Monday, April 30, 2007

The NPD Group: Watch out Teens! Adults Rule Mobile Gaming (for Now, Anyway)


According to The NPD Group, a leading consumer and retail information
company, in an average month more than 29 million consumers play video
games on their mobile phones and more than 7 million download games to
mobile devices. These days, however, youll
find more adults than teens interacting with mobile games. In fact,
consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 not only download more games
than any other age group, but also play them more and are more likely to
plan to purchase additional games in the future.



In 2006 29 percent of games were downloaded by consumers aged 25 to 34,
followed by those aged 18 to 24 (27 percent), and teens between the ages
of 13 and 17 (15 percent). NPD noted a similar trend in relation to game
playing activity. Half of mobile gamers between the ages of 25 and 34
and the same percentage of those between the ages of 18 and 24 report
playing a game on their mobile device at least once a day. By
comparison, just 41 percent of teens exhibited similar behavior.



While these numbers offer an interesting snapshot of current mobile
gaming activity, the main reason teens have not surpassed their adult
counterparts comes down to the numbers of mobile downloads and game
play: compared to adults, there simply are not as many teen cell phone
subscribers as there are adult subscribers. When NPD compared the share
of game downloads to the share of subscribers in each age group, the
data reflect that teens, as a group, are in fact the most likely to
download games.



While teens definitely have a higher
incidence than adults for mobile gaming, they still play second fiddle
to their older counterparts in overall game play and downloading,
said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. And
while its true that adults currently control
the lions share of mobile game downloads and
play, as more teens enter the mobile subscriber base well
see these numbers start to reach parity.







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