Mobile gaming is still the most popular but attitudes are changing (Getty Images)
A report has highlighted the playing habits of gamers across the US, with the majority spending most of their time on mobile games.
It’s no secret that mobile gaming is the most profitable corner of the gaming industry, with Xbox being the latest traditional publisher trying to make inroads into the market, as it once again attempts to challenge Google and Apple.
The mobile market’s dominance is highlighted in a new Circana report on the playing habits of US gamers, which quizzed 5,100 ‘active’ players, ages two and up, between May and June this year. As per the survey’s methodology, an active gamer is defined by whether they had access to a gaming device across mobile, PC, or console, and if they had used one within a month of the survey.
It turned out that 71% of US consumers (236.4 million people) engaged with video games in 2024, which is down from the 74% seen in 2020 during the peak of lockdown. This is still higher, however, than the 67% reported in 2018, pre-pandemic.
As far as US consumers go, 65% play mobile games, which is the same amount from two years prior and the largest gaming platform. The second biggest is PC games at 36%, down 4% from 2022. This is followed by console games at 35%, which is the same as 2022. Meanwhile, 13% play ‘other games’, with VR seeing an increase of 2% compared to two years ago.
The majority of gamers play across mobile and PC/console, at 66%, while 32% only play on one platform. In regards to the latter, 27% only use mobile devices.
The report divides the gaming audience into six separate categories: ‘super invested’ Super Gamers; multiplayer-centric Console Warriors; Transitionals, which are adult gamers who are heavily invested in mobile; Easy Accessors, aka younger gamers who largely only have access to mobile; casual older players (brilliantly) called Daily Dabblers; and Incidental Players who are described as non-gamers who play mobile games.
Are you a Daily Dabbler? (Circana)
Incidental Players make up the largest segment of the overall gaming market at 23%, but this is a significant drop from two years prior. There’s also been a drop in players within the Daily Dabblers bracket, which now makes up the lowest portion at 14% – suggesting, perhaps, that the casual audience is in decline, or that they’re now becoming more invested.
Notably, the Transitionals segment has seen the biggest increase in the past two years, at 15%.
Elsewhere in the report, US gamers are said to spend an average of 14.5 hours a week playing games, which is up by 1.8 hours since 2022. Interestingly, console gamers play for the longest, at 10.2 hours per week. By comparison, mobile gamers spend 8.1 hours per week. PC gamers, surprisingly, are the least committed at 4.6 hours per week.
While the dominance of the mobile market isn’t exactly new information, it does make clear why companies like …read more
Source:: Metro
