Report: Mobile game spending 2x higher than PC/Mac game spending in 2017

Spending on mobile gaming continued to rise in 2017 and was 2.3 times higher than spending on PC/Mac gaming and 3.6 times higher than spending on console games.

The stats come from a report by App Annie and IDC, with the mobile-related figures taking into account upfront and in-app purchases spending on both Google Play and the iOS App Store. This is compared with both physical and digital sales of PC and console titles. Advertising revenue was not included in the figures.

The report claims that 80 percent of the total spending on apps in both stores comes from games, despite games only accounting for around 35 percent of worldwide downloads (although this was slightly less than last year). While games made up a larger overall share of consumer spending on Google Play than on iOS App Store, the report says that consumers spent on average almost two times as much on games on iOS than Google Play.

The report also shows the importance of the Asian market when it comes to mobile games. Over 60 percent of mobile game spending occurred in Asia-Pacific countries and the region actually increased its share of spending between 2016 and 2017. The report suggests this was because of spending growth in China, Japan, and South Korea, although no numbers for individual countries were provided.

As well as this, games published by East Asian companies dominate the list of top grossing games on both iOS and Android (games such as Netmarble’s Lineage 2: Revolution and Tencent’s HONOR of Kings). According to the report, there are only two games from outside this region in the top five games on either iOS or Google Play.

In terms of gaming trends, the top two games on iOS App Store and Google Play both feature live PvP gameplay, which suggests hardcore-leaning multiplayer elements are proving to be incredibly lucrative on mobile in certain markets.

If you want to check out the report in full, you can do so over at App Annie.