Mobile

The global esports and live streaming industry is undergoing a period of robust expansion, with total esports revenue projected to reach $1.38 billion in 2022 and an audience base of 532 million people. This growth trajectory is expected to continue, with market valuations potentially hitting $1.86 billion by 2025. While sponsorship remains the dominant revenue stream, accounting for nearly 60 percent of total earnings, the industry is actively diversifying its financial models. Organizations are increasingly pivoting toward direct-to-fan strategies, including digital merchandise, loyalty programs, and educational initiatives, to mitigate risk and transition toward sustainable, lifestyle-oriented business models.

The live streaming sector serves as a critical pillar of this ecosystem, with its audience projected to grow to 1.41 billion by 2025. Market dominance is currently split between major platforms like Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming, each leveraging distinct regional strengths. Twitch maintains a stronghold in Western PC and console markets, whereas YouTube and Facebook are capitalizing on the rapid proliferation of mobile gaming in emerging economies. These platforms are further evolving by integrating non-gaming content and interactive features to enhance user retention and broaden monetization opportunities.

Despite the positive outlook, the industry must navigate potential volatility stemming from shifting media consumption habits, evolving publisher investment strategies, and the lingering economic effects of the pandemic. Nevertheless, the sector remains highly attractive to stakeholders due to its core demographic of young, high-income professionals. As the market matures, the integration of co-streaming and the expansion into emerging regions—supported by localized platforms—will be essential for maintaining long-term growth and fostering deeper engagement with a global, digitally native audience.

The Consumer Insights: Games and Esports 2022 report provides a comprehensive analysis of global gaming behaviors, motivations, and market engagement. The primary purpose of the research is to equip game developers, publishers, and industry stakeholders with actionable data to benchmark titles, understand player demographics, and identify growth opportunities across 36 diverse international markets. By examining over 100 key performance indicators, the analysis offers a granular view of how players interact with PC, console, and mobile platforms.

The research is underpinned by a robust methodology, drawing on survey data from over 75,000 consumers worldwide. The findings highlight distinct engagement patterns, such as the prevalence of specific gaming personas—notably Time Fillers and Mainstream Gamers—and the interplay between playing and viewing habits. For instance, data from the German market indicates that while playing remains the dominant activity, a significant portion of the population also engages with gaming video content and esports. Furthermore, the report identifies key drivers for consumer spending, noting that price sensitivity, the desire for exclusive content, and social connectivity are primary motivators for financial investment in games.

Covering a broad geographic scope that includes North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region, the report serves as a strategic tool for navigating the complex global gaming landscape. By synthesizing metrics such as monthly active users, daily active users, and lifetime player value, the analysis facilitates a deeper understanding of the motivations driving player behavior. Ultimately, the findings emphasize that a nuanced approach to audience segmentation and platform-specific engagement is essential for companies seeking to reach and retain diverse gaming populations in an increasingly competitive entertainment market.

The 2022 global mobile gaming landscape underwent a significant transition toward quality and strategic refinement, characterized by a 2% decline in total advertisers and a 27.83% reduction in ad creatives during the first half of the year. This contraction in mature markets was offset by robust growth in emerging regions such as the Middle East, South America, and South Asia, where increasing smartphone penetration and young demographics present substantial expansion opportunities. The industry’s primary thesis centers on the necessity of localized, narrative-driven content and creative optimization to navigate a post-IDFA privacy environment that has increased advertising costs and shifted focus toward Android platforms.

While casual, puzzle, and simulation genres dominate download volumes, RPGs and strategy titles remain the primary revenue drivers, commanding the highest advertising costs with average CPMs reaching $21.58. Video remains the dominant creative format, accounting for over 86% of all advertisements, as marketers increasingly leverage dramatic storytelling and influencer-led content to boost engagement. Despite the industry’s fascination with emerging technologies, consumer sentiment remains grounded; only 16% of players express interest in NFT-based gaming, whereas up to 39% show interest in metaverse-integrated experiences. Most users continue to prioritize mobile games as accessible tools for relaxation and time-killing.

