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US Q4 06 Mobile Game Downloads Worth $ 151 Million

March 6th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Research & Stats | No Comments »

Research company Telephia released details about mobile game downloads in the US for the fourth quarter of 2006. The research shows that the value of downloads has increased to $ 151 million which is an increase of 61% in comparison with the fourth quarter 2005.

The downloads have been generated by 17.4 million consumers which is an increase of 45 percent on top of the 12 million consumers who bought a game last year. As the number of downloads have increased, it is safe to say that consumers on average buy more games. When comparing the fourth quarter to the third quarter of 2006, the increase is much less. Only 7.9% increase in sales, but 10.8% increase in consumers.

Most of the revenue in the US is still on the operator decks, representing 74% of mobile game revenues. When dividing the on-deck sales, EA is the overall winner, swallowing 28% of the revenues. Gameloft and Glu are both ad a second place with an 11% share.

"The mobile game industry has seen strong growth very quickly with titles that appeal to a broad demographic. However, the industry is faced with a new challenge in order to sustain its growth. Several new mobile content services such as mobile video and full-track music are also competing for the mobile consumers’ attention and wallet," said Kanishka Agarwal , Vice President of Mobile Content, Telephia.

According to Telephia, 65% of the sales in the US are made by female consumers and 40% of the sales are in the age group of 25-36. When looking at the market of pre-installed mobile games for devices, Tetris is the clear winner as it is installed on most out of the box handsets.

"Preloaded game demos provide consumers with easy access and a quick sample of the game title, increasing the likelihood of them purchasing the game and ultimately driving revenues for the publishers. Publishers must focus effort on handset preload decks in addition to carrier download decks as a critical merchandizing tool," added Agarwal.

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