The Candy Crush Saga logo displayed on a smartphone screen.
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Spending on mobile games fell last year as consumers became more thrifty in their purchasing decisions in response to rising inflation, according to a report from app analytics firm Data.ai.
Mobile gaming spending will drop 5% globally to reach $110 billion in 2022, Data.ai, formerly known as App Annie, said Wednesday in a State of Mobile report. The report also looks at the state of broader sectors such as mobile advertising, retail, and social media apps.
Despite this, first-time installs for mobile titles grew 8% to reach a record 90 billion installs, with so-called ‘hyper-casual’ titles leading the growth.
Lexi Sydow, Head of Insights at Data.ai, told CNBC, “This major theme shows that people are becoming more price sensitive and financially more conservative.” , added that the “biggest hit” to spending on apps was in gaming.
Faced with economic headwinds such as rising prices and borrowing costs, people are holding back on discretionary purchases. Games in particular are under pressure.
Global sales of games and services, including console and PC games, are expected to shrink 1.2% to $188 billion in 2022, according to a July research note from market data firm Ampere Analysis. was
The growth of mobile games has become a major topic in the gaming industry in recent years, with major publishers betting big on mobile game developers.
early last year, take 2 Acquired mobile game company Zynga for $12.7 billion. In 2016, King, the makers of Candy Crush Saga, was acquired. activision blizzard at $5.9 billion.US tech giant microsoftMeanwhile, has proposed a $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, hoping for continued growth in mobile gaming.
However, that growth has recently been hampered by a number of macroeconomic headwinds, including rising costs of living and higher interest rates.
2020, microsoft When Sony launched their respective next-generation game consoles, intensifying the mobile competition.
The past year has also seen a return to in-person activity and the normalization of travel rules from the height of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, when much of the world was stuck at home.
Non-gaming apps will prove resilient in 2022, with purchases in such apps growing 6% year-over-year to $58 billion, according to Data.ai research. This growth was driven primarily by subscriptions and in-app purchases on streaming platforms, dating apps, and short-form video services like TikTok.
Non-game app downloads reached 165 billion, up 13% year-on-year.
However, overall app store spending fell 2% to $167 billion, doing little to offset the decline in mobile gaming spending. This figure includes installs on third-party Android marketplaces in China where Google’s official Play app store has banned them.
Market faces further headwinds in 2023, with recently introduced privacy measures apple We anticipate that the burden will be greater for app makers.
In 2021, Apple launched an App Tracking Transparency feature that prompts users to ask if they want to be targeted by advertisers.
Data.ai expects global app gaming spending to decline another 3% to $107 billion this year as a result of lower disposable income and changes in privacy.
Google plans to adopt privacy restrictions similar to Apple’s that limit tracking across Android apps.
“The limited targeting capabilities from an advertiser’s perspective make it difficult to attract the big guys who spend the most money on the game,” explains Sydow.
change causes trouble meta, the owner of the Facebook and Instagram social media platforms. Meta Chief Financial Officer David Wehner previously warned that Apple’s ATT could cost him $10 billion in 2022 sales. The company made most of his $117.9 billion in 2021 revenue from advertising sales.
Meta faces stiff competition from rival company TikTok. According to Data.ai, the Chinese-owned short video app surpassed his $6 billion lifetime spend last year, making him the only non-gaming app to reach this milestone after Tinder. is the second.
Sydow said the impact of Apple’s privacy measures is yet to show in the 2022 numbers, with total spend declining on both iOS and Google Play, but could have an even bigger impact this year. said to be of high quality.
Despite an overall slowdown in spending in 2022, “more than ever, mobile services are in demand,” Sydow added. According to Data.ai, first-time app downloads increased by 11% to his 255 billion, while time spent in apps increased by 9% to reach a record 4.1 trillion. Did.
