google, other vendors, and regulatory bodies in several key countries prioritize customer data privacy and security," said Lewis Ward, Director of Gaming and VR/AR at IDC.