Mobile gaming monetization is leveling up
In 2021, the mobile gaming content market in North America was worth an estimated 27.7 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 2022, 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 developers. Overall, U.S. gaming spender spent an average of 61 U.S. dollars annually on smartphone games in 2021.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. Puzzle games remain the gaming genre with the highest share of mobile gaming revenue in the United States, 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 2022, Roblox Corporation was the sixth-largest Android publisher and one of the leading iPhone gaming app publisher in the U.S., with monthly app revenues of over 5.83 billion U.S. dollars. In 2021, gaming app downloads declined across all genres after a COVID-19 induced boom in 2020. However, sports and strategy games saw the smallest decline.
