The mobile games industry is rapidly changing and adapting to these changes. App Annie, one of the leading insights companies shared its report about the games industry in 2020. In it, there was a section about the impact of COVID-19 on mobile games. This is what we will talk about in today’s news. As a start, we can say that the demand for mobile games raised during lockdown from the ongoing outbreak.
Weekly mobile games downloads broke a record
Mobile game downloads increased in the first quarter of 2020. In fact, it hit a new record! According to the report, more than 1.2 billion games were downloaded in one week during COIVD-19. Also, worldwide, users downloaded 35% more mobile games per week in March 2020 than in January 2020. Below you can see a graph that shows the weekly downloads of games by country. The United States is leading followed by China and France. This is the combined downloads on iOS and Google Play for each country except China. For it, only iOS downloads were calculated.
On Google Play, the subgenres that saw the greatest growth in download market share points during this time were Simulation (+0.9pts), Trivia(+0.6pts), Board (+0.5pts), Casual (+0.4pts) and Adventure (+0.4pts). Growth in time spent in games within Board and Simulation categories were also among the greatest quarter-over-quarter. Standout games within these sub-genres were Woodturning (Simulation), Ludo King (Board), and Gardenscapes – New Acres (Casual), which were among the most downloaded games during this period; in terms of time spent, PUBG Mobile(Action) topped the usage chart.
Gaming related apps saw a rise too
Discord for example is one of the most popular apps that gamers use. It’s also great for working remotely, we at Mobidictum use it. You can check our guide on how to set it up by clicking here. Back to the topic, Discord has seen very strong growth as gamekeeper social connection while stuck at home especially in France and Spain. Twitch also saw strong growth on iPhones and climbed the charts in March. Besides the impact, we got the most grossing mobile games worldwide in 2020, you can check the list by clicking here.
