Mobile reports and market data
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The 2021 Global Mobile Gamers Whitepaper
Mobile is the largest and fastest-growing games platform, and TikTok positions itself as a central hub for reaching mobile gamers.
- Mobile gaming generated $93.2 billion in 2021, accounting for over half of total industry revenue, with projections to reach $116.1 billion by 2024.
- Users who engage with short-video platforms represent a high-value demographic that installs 50% more games and spends 36% more time playing weekly than the average gamer.
- Short-video platform users are twice as likely as non-users to discover new titles through social content and subscription services, making them a primary target for strategy and MOBA developers.
The State of Mobile Gaming 2021
Mobile gaming reached record scale during the pandemic, and the market outlook points to continued expansion through 2023.
- The mobile gaming industry reached a record $22.2 billion in quarterly revenue in early 2021, marking a 33% year-over-year increase.
- The industry is projected to reach $117 billion in annual revenue by 2023, maintaining a compound annual growth rate of 13.5%.
- The freemium model now dominates the market, accounting for 99% of App Store revenue through in-app purchases, subscriptions, and advertising.
Newzoo Trends to Watch 2021
Newzoo's 2021 outlook identifies the major forces expected to shape the games industry across three areas: the overall games market, esports and live streaming, and mobile.
- The global games market is projected to reach $189.3 billion in revenue by the end of 2021, supported by a permanent shift in consumer spending habits and a total player base of 2.8 billion people.
- Cloud gaming is expected to surpass $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 2021, while 5G-ready active smartphones are forecasted to grow from 5% in 2020 to 16% (700 million units) by year-end.
- Mobile titles such as PUBG Mobile and Garena Free Fire are increasingly challenging traditional PC giants in esports viewership, marking a significant shift toward mobile-first competitive gaming.
Innovate to Win on the Next Level with Hybrid Genre Games
Mobile gaming is settling into healthy growth after the pandemic surge, and hybrid genre design is emerging as the main route to broader audiences and stronger monetization.
- Mobile gaming consumer spending reached $36 billion in H1 2021, marking a 73% increase since 2018, with China-based publishers now capturing 23% of the international market.
- The industry is pivoting toward hybrid game design, which integrates casual mechanics like farming or social features into hardcore frameworks to diversify monetization and broaden demographics.
- The Idol Training subgenre saw a 129% surge in consumer spending, signaling the growing global influence of Asian cultural themes and 'Nijigen' aesthetics.
2021 H1 Global Mobile App Marketing Whitepaper
SocialPeta's 2021 H1 whitepaper analyzes global mobile app advertising through ad-creative intelligence, covering mobile games and non-game apps across North America, Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, Greater China, the CIS, Oceania, and the Middle East.
- Chinese developers dominated the global market in 2021 H1, accounting for 70% of top-charting mobile game media buying and 100% of the top ten advertisers on Facebook’s News Feed.
- Advertising costs surged significantly, with Facebook’s average CPC and CPM increasing by 128% year-over-year due to heightened competition.
- Apple’s IDFA policy changes triggered a 13% decline in the share of iOS advertising creatives, forcing a strategic shift in focus toward Android platforms.
Mobile Ad Creative Report: August 2021
Mobile advertising creatives from August 2021 show several recurring patterns, drawn from top-ranked ads across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and ad networks such as AdColony, Chartboost, ironSource, Vungle, Mopub, and Applovin.
- Mobile gaming ads in August 2021 shifted toward high-fidelity, narrative-driven content featuring real-world celebrity partnerships, such as Garena Free Fire’s collaboration with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Call of Duty Mobile’s integration of Ozuna.
- Top-performing creatives are increasingly moving away from pure gameplay footage in favor of cinematic storytelling, anniversary-themed promotions, and interactive elements like Buzzfeed-style quizzes.
- Psychological triggers remain a core engagement strategy, with 'fail-state' ads—demonstrating a player losing a level—continuing to drive performance for titles like Royal Match and Evony.
