Unity Technologies has released its Games by the Numbers report, revealing mobile game trends from January to March 2016. During this time, 219,693 games made with the Unity engine generated over 4.2 billion installs, reaching about 1.7 billion unique devices. On average, this number of installs represents about 18.2 million new devices and 45.8 million installs each day.
Game Installs By Country
With a 30 percent increase in game downloads over Q4 2015, the mobile video game market is off to a strong start this year. Of the 4.2 billion game installs across 1.7 billion unique devices globally, China represented a staggering 31 percent, followed by the United States at 11 percent. Despite lifting the ban on video game consoles, China’s mobile game market continues to soar—particularly within the midcore demographic.
Android Vs. iOS
Representing 81 percent of mobile game installs worldwide, Android remains the preferred platform for mobile game trends, especially on Samsung brand devices. Although Samsung is most popular in the United States and Europe, the Chinese game market is dominated by local brands like Xiaomi.
When the top ten countries with game installs on Android and iOS are examined, China tops the chart once again in both categories. Chinese gamers prefer iOS over the Android platform, but only by 1.3 percent. Gamers in the United States prefer iOS by a considerably wider margin (10.8 percent), particularly on iPhone 5s and the iPhone 6. For those who play games on an iPad, statistics show that older models, particularly the iPad mini, are the most popular for downloads. In comparison to Android devices, iOS users upgrade to the latest version quickly. As a result, 7 percent of game installs on iOS occurred on devices running version 9.0 (released September 2015) or later.
The Future Of Mobile Game Trends
If Unity’s findings are any indication, the mobile game demographic continues to grow at a healthy pace—particularly in the Chinese market. Game engines like Unity and Unreal have become more accessible in recent years, allowing more independent video game developers to enter the market. Unity hopes that quarterly reports like Games by the Numbers will help these developers make sound decisions when it comes to their marketing efforts.
“It’s exciting to see the mobile games market continue to grow and thrive around the world, which translates into great opportunities for developers to bring their visions to life,” said John Cheng, general manager of Unity Analytics. “Unity has always focused on democratizing game development, solving hard problems, and helping developers succeed. To that end, we believe the in-depth information Unity Analytics provides, some of which is in this report, will help mobile developers prioritize and give them an edge as they make tough marketing and product decisions.”