To sustain growth, publishers are pivoting toward programmatic channels, OEM integrations, and culturally relevant marketing strategies. Success in this competitive landscape requires a dual approach: maintaining high-frequency engagement through playable and video-based ads while simultaneously adapting to regional preferences, such as the demand for vernacular content in India or MOBA-focused titles in Southeast Asia. Ultimately, the market is moving away from broad-spectrum advertising toward highly targeted, immersive, and quality-focused campaigns that align with the core motivations of diverse global player bases.

Mobile gaming maintains its position as the primary driver of industry expansion, fueled by widespread smartphone adoption and consistent engagement across both emerging and established markets. Between 2022 and 2024, the sector has demonstrated a clear trend where revenue growth consistently outpaces download volume on both iOS and Android platforms. This financial trajectory is increasingly supported by a strategic shift toward in-game advertising, which is currently outpacing traditional in-app purchases as a primary revenue stream.

Global market dynamics remain anchored by the United States, China, and Japan, which continue to serve as the most significant revenue generators. However, emerging markets are playing an increasingly critical role in the industry’s growth, particularly in regions like Brazil, where smartphone gaming penetration has surpassed 90% across all demographics. In these regions, player behavior is heavily influenced by free-to-play accessibility, narrative depth, and social recommendations. Furthermore, data from the U.S. and U.K. confirms that younger demographics prioritize smartphones over consoles and PCs, solidifying the mobile device as the central hub for modern gaming.

Despite the proliferation of available titles, the global player base exhibits a preference for focused engagement, with many users choosing to dedicate their time to a single game rather than managing multiple titles simultaneously. While market concentration among top-tier publishers remains stable, the rapid expansion of the advertising sector suggests a fundamental change in how developers monetize their audiences. Ultimately, the industry is transitioning toward a model that prioritizes long-term retention and diversified revenue streams over simple volume-based growth, ensuring that mobile gaming remains the most influential segment of the broader interactive entertainment landscape.

The hyper-casual mobile gaming sector experienced a notable escalation in acquisition costs during the latter half of 2022, characterized by rising median cost-per-install (CPI) rates across both Android and iOS platforms. By the fourth quarter of 2022, median CPI reached all-time highs of $0.20 on Android and $0.42 on iOS. This upward trend in acquisition spending was global, as no major market tracked by ad spend experienced a decrease in median CPI on Android, while iOS markets saw varied fluctuations, including a significant decrease in the United States and notable increases in France and Germany.

Retention metrics reveal a consistent performance advantage for iOS over Android across all tiers of game quality. For the top 2% of hyper-casual titles, iOS achieved a 45% Day 1 retention rate compared to 38% on Android, with Day 7 retention figures similarly favoring iOS at 19% versus 14%. This performance gap persists among the top 25% of games and the median cohort, where iOS maintains a higher percentage of returning players. These findings underscore a widening disparity between high-performing titles and average games, emphasizing the critical importance of engagement optimization in a landscape of increasing user acquisition costs.

The analysis draws upon data from over 100,000 games and one-third of the global mobile player base to establish these benchmarks. By segmenting performance by platform and geographic region, the data highlights the shifting economic landscape for developers and publishers. The findings suggest that while market saturation and rising costs present significant challenges, the ability to maintain player retention remains the primary differentiator between top-tier hyper-casual games and the broader market.

The analysis demonstrates that the global mobile‑gaming market entered a contraction phase in early 2022, with revenue falling 6 % year‑over‑year and the first decline since 2019. The United States and Japan, historically dominant markets, experienced double‑digit drops in consumer spending—particularly a 22 % decline on Google Play in the U.S.—while emerging APAC regions such as India, Brazil, and Vietnam captured growing market share. Download volumes remained steady at roughly 14 billion worldwide; India retained the largest install base but is losing ground to Brazil, which is poised to overtake it.

