Mobile gaming monetization is leveling up

In 2020, the mobile gaming content market in North America was worth an estimated 25.2 billion U.S. dollars, with healthy growth forecasted for the future. Looking at revenues from the free-to-play (F2P) market, which accounts for the lion’s share of total digital games revenue in North America, mobile stands out as the most profitable category by a significant margin. In 2020, the F2P mobile games market generated revenues of around 13.2 billion U.S. dollars in North America, fuelled by the business model’s low entry barrier for players and the increasing number of mobile games now moving towards the free-to-play format. While players can download and access F2P games for free, they can enhance in-game features and unlock additional content via purchase. Considering that many players are willing to pay to upgrade their mobile gaming experience, F2P games have become a much-loved monetization tool among mobile marketers. Overall, U.S. gamers spent an average of 179 U.S. dollars on smartphone games in 2020.

Highest-scoring gaming apps and publishers

A growing number of publishers have recently entered the mobile gaming scene by publishing new mobile gaming titles or making established PC and console franchises available for mobile devices. In 2020, Playrix was the leading mobile gaming publisher in the U.S. with a five percent market share. The Russian publisher is best known for puzzle games such as Township and Farmscapes, and while puzzle remains the gaming genre with the highest share of mobile gaming revenue in North America, genres such as casino, simulation, and RPG saw higher growth. Another visible trend in the U.S. mobile gaming ecosystem is the striking success of Roblox. In 2020, Roblox Corporation became the second-largest Android publisher and leading iPhone gaming app publisher in the U.S., with revenues of over 20.5 billion U.S. dollars. In terms of downloads, multiplayer sensation Among Us continued to top the U.S. leaderboard across all app stores and mobile operating systems as of early 2021.

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