Data.ai: Mobile gaming begins to decline after pandemic spike

Data.ai (the analytics group formerly known as App Annie) released a new report this week on the successes of mobile gaming in 2022. According to the report, mobile gaming is starting to decline slightly after the pandemic-era boom, but appears to be stable on a high watermark. It also highlighted some games that have defied the downtrend.

In the report, Data.ai specifies that even though the mobile market is declining, it will still be outperforming numbers in 2022 compared to before the pandemic. For example, global consumer spending on games was $5.24 billion in February 2020. The same number in September 2022 was $6.5 billion. While the latest figure is a major drop from the July 2021 high of $7.73 billion, it still exceeds pre-pandemic spending.

In addition to the above, Data.ai’s report suggests that more new games make money faster, but their data is from 2020 and 2021. 25 new games made in 2021 reached the Top 100 consumer spending, as opposed to 19 in 2020. The report includes no data for 2022 nor does it show if it is more comparable to 2021 or 2020.

Which mobile games succeed

iOS games have struggled to generate revenue since Apple’s privacy changes – their revenues are still low. Despite this general downturn, some games are bucking the trend. According to the report, games like Merge Mansion are thriving thanks to effective marketing and in-game narrative hooks.

Games related to larger game franchises seem to be doing well anyway. These include Apex Legends Mobile and Diablo Immortal. Genshin Impact, which is also available on other platforms, has a strong story and a high marketing budget, and is also doing well. Another market holding up is mobile casino gaming, which data.ai recently reported was growing rapidly in popularity.