Regional dynamics reveal divergent trends. Europe’s spending rose 18 % to $8.6 B, driven largely by hyper‑casual titles and rapid growth in Turkey (6 % YoY) and Poland (8 % YoY). In contrast, Asia’s revenue fell 7 % to $11.2 B, with China and Japan maintaining top positions but India’s spending accelerating despite lower monetisation rates. Genre‑level data shows a decline across the five largest categories, yet strategy games remain the strongest, generating over $4 B quarterly since late 2020. Hyper‑casual installs surged to 3.5 billion, accounting for 32.5 % of all downloads, while puzzle and arcade titles saw double‑digit revenue drops.

Monetisation strategies continue to evolve. Gacha mechanics dominate the mid‑core segment, often combined with season passes, subscriptions, or live‑ops to boost spend. Season passes have proven effective beyond shooters, doubling weekly revenue for titles such as Lords Mobile and revitalising legacy games like Hay Day. The data underscores the necessity of flexible, hybrid monetisation models—particularly in markets where overall genre revenues are contracting—to sustain profitability across diverse player bases.

India’s mobile ecosystem in 2021 experienced a surge of activity, with total app downloads reaching 26.7 billion—a 41 % increase from the previous year—and Android users spending an average of 4.7 hours per day on apps, up 27 % from 2019. Consumer spend hit $417 million, positioning India as a dominant force in global downloads (10 % of worldwide figures) and driving significant growth in finance (+27 %) and medical (+38 %) categories. The country’s high usage time and spend levels make it a key growth engine for advertisers and developers.

Gaming shifted sharply toward hyper‑casual titles, which now dominate worldwide downloads. In 2021, hyper‑casual action and puzzle games generated over $5 billion in consumer spend, while strategy‑based “4× March‑battle” games captured nearly $10 billion in revenue. These trends highlight a pivot toward low‑friction, highly engaging experiences that accelerate user acquisition and monetization.

Food & drink apps saw explosive growth, with user sessions rising 33 % YoY to 12.1 billion in Q4 2021 after a pandemic dip. Rapid‑delivery services such as Zepto, Getir, Gorillas and Flink experienced double‑digit download surges, driven by international expansion and hyper‑fast grocery models. Brand‑centric searches dominate India’s market, while generic terms (“food”, “delivery”, “coffee”) rise in emerging regions, indicating a blend of branded and discovery‑driven usage.

Travel and rideshare apps rebounded strongly in H2 2021. India alone accounted for 259.5 million travel‑app downloads, up 15 million from H2 2020, while global downloads approached pre‑pandemic levels at 1.95 billion versus 2.08 billion in H2 2019. Rideshare demand recovered sharply, with rider sessions outnumbering driver sessions by roughly 3:1 in key markets such as the US, UK, and India. Travel apps and on‑demand transport services are regaining traction, with India playing a pivotal role in the global rebound.

In 2021, the most downloaded and highest‑spending apps in India included Google Pay, Instagram, Flipkart, Jio MyJio and Hotstar. In gaming, Free Fire (Tencent), Call of Duty: Mobile (Activision Blizzard) and Gardenscapes – New Acres (Playrix) led downloads, with Free Fire and Call of Duty: Mobile also topping spend charts. These figures underscore India’s status as a leading mobile market across diverse verticals and user segments.

Indonesia’s mobile ecosystem expanded rapidly in 2021, with users downloading 7.31 billion apps and spending 532 million hours gaming—a 33 % rise in downloads and a 38 % jump in playtime over two years. Daily mobile usage climbed to 5.4 hours per user, while gaming apps alone accounted for 325 million downloads and generated $1,000 per minute of waking‑hour engagement. The overall market grew 20 % YoY, driven largely by hyper‑casual titles and a surge in app‑store consumer spend.

