According to a new report from market research firm Newzoo, over 90 percent of revenue taken from mobile games in the U.S. is spent on in-app purchases and from within mobile games, as opposed to money spent on downloading games.
The study, which surveyed 17,000 mobile gamers and incorporates download data from Distimo, states that 91 percent of revenue from both Android and iOS games, respectively, comes from purchases made from within mobile games. This share is significantly higher in the U.S. than in Europe, notes the report, as the share is 73 percent and 87 percent in Germany and France respectively.
Comparing revenues from iOS and Android games, Newzoo reports that iOS games currently gross five times more money than Android games in the U.S. In March 2012, iOS games earned 84 percent of mobile revenues generated by the top 200 grossing games across the App Store and the Google Play marketplace combined.
The number of mobile gamers in the U.S. has now reached 101 million, says Newzoo, with 69 percent playing on smartphones and 21 percent on tablets.
Newzoo's CEO Peter Warman explained, "When analyzing Apple's successful monetization, there is one dominant factor outside of differences in audience demographics and preferences: Apple requires users to connect their credit card information directly to their account, thus creating a seamless purchase experience."
"I can hardly imagine any other company in the world that would be able to get away with this, including Google and Microsoft. Facebook can come a long way, but Amazon clearly has the best chance and is proving this as we speak," he concluded.
Unfortunate use of "revs". I hope that's not trendy business speak because it's typically used as a shorthand for revisions not revenue(s?). Although, revs is trending in a positive market-share driven synergistic model that monetizes the gamification of data driven content.
