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Hint: The mobile gamer is everyone
Mobile gaming is no longer a niche market, but one that contains a variety of segments. By understanding the unique needs and interests of each demographic group, advertisers can reach their target audiences at scale.
We partnered with DISQO to answer that question. The result includes 1,200 consumer responses — one of the largest surveys* of mobile gamers ever!
Who are mobile gamers, exactly?
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49%
Let’s start with frequency
We categorized users based upon how often they play games.
Committed gamers
Regular gamers
Regular gamers
Committed gamers
Meet the American mobile gamer
Occasional gamers
Explore the different elements of gamers’ backgrounds
The share of women that play mobile games. Only a fraction of percent
behind the share of men (78.7%).
78%
Which types of games are winners?
At least half of the top free apps in the App Store and Google Play are “hypercasual” titles, and they have the highest number of installs on average per app in more than half of the top global markets. Of these games, Puzzle and Word are the most popular categories.
16%
Play once to several times weekly
Play once to several times per day
Play once to several times per month
13%
Occasional gamers
DISQO Mobile Gaming Study - Data Summary
The survey was conducted by DISQO and distributed online to a nationally representative sample of DISQO audience members within the United States via the Survey Junkie platform, which is wholly owned by DISQO. The survey was taken on both desktop and mobile devices, garnering a total of 1,208 responses over a fourteen-day period in Q2 of 2020. As each respondent was a member of DISQO’s 100% first-party opt-in research audience, responses were verified against fraud and were compiled against known and validated demographic information, enabling a rich, cohorted analysis by age, gender, education level, household income, and more.
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The share of women that play mobile games. Only a fraction of percent
behind the share of men (78.7%).
Consumers that have master’s degrees play mobile games once to several times a day.
Consumers that have master’s degrees play mobile games once to several times a day.
Respondents with an income of over $250,000 are committed gamers who play mobile games at least once a day.
Respondents with an income of over $250,000 are committed gamers who play mobile games at least once a day.
Hover below for stats
Okay, so who’s playing Puzzle and Word games?
Chart-topping multiplayer, strategy and racing games only represent a minority of the overall volume of games that consumers play
Different types of games affect moods differently
"I feel positive"
"I feel negative"
"I feel negative"
Trivia
20%
"I feel positive"
Music
21%
Card
23%
Word
26%
Puzzle
30%
Simulation
14%
Racing
15%
Casino
15%
Sports
19%
Role-playing
21%
The question here really is, who isn’t playing puzzle games?
Word
Puzzle
Puzzle
Word
Okay, so who’s playing Puzzle and Word games?
Always/Often
Average
See what we learned
See what we learned
51%
65%
The stereotype of the gamer as a late-teens to early 20s slacker who mooches off their hard-working parents and doesn’t have a job, isn’t just incorrect. It’s a persona that even self-identified gamers reject. Why? Because the anecdotal evidence of both themselves and their peers proves this stereotype wrong.
While you might not self-identify as one — you probably are
Are you a gamer?
Labels?
Not for these people
How do your habits compare to your neighbors?
Labels? Not for these people
West
Almost 70% of West Coast residents play once a
week or more, with more than half playing daily.
West
Midwest
Almost 50% of Midwesterners play mobile games once a day or more
Midwest
South
Southerners tend to have more games installed than other regions and play for longer: 48% play for 30 minutes or more, with 14% playing for an hour or more!
South
Hover below for stats
Females slightly outpace males for playing more than once a day
(33.8% vs 33.7%)
But
Females are half as likely to self-identify (15.3%) as a gamer than males (33.4%)
17.3% of respondents over 55 years of age play once a day or more
Only 5.8% identify
as gamers
But
With the multitude of different types of users, their reasons for playing differ greatly
Why do gamers game?
Okay, so what else are they doing?
Watching TV
60%
Top 3 motivations to play
Multitasking while playing?
For most Americans, the small screen is the most important
Entertainment
67%
always
15%
often
28%
Boredom/
killing time
52%
Relaxation
47%
Gamers span generations, genders, income brackets, education levels, and geographies. Likewise, their motivations and habits don’t always overlap.
Listening to music
46%
Eating
or cooking
38%
Listening to
a podcast
10%
Commuting
9%
Working out
8%
sometimes
25%
rarely
13%
never
19%
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Northeast
Almost one third (32.5%)
of Northeasterners
play several times a day.
Northeast
With a massive worldwide audience, mobile gaming has presented lucrative opportunities for game developers
Leveling up the
ad experience
Because many mobile games today are free-to-play, developers choose from a number of methods to monetize their titles. The most commonly used are rewarded video ads and in-app purchases.
Publishers
Players
Players
80%
of publishers use rewarded video ads to monetize apps.
Publishers
Rewarded video vs.
in-app purchases?
Survey says...
The rise of “nerd culture” at large has brought with it a general acceptance of video games as a legitimate hobby. The best way to assess the true demographic of those who consider themselves gamers outside
of the mobile space is by the gaming devices they own beyond their smartphones.
We’ve had the gamer stereotype all wrong
75%
Mobile gamers have a game console or computer they use to play games
19.9%
Women own a Nintendo console vs 18.5% of men
25%
Respondents with a Bachelor’s degree own a Playstation
20%
Respondents with a Bachelor’s degree own an Xbox
Gamers as a group are still unfairly labeled
as young males, shouting obscenitiesover
online chat while playing on their PC or console — but this is isn’t accurate
Every age group overwhelmingly favors rewarded video ads.
Rewarded video is still the top choice across all income brackets.
Almost half of all respondents prefers rewards that are:
In-game currency.
90%
of respondents choose to watch an ad for rewards over paying money.
Extra lives/chances.
Game bonuses.
Learn more about the modern mobile gamer
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