Gaming remained the dominant category, with hyper‑casual action and puzzle games surpassing 5 B downloads worldwide in 2021. The most lucrative genre, 4×‑march‑battle strategy games, produced $10 B in consumer spend. Finance apps also experienced explosive growth; Indonesia’s finance‑app downloads rose 82 % YoY to 400 M, and neobanks such as Jenius saw a 12 % increase in monthly active users, indicating deeper penetration into underbanked populations.

Mobile video‑streaming and food‑delivery apps surged, driven by exclusive content and rapid delivery models. Netflix achieved over one million local downloads in more than 60 countries, while Indonesia’s food‑delivery sessions grew 480 % YoY to roughly six billion, with a ninefold increase in app usage. Grab Eats and Gojek dominated the market, underscoring the importance of localized programming and ultra‑fast delivery for capturing highly engaged consumers.

Travel, dating, and sports apps rebounded strongly after pandemic restrictions. Travel app downloads reached 1.95 billion in H2 2021, nearly pre‑pandemic levels, with Traveloka leading the market. Global dating spend hit $5 billion, driven by growth in the US, Japan, UK, and China. Sports app engagement rose 30 % worldwide, with Indonesian time‑spend up 90 %, reflecting a broader shift toward lifestyle, social, and health‑related mobile services as consumers return to pre‑pandemic behaviors.

The market was dominated by casual and social‑gaming titles such as Higgs Domino, Free Fire, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which topped downloads, spend, and MAU charts. Leading publishers were primarily Chinese (ByteDance/TikTok, Tencent) and US‑based Meta/Facebook, while local brands like Shopee and Lazada drove spend. Overall, the data highlight a strong preference for free‑to‑play games and social media apps, with significant consumer spending concentrated in a handful of high‑profile titles.

The report examines how modern mobile consumers interact with app monetization, revealing that rewarded ads and in‑app purchases (IAP) coexist without cannibalizing revenue. Surveying 30,457 participants—18,894 from gaming apps and 11,563 from non‑gaming apps on the ironSource network, plus a 500‑person control group outside MobileVoice®—the study covers North America and global markets from April to May 2022. Respondents were verified as adults and opted in for virtual rewards, ensuring engagement accuracy.

Key findings show an almost even split between IAP and ad‑supported preferences across both gaming and non‑gaming audiences. Generation X favors occasional or frequent IAP yet prefers ad support overall, while 24% of Gen Z would pay a one‑time fee to remove ads. Approximately one third of users make occasional IAPs, a significant rise from the 2‑3% noted five years earlier. Free apps with IAP dominate downloads (52% of gaming users), and 15‑17% of consumers now spend more on IAPs than five years ago.

Methodologically, the study combined custom MobileVoice® surveys with third‑party polling (Pollfish) to mitigate bias. Data were analyzed using ironSource’s Offerwall and native survey offers, with age verification and global reach.

The report concludes that diversified monetization strategies—balancing ads, IAPs, and optional removal fees—are essential to meet evolving consumer expectations. It recommends audience‑specific research, price optimization, and value bundle offerings to maximize revenue while preserving user experience.

The analysis outlines a 2022 outlook for the global mobile‑gaming market, emphasizing that quarterly installs have plateaued at roughly 14 billion after a pandemic‑driven surge, with casual titles still accounting for about 80 % of downloads. Revenue dynamics have shifted: mid‑core games now generate 60 % of total earnings, while overall mobile‑game revenue fell 7 % year‑over‑year in Q1 2022, marking the first decline since the industry’s rapid expansion. The United States remains the largest spend market, yet Asia‑Pacific regions—especially Taiwan and Brazil—exhibit the fastest growth rates.

Advertising spend analysis reveals that role‑playing games dominate iOS channels, with YouTube capturing an 8.2 % share of voice and exceeding 10 % in Q2 2022; Android spend lags across all networks. Card‑battler titles emerge as the fastest‑growing sub‑genre, driven largely by Japan and China, which together account for 62 % of player spending. Yu‑Gi‑Oh! Master Duel leads launch revenue, reaching $80 million in five months and achieving a worldwide revenue per day of $20—twice that of its nearest competitor. MMORPGs hold the second‑largest spending position globally, with Diablo Immortal topping U.S. spend at $22 million in H1 2022 and maintaining a modest 10 % share of U.S. MMORPG installs.

