Parks Associates releases whitepaper "Trends in Digital Gaming: Free-to-Play, Social, and Mobile Games"

The percentage of U.S. gamers who regularly download games or gaming apps to their mobile devices increased from 7% in 2008 to 18% in 2011, growing in parallel with rising adoption of smartphones and tablets, according to a new whitepaper from Parks Associates. Among tablet owners, 71% of adults and 79% of teens play games on the device at least one hour per month. This growth of mobile gaming is expanding the revenue stream for Facebook games, where gamers already spend $29 per month, and free-to-play games, where gamers spend $21 per month to purchase virtual goods and upgrades.

The whitepaper “Trends in Digital Gaming: Free-to-Play, Social, and Mobile Games" shows the game industry is poised for a significant shift in revenue models as smartphones and tablets are changing the gaming population and how players pay for games. Players can easily make in-game purchases, without having to create a new, separate account, because the game payment system is integrated with their established mobile and app-store accounts.

"In-app purchases greatly expand monetization of the free-to-play model, thanks to seamless payments," said Pietro Macchiarella, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "Already, most of the top grossing games on iTunes and Android can be downloaded for free and generate the majority of their revenues via virtual purchases. While mobile players are often characterized as 'casual gamers,' they spend a comparable amount of money on free-to-play titles as their peers spend on console games."

As tablet penetration increases, the availability of more complex games will facilitate higher monetization of games running on these devices.

"Games running on smartphones and tablets have a significant advantage in the free-to-play business model, compared to their counterparts on PCs," Macchiarella said.

Download “Trends in Digital Gaming: Free-to-Play, Social, and Mobile Games" at www.parksassociates.com/trendsingaming. Contact [email protected], 972-490-1113.

About Parks Associates: Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.

The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.

Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com
 

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