Flurry research explores who's playing and what genres are succeeding in mobile gaming.
Easy-to-play and highly repeatable evergreen games that can remain on a user’s “play list” for years may lack the depth required to generate sizeable in-app purchases, but do generate substantial advertising impressions over time. In addition to driving strong ad revenue, the large audience size of these games can be used to cross-promote a developer’s more narrowly focused, but better monetizing titles.
As the mobile app economy grows, the sophistication of its related advertising services will reach those found on the Internet today. Leveraging big data, the ability to target users based on demographics and personas, and then track the effectiveness of such targeting is just starting to take hold (Flurry has invested in this direction with its own services like Flurry AppCircle, an ad network, and Flurry Ad Analytics, an ad effectiveness solution). As developers and app marketing providers become more savvy, they can better acquire the kinds of users that will reliably play and pay in their apps.
“Middle-aged females like to play games that have attractive retention and usage metrics,” said Dan Laughlin, Flurry researcher. “Males are not extending into the same 40+ average age-range as female players. Casino/Poker games tend to attract older males the best. The hottest sector of the mobile gaming market is the young, male ‘core’ gamer, who are increasingly pausing their console gameplay sessions to increasingly play mobile games.These young men are difficult to corral, but can monetize at a rate that justifies the cost and effort of acquisition.”
The study found that younger females are adopting games that feature more involved gameplay than those played by the middle-aged female crowd. While the youngest users enjoy the quick solo experience of the Endless genre, the late twenties/early thirties crowd are diving deeper into game mechanics and making it a social experience.