In the United States, Diablo Immortal generated over $30 million in its first six weeks and captured 3.2 % of mid‑core revenue, yet U.S. players still lag behind Asian markets where Lineage M and Odin: Valhalla Rising amassed $225–$350 million in the same period. The report underscores that U.S. MMORPG revenue represents only about 4 % of the global total, highlighting the critical need for localized market strategies in future mobile RPG releases.

The report examines the rapidly expanding Indian mobile gaming market, highlighting a projected 91 % share of online gamers playing on smartphones and an estimated revenue of US$2.2 billion in 2022, with a projected average revenue per user of US$1.5 by 2027. It distinguishes between non‑real‑money gaming (non‑RMG) and real‑money gaming (RMG), focusing on the top five non‑RMG genres—Adventure, Battle Royale, Puzzle, Arcade, and Racing—and key RMG categories such as card‑based games, sports‑fantasy, and casual RMG. Data sourced from Newzoo consumer research and MAAS campaign analytics reveal that 62 % of non‑RMG players are male, while RMG users skew slightly more balanced at 55 % male. Millennials and Gen‑Z (ages 13–41) dominate, with 55 % of adventure and battle royale players in the 13‑27 bracket. Motivations differ: non‑RMG gamers seek entertainment and challenge, whereas RMG players are driven by seasonal events like cricket tournaments or festive card‑game gatherings.

Key performance indicators for advertisers include install‑to‑registration rates of ~50 % for casual games and ~25 % for card‑based RMG, with retention dropping from 30 % on day one to 3 % by day thirty for casual titles. The analysis underscores the importance of vernacular creatives, cross‑interest programmatic targeting, and multi‑channel optimization to reduce audience overlap. It also notes emerging trends—Web3 play‑to‑earn models, esports growth, and super‑app consolidation—that signal continued market maturation. The report concludes that while monetization remains a challenge for non‑RMG segments, strategic acquisition and in‑game advertising innovations can unlock substantial growth across India’s diverse gaming ecosystem.

The analysis demonstrates that mobile app and game advertising in the first half of 2022 experienced a notable contraction, with a 6.24 % year‑over‑year decline in app advertisers and a 27.83 % drop in creative volume, yet the sector is pivoting toward higher‑quality, data‑driven campaigns. Predictive analytics and Apple’s SKAdNetwork 4.0 are emerging as essential tools for optimizing cost‑per‑install, in‑app purchase return on ad spend, and overall campaign effectiveness.

Advertisers are concentrating on impactful creative mechanics and event‑based optimisations, particularly within casual gaming, fitness, and finance verticals. The number of game creatives fell 27.8 % while the advertiser base remained flat at roughly 45,000, indicating a shift from quantity to quality. Major networks such as Unity Ads and AppLovin are leading the charge, with experimentation on offerwall formats that demand precise attribution windows. Meta continues to dominate paid‑social traffic outside the gaming sphere, underscoring its broader reach.

Geographically, tier‑1 markets—US, Australia, Germany, South Korea, UK, and France—dominate spend and revenue, with CPMs peaking in the United States at approximately $27. Lower‑cost regions such as Turkey and India present attractive lifetime value opportunities, especially during seasonal CPM spikes in fall and winter holidays. Android creatives have gained prominence post‑IDFA, while incentive‑based offerwalls are becoming more prevalent.

Publishers increasingly rely on search‑driven installs and coordinated ASO/paid‑social strategies, with Apple Search Ads projected to reach $20 billion by 2025. The focus on higher‑quality ad creatives, blended event optimisation (trial plus subscription), and rising subscription prices—driven by A/B testing and post‑iOS‑14.5 user acquisition costs—highlights a tightening competitive landscape, particularly in Android and tier‑2/3 markets.