March 26th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Research & Stats | No Comments »
The NPD Group launched a bulletin about the effect of licensed mobile
games within the market. They kicked off with some generic data like
20% of our target consumer base played games on their mobile and 3% of
them downloaded a game in the first half of the year while 4% bought
one by the end of 2006.
With a value of $ 107 million, the mobile games industry is the third biggest revenue driver when looking at mobile data services. SMS remains strongest while ringtones take the second place in Q4 2006.
The average sales price (ASP) of a mobile game is estimated at $ 3.79. If free games aren’t counted, the average sales price would rise to $ 4.41, meaning free games don’t take a huge market share (yet).
Top 10 Games Sold
Game / Publisher / Unit Share / Dollar Share / IP
Tetris / EA Mobile / 9.3% / 9.6% / Licensed
Bejeweled / EA Mobile / 6.1% / 7.0% / Licensed
Tetris Deluxe / EA Mobile / 2.5% / 2.8% / Licensed
Pac-Man / Namco / 2.3% / 2.1% / Original
Ms. Pac-Man / Namco / 2.0% / 2.0% / Original
Diner Dash / Glu / 1.6% / 1.7% / Licensed
Zuma / Glu / 1.3% / 1.3% / Licensed
World Poker Tour / HandsOn / 1.3% / 1.4% / Licensed
Monopoly / Glu / 1.1% / 1.2% / Licensed
Frogger / Konami / 1.0% / 1.1% / Original
The conclusion of NPD’s research shows that it’s not licensing that counts, but brand awareness. All top selling mobile games last year where known from other platforms which gave mobile game consumers a certain expectation for their mobile gaming experience. For more details, visit NPD.