Mobile Game Video Ads Analysis: Optimal Video Lengths and End Cards
Mobile game video ad performance varies meaningfully by genre, and marketers working without user-level targeting in a post-IDFA environment can improve results by matching ad length and end card type to each genre's audience.
- Optimal video ad length varies significantly by genre, ranging from 10 seconds for Social Casino to 46 seconds for RPGs.
- Hyper-Casual games achieve peak performance with 37-second ads paired with video end cards.
- Strategy games perform best with 33-second ads, while Puzzle games reach peak efficacy at 22 seconds; both benefit most from app store end cards.
Post-IDFA Mobile Game Advertising Costs: Casual vs Core
Moloco analyzed 13.5 billion programmatic ad impressions across iOS and Android to measure how Apple's privacy changes, particularly iOS 14.5 and 14.6 and the mandatory App Tracking Transparency prompt, affected mobile game user acquisition costs.
- Core games experienced a 78% surge in iOS CPI following the iOS 14.6 release, driven by intensified competition for a shrinking pool of high-value, trackable users.
- Casual games saw a 38% decline in iOS CPI post-iOS 14.6, while Android CPI for the same segment rose by 16%.
- Android CPI for core games increased by 36% during the same period, reflecting broader market volatility across platforms.
Mobile Game Store Asset Optimization Trends 2021
Mobile game publishers are using store assets, especially app icons, more strategically to lift conversion rates, and Apple's iOS 15 update is set to widen the room for experimentation.
- The release of iOS 15 in late 2021 introduced native A/B testing for up to 90 days and the ability to create 35 unique Custom Product Pages, enabling highly targeted audience acquisition.
- Top-performing publishers are aligning App Store screenshots and icons with high-performing ad creatives—such as Playrix and Nexters' 'Pull the Pin' ads—to reduce user acquisition costs and minimize conversion friction.
- Successful mobile game publishers treat store assets as dynamic marketing tools rather than static elements, frequently updating them to reflect seasonal events, anniversaries, and live operations.
The State of Mobile Game Advertising: An Analysis of U.S. Mobile Game Advertising Trends in 2021
Mobile game advertising in the U.S. held steady through the first half of 2021, despite concerns about Apple's IDFA changes, and several ad networks actually gained game share of voice (SOV).
- Mobile game advertising in the U.S. remained resilient through H1 2021, showing no immediate negative impact from the deprecation of IDFA.
- Playable ads have become a dominant creative format, accounting for over 40 percent of the gaming share of voice on AppLovin.
- Specialized ad networks like AppLovin, Chartboost, and Vungle maintain a gaming-focused inventory exceeding 90 percent share of voice, while platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube provide broader audience reach.
Turkey Game Market 2021 Report
Turkey's 2021 game market is presented as a year of stabilization and strong growth after the pandemic-driven surge of 2020, with a sharp fourth-quarter rebound.
- The Turkish gaming market reached a total volume of $1.2 billion in 2021, supported by a player base of 42 million active users.
- Mobile gaming generated $620 million in revenue, cementing Turkey's status as a global leader in the hyper-casual genre.
- Financial activity hit record levels in 2021 with $266 million invested across 54 startups, highlighted by the emergence of Dream Games as a unicorn.
The African Mobile Apps Landscape (2021)
Mobile app activity in Africa accelerated sharply during 2020 and carried into early 2021, as COVID-19 lockdowns pushed a young, mobile-first population to spend more time on their phones.
- Between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021, mobile app installs across Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya grew by 41%, with Nigeria leading the growth at 43%.
- The gaming sector saw a 50% jump in installs during Q2 2020, while in-app advertising revenue for gaming surged by 167% between Q2 2020 and Q1 2021.
- In-app purchasing revenue for gaming peaked in Q3 2020, contributing one-third of the total annual revenue.